We have made it through the first four weeks of the NFL season. Depending on how your league schedules the playoffs, we are about 20% of the way through the fantasy football regular season. Your draft is at least a month old, and you may have noticed that your roster’s expected value has not held up through the first few weeks of the season. As you look to set the best lineup you can for your Week 5 matchup, here is how we are approaching the flex position.
This is the first round of bye weeks of the season and the Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Chargers will all be off this week.
Injury news to monitor
Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp are both expected to practice this week and could make their debuts if they don’t suffer any setbacks.
Running backs to monitor include Javonte Williams, Kyren Williams, Saquon Barkley and Elijah Mitchell. Barkley is the biggest name to monitor, and the New York Giants desperately need him back.
Keep an eye on Rashod Bateman, Odell Beckham Jr., Tee Higgins, Zay Jones, Mike Evans, Treylon Burks, Curtis Samuel and Jahan Dotson. Evans is dealing with a hamstring injury, while Higgins picked up a rib injury in his last game.
The tight end position is relatively healthy. Cincinnati Bengals tight end Irv Smith Jr. hasn’t been fantasy-relevant but would give quarterback Joe Burrow one less option in the passing game. Luke Musgrave is in the concussion protocol, and Pat Freiermuth is already considered very doubtful for this week. Tyler Higbee, Juwan Johnson and Daniel Bellinger are al also dealing with injuries.
Streaming options for Week 5
While they tend to be inconsistent, this is the week to fire up the Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers. Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore and Rashee Rice all have solid value as streamers this week against the Minnesota Vikings defense, allowing the most fantasy points per game to the position.
The Denver Broncos’ defense has been bad this year, and New York Jets RBs Breece Hall and Dalvin Cook get to face them this week. Both should be in your lineup. Denver is also bad at defending against tight ends, so if there was ever a game to stream Tyler Conklin, it would be this one.