As October marches on, I present to you a pumpkin-spice edition of this weekly article. Here are the 10 most intriguing players of Week 5.
The 10 Most Intriguing Players of Week 5
Zay Flowers is off to a torrid start even though he’s already dealt with an early-season hamstring issue.
Thriving in new Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s system, Flowers has 18 catches for 352 yards and two touchdowns. He has effectively produced those numbers in two games, since he tweaked his hamstring roughly halfway through the Ravens’ Week 1 win over the Colts, missed Week 2, and then played only 21 snaps in the Ravens’ Week 3 win over the Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro.
Flowers’ efficiency stats are insane. He’s averaging 4.00 yards per snap and 6.64 yards per route run. Flowers has been targeted on 40% of the 53 routes he has run this season.
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is questionable with an ankle injury. If Jackson can’t play, the Ravens will turn to Tyler Huntley, who has targeted Flowers at a high rate when they’ve played together, but at a lower average depth of target than Flowers is accustomed to with Jackson.
Baltimore will face Atlanta and its pass-funnel defense, which is currently missing its top cornerback, AJ Terrell, due to injury. Opponents have thrown on the Falcons on 72.3% of their snaps – the highest rate in the league. The Ravens will never completely abandon their running game with RB Derrick Henry, but Doyle might not be able to resist the temptation to pick on the Atlanta pass defense – even if it’s with a backup quarterback.
Omarion Hampton appeared in this article in Week 1, and it’s time for a check-in.
Yeah, it’s been bad.
Hampton is RB22 in half-point PPR fantasy points per game. His production has been largely touchdown-driven: He’s scored three TDs.
The second-year running back has 238 rushing yards and is averaging a respectable 4.0 yards per carry. But after catching 32 passes in nine games as a rookie, Hampton has four catches for 29 yards over the first four games of 2026, and he’s been targeted only five times.
Hampton has sometimes seemed like a square peg in Charger offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel’s offense. But then, McDaniel hasn’t found many round pegs early in his tenure with the Chargers.
QB Justin Herbert is struggling. WR Ladd McConkey is banged up, and WR Quentin Johnston has reverted to his error-prone ways. The middle of the Chargers’ offensive line, which was so bad last season, remains bad. Left tackle Rashawn Slater missed all of 2025 with a knee injury, and right tackle Joe Alt played only six games due to an ankle injury. The tackles are both hurt again. Slater sustained a high-ankle sprain last week, and Alt injured his neck.
What’s alarming for Hampton investors is that the Chargers’ backfield is turning into a full-blown committee. In the Chargers’ Week 4 loss to the Seahawks, Keaton Mitchell played 26 snaps, and Hampton and Kimani Vidal each played 25 snaps.
That’s a disappointing development for a running back who was typically selected near the Round 1/Round 2 turn in fantasy drafts.
Hampton faces the Broncos this week, and he might soon become unplayable in fantasy unless he can reclaim a majority share of the Chargers’ backfield.
Is the Carnell Tate breakout upon us?
The No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft, Tate had nine catches for 145 yards on 12 targets against the Ravens last week. He more than doubled his yardage total from his first three games.
Titans QB Cam Ward had a rough rookie season in 2025 and has continued to struggle. Ward is averaging 6.1 yards per pass attempt. He threw for fewer than 200 yards in each of his first four games before Tate helped the young QB get to 222 passing yards in Week 4.
Tate’s big game against Baltimore hinted that he was well worth the early first-round pick the Titans spent on him. The question is whether Tate can consistently put up good numbers while playing in what has been a very limited passing game since Ward’s arrival.
Tate gets a Week 5 matchup against the Texans, whose formerly fearsome defense has been surprisingly vulnerable this season. Wide receivers have been especially hard on the Houston defense this season. The Texans have given up the most fantasy points and second-most receiving yards to WRs.
Is there a more underappreciated player in the NFL than Jared Goff? It feels as if Goff doesn’t get his due as either a real-life QB or as a fantasy QB.
Since 2022, Goff has thrown for at least 4,400 yards and 29 touchdowns every season. He’s finished second in the league in passing yardage three straight years. He’s finished top five in TD passes four straight years.
