Top five streamer plays for fantasy football Week 6

All’s quiet on the fantasy front. Relatively speaking, at least. A little bit of collateral damage (Kendrick Bourne) from the Marvin Harrison trade, continued concerns for Lamar Jackson’s ankle, and (knock on wood) healthy first-and-second-round fantasy stars who won’t stop producing like JSN did last night on primetime. It’s like the seismic advent of football has altogether settled in after weeks of uncertain quaking. I’m neither saying its over nor that our current landscape is pleasant. I’m simply acknowledging that, indeed, it felt like a week when we had to do a bit less scrambling. Maybe we’ve got a hang for this season, now. Maybe the sport’s caught up to itself, healthwise, for at least the first half of the season. Or maybe the mustard gas is just beyond the treeline there, and I’m just silly for having appreciated a week when the managerial moves we made felt more strategic than they felt desperate.

Happy Fantasy Friday once more—squarely now in October, and it’s peak foliage season here in southern Maine. Horror movie marathons on the books. Raw cold moving in. Cottage pies in a cast iron skillet. I’m here with the Five Lists of Five: Week 6 edition. The maybe-we-can-be-cozy-and-not-at-all-sad-by-football-this-week edition.

For the (somehow) newly-ordained: Soundbite-length blurbs with advanced analysis on my favorite plays of the week. We begin now with my Top five streamer plays for fantasy football Week 6. Here are my other offerings in this edition:

• Top five must-start RBs for fantasy football Week 6
• Top five FLEX plays for fantasy football Week 6
• Top five must-start WRs for fantasy football Week 6
• Top five sleepers and upside plays for fantasy football Week 6

All data provided by Fantasy Points Data Suite 2.0, unless otherwise noted.

Fantasy football Week 6: Top five streamer plays

Tyler Higbee, TE, LAR (vs. Cardinals)

Higbee greeted Colby Parkinson’s return from injury with five catches for 83 yards, several of which were clearly designed for him as the first read. Matthew Stafford has found him for at least five receptions and 62 yards in three straight games; Terrance Ferguson’s absence has opened receiving work that Higbee is exploiting. Over the past two games, Higbee ran routes on roughly 69% of the Rams’ dropbacks as Sean McVay juggled the tight-end rotation after Ferg hit IR.

Bottom-barrel Arizona has conceded the most yards per tight-end target through five weeks, and Higbee has held his own, volume-wise, alongside Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. I’d start him, expecting about four or five catches and roughly 60 yards. His recent lack of red-zone targets is something we should expect to keep up, but I’d bet either he or Parkinson hit paydirt this week.

Brenton Strange, TE, JAC (vs. Texans [London])

Houston makes tight ends fight for their production, allowing just 45.8 receiving yards per game to the position. Against Cover 3 and Cover 4 this season, however, Strange has drawn a target on a baffling 31% of 42 routes, averaging 2.57 yards per route against Houston’s two most common coverages.

Trevor Lawrence has fed him eight targets in consecutive games, and Strange has rewarded that attention with seven catches for 95 yards and another seven for 68. Five or six receptions look attainable in London, though Jacksonville’s replacement left tackle, Walker Little, must withstand Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter. Extra protection duty could steal Strange’s routes after he ran one on 66% of dropbacks last week. Lawrence’s repeated attention still puts Strange ahead of plenty other tight ends whose offenses run heavy packages a lot.

Kirk Cousins, QB, LV (vs. Bills)

Buffalo leans on Cover 3 and Cover 4, and Cousins has punished those looks for 9.10 yards per attempt across 97 dropbacks this season. They account for a combined 62.5% of Buffalo’s coverage. Brock Bowers, who tormented New England for eight catches and 110 yards last week, practiced fully Thursday. Fantastic news for Cousins, who should now be able to safely challenge those zones with his most dangerous receiver available.

Every starting Raider lineman surrendered at least one QB pressure last week. Cousins offers zero rushing-production insurance if Buffalo wrecks the pocket, and New England interrupted his four-game run of multiple touchdown passes. I still expect roughly 240–290 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Indianapolis Colts D/ST (vs. Titans)

Cam Ward has crossed 200 passing yards once through five games and hasn’t thrown multiple touchdowns in any of them. Tennessee has scraped together a miserable 11.6 points per game; Indianapolis can earn points-allowed bonuses against an offense that repeatedly struggles to finish possessions. Ward also tends to take some silly sacks on his own.

Having said that, the Colts’ modest 10 sacks and single interception restrain any turnover-based points ceiling. DeForest Buckner has hammered home four of those sacks, and Ward just absorbed four against Houston while throwing another interception. Two or three sacks and a low opposing score should put Indianapolis in contention for a top-12 finish. Their leaky defense can still squander the opening, but I’d start the Colts with verve this wekeend.

Matt Gay, K, LV (vs. Bills)

Cousins/Gay stack! Everyone needs a better kicker so they can grab a free 20-spot from a utility position. Gay has attempted multiple field goals in four of five games and drilled six in his two home appearances. Buffalo has hemorrhaged 295.8 passing yards per game through five weeks; Las Vegas should advance into scoring territory often enough to supply another couple of chances indoors at Allegiant Stadium.

Klint Kubiak can snatch a kick away even after Gay makes it. The Raiders coach removed a successful field goal to pursue fourth-and-two against Kansas City, and a touchdown barrage would leave Gay collecting extra points. I prefer Gay’s steadier attempts to Giants kicker Dominic Zvada’s extreme-distance burden: four of Zvada’s five tries last week came from 50-plus. Gay has made 11 of 12 and connected from 59 yards, solidifying the yawning distance from which Las Vegas can salvage a stalled possession.