Goff has finished QB10, QB7, QB6, and QB8 in fantasy scoring over the last four seasons. Goff has thrown for at least 200 yards in 60 of 68 regular-season starts.
Through the first four weeks of the 2026 season, Goff is on pace for 5,160 passing yards and 38 touchdown passes. Statistically, it’s been sort of a perfect storm for Goff. The Lions’ injury-riddled secondary is getting torched on a weekly basis, thrusting Goff into a series of O.K. Corral game scripts. And of course it doesn’t hurt that Goff gets to play with Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta and Jameson Williams.
Goff figures to be in another shootout this week against the Cardinals, who also have a deeply flawed defense and a willingness to throw it all over the yard on offense. The Vegas total is 54.5.
And by the way, can we do away with the narrative that Goff is an indoor cat? He’s played outdoor games against the Bills and Panthers this season and threw for 739 yards and five touchdowns in those two games.
Remember when we thought the Eagles offense had nowhere to go but up after a frustrating 2025 season?
Whether you’re looking at surface stat or advanced stats, the Philadelphia offense has been buns – and not cheesesteak buns.
The Eagles rank 26th in points and 29th in yardage. Their offense ranks 20th in defense-adjusted value over average, 29th in expected points added per play and 27th in yards per play.
Lane Johnson, who’s been a stalwart at right tackle for the Eagles since 2013, retired this week. Then the Eagles traded center Cam Jurgens to the Ravens for draft picks.
Into this offensive miasma steps Will Shipley, who becomes the Eagles’ starting running back with Saquon Barkley recovering from a hamstring injury and Tank Bigsby on IR with an abdominal injury.
A multi-sport star in high school who was a five-star lacrosse recruit, Shipley showed off dual run-catch ability during his college football career at Clemson. As a sophomore, he had 1,424 scrimmage yards and 15 touchdowns in 14 games. The Eagles selected Shipley in the fourth round of the 2024 draft.
Shipley was a compelling waiver target for fantasy managers this week because he’s a good bet to get a dozen or more touches this week against the Jaguars in London. But can the stumbling Philadelphia offense have any success running the ball against a tough Jacksonville run defense?
The passing game might be the more plausible path to fantasy value for Shipley. The Jaguars have allowed the second-most receptions and second-most receiving yards to RBs.
Ja’Marr Chase left the Bengals’ Week 4 game against the Jaguars with a concussion, and Tee Higgins sustained an adductor injury. If one or both of Cincinnati’s top two receivers can’t play this week, 26-year-old rookie Dohnte Meyers could play a substantial role this week against the Dolphins.
Meyers is one of the best stories in the NFL. Bengals beat writer Paul Dehner Jr. did a terrific job of detailing Meyer’s circuitous path to the NFL in a story for The Athletic. You can find that story here.
If you want the tl;dr version …
Meyers played college football at Presbyterian College and Delta State. After going undrafted and unsigned, he tried out for the Falcons unsuccessfully.
Not one to give up easily, Meyers continued to train for a football career while working as a DoorDash driver. He paid $100 for the privilege of trying out for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who gave him a futures contract.
Meyers spent most of the 2024 season on Saskatchewan’s practice squad but earned a promotion late in the season. In 2025, he had 65 catches for 1,065 yards for a Roughriders team that won the CFL’s championship, the Grey Cup.
Someone in the Bengals’ scouting department noticed Meyers, and the team gave him a futures contract. He showed enough in training camp and the preseason to earn a spot on the 53-man roster.
Meyers ranks third in the NFL in kickoff return yardage. He played fewer than a dozen snaps in each of his first two games, but with No. 3 receiver Andrei Iosivas landing on IR, Meyers played 32 snaps in Week 3 and had three catches for 29 yards. Last week, Meyers played 68 offensive snaps and had seven catches for 82 yards.
The rags-to-riches story could get even better this week. If Chase and Higgins are out, Meyers becomes Joe Burrow‘s de facto No. 1 receiver against an inexperienced and talent-challenged Dolphins secondary.
The former DoorDash driver has turned into an important NFL contributor and a worthwhile fantasy asset.
Imagine, if you will, Marvin Harrison Jr. as Frankenstein’s monster. It’s not hard to do if you can conjure the mental image of Harrison lumbering into a pass route.
This week, the Detroit Lions’ pass defense will play the role of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Can the troubled doctor bring the monster to life on Sunday?
Harrison, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 and the son of Hall-of-Fame WR Marvin Harrison, is trying to jump-start his NFL career. His rookie season was mildly disappointing. His second season was very disappointing. The start of Harrison’s third season has been an abject disaster.
Through four weeks, Harrison has five catches for 85 yards and a touchdown on 13 targets. He has a 7.2% target share and is averaging 0.62 yards per route run. Jacoby Brissett‘s passer rating on throws to Harrison is 55.0. (To put that number into perspective, JJ McCarthy’s passer rating last season was 72.6.)
If there’s a defense that can get a lifeless receiver off the laboratory slab, it’s the Lions’. The Lions are giving up a league-high 327 passing yards per game and have yielded 11 TD passes.
If Harrison is unable to terrorize the villagers of the Detroit secondary, it might be time to close the lab.
The Chicago Bears’ offense tore apart the New York Jets’ defense last week, rolling up 492 yards and 34 first downs while maintaining possession of the ball for 42 minutes, 45 seconds. The Bears had more first downs than the Jets had offensive plays.
The only sour note for the Bears’ offense was the soft-benching of D’Andre Swift, who lost a fumble six minutes into the third quarter and didn’t get another touch. Smith’s backfield sidekick, Kyle Monangai, had a career-high 30 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
But Monangai also injured his thumb in Week 4. He’s expected to play, however, when the Bears visit their hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers, on Sunday.
The Bears-Packers rivalry had been one-sided for a long time until the Bears started to turn the tide under head coach Ben Johnson. Since 1994, the Bears have gone 16-50 against the Packers. But Chicago has won three of the last four games in the series, and the two franchises seem headed in opposite directions, with the Bears riding the elevator toward the penthouse.
The Bears lead the league with 785 rushing yards – just under 200 per game. They’ll be facing a Green Bay defense that just lost its best run defender, LB Edgerrin Cooper, to a torn Achilles.
The question is whether Swift is back in Johnson’s good graces this week. Swift also lost a goal-line fumble in the third quarter of the Bears’ 9-3 loss to the Vikings in Week 2.
Swift could feast on Sunday if he’s back in his usual role. But it’s possible that Swift’s fumbling issues could drop him behind Monangai on the depth chart.
No longer dwelling in the shadow of Mark Andrews in Baltimore, Giants TE Isaiah Likely could finally give us the breakout season we’ve been waiting for.
Likely was targeted 12 times last week in the Giants’ victory over the Cardinals. Given the high target total, his 7-66-0 stat line was somewhat disappointing, but Likely’s beefy role in the Giants’ passing game could lead to big numbers.
Likely has a whopping 30.4% target share – highest among all tight ends. (Trey McBride is second at 28.3%.) Likely and WR Malik Nabers are dominating targets for the Giants.
Jameis Winston has taken over at quarterback for the Giants after Jaxson Dart‘s season-ending knee injury. Winston has always been a wild stallion as a passer, never shy about throwing into tight coverage. The Giants’ coaching staff has been trying to pull back on the reins. The Giants’ pass rate over expected is minus-9.3%, third-lowest in the league.
But the 3-1 Giants have had a lot of positive game scripts. What if they start falling behind more frequently? Winston might get to cut it loose, which could mean a bonanza for Likely investors.
The good news for Tyler Warren is that he’s played 90.1% of the Colts’ offensive snaps, has an 80.6% route participation rate, and has a 20.5% target share, per Fantasy Points Date
Those are stellar usage metrics for a tight end.
The bad news is that Warren has an average depth of target of just 2.41 yards. His 27 targets have covered just 65 air yards for an 8.5% air yards share.
The net result is that Warren ranks TE11 in fantasy scoring.
Warren was a first-round draft pick last year, chosen 14th overall. You’d think he’d be a major factor in the Colts’ passing game with Alec Pierce on IR with a heel injury, but to this point Warren has been little more than a safety valve for QB Daniel Jones.
Warren has a Week 5 date with the Steelers, who have given up just 13 catches and 147 receiving yards to tight ends this season.
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