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Week 5 Roundtable

Evan Silva analyzes the matchups for every fantasy-relevant player in Week 12

Patrick Daugherty: Week 5 is a good time to start discussing struggling veterans. Most of them already have four games, or 25 percent of the season, under their belts. Is it just a slow start, or a new trend?


Does anyone here have faith in a Tom Brady bounce-back? He did, after all, get off to a slow start last year, before finishing quite nicely down the stretch. His splits were rather illuminating. But watching him this year … it’s really hard to see that in the cards. The Chiefs defensed the Pats like Brady’s arm was shot, and he did nothing to disprove their theory. Granted, his protection has been horrible, but this is sort of a vicious circle. Teams are bearing down on the line of scrimmage because they’re not afraid of Brady beating them deep, further stressing an already stressed group of blockers.


The schedule does open up a bit after this week’s brutal matchup with the Bengals, but the odds are probably better than 50-50 that Brady is not going to be a top 20 fantasy option at quarterback going forward.



Mike Clay: I was all in on Brady this year. He's making me look bad at my job. I love Bill Belichick, but New England's offensive personnel usage has been bizarre. Julian Edelman is seeing way too many targets deep down field in double coverage. I'd like to see them go with Edelman and Rob Gronkowski inside, Brandon LaFell and Aaron Dobson on the outside and Shane Vereen in the backfield. That doesn't solve every problem, but it's formidable enough to allow Brady to get back on the QB1 radar. He's still a pretty good quarterback, and I expect the New England offense to be better down the stretch.


LeSean McCoy is a guy I think is going to erase all doubt about his status as an elite RB1 this weekend. Teams have been game-planning to run the ball against St. Louis, and, playing at home, the Eagles are the favorite in this one. RT Lane Johnson returns to the lineup, as well, which will allow Todd Herremans to kick back inside, improving the line a bit. Johnson was an outstanding run blocker, especially in the second half, last season. McCoy is looking at roughly 25 touches and plenty of scoring chances. Now is your last chance to buy.


Raymond Summerlin: It depends on what you mean by "bounce-back." I very much doubt Brady finishes outside the top-20 quarterbacks, but there is also little chance he turns into an every-week starter again. Those offensive weapons are not good enough, the offensive line is not good enough and Brady is not good enough to do it on his own at this point in his career. Perhaps he can flirt with spot-starter value if Rob Gronkowski gets back to being Gronk and the offensive line gets fixed, but I am not holding my breath. He is droppable in 10-12 team leagues.


I am still betting on Marques Colston. He has struggled with drops early in the season, and is certainly not the player he once was. That said, he still plays in a very good offense, and had 10 targets last week. As long as he stays involved in the offense, the scoring will come. This week against Tampa Bay seems like a good time for it to start.


Adam Levitan: I'm on board with Clay and LeSean McCoy. Getting Lane Johnson back is obviously huge, but for me it's also about Chip Kelly and McCoy's talent. I trust Kelly, a dominant run-game schemer, to get this thing turned around. And I haven't seen anything to back off the comparisons between Shady and Barry Sanders. No back in the league is better at making guys miss and exploding forward, and that's going to shine through soon.


Daugherty: I'm obviously on board with McCoy bouncing back from his current doldrums, but I'm afraid the ship may have already sailed on a top-five finish. 25 percent of the season is already gone, and Jason Kelce and Evan Mathis still won't be back until Week 10. There's no question he's probably hit his low — and fantasy owners won't really care about his slow start if he plays like a top-five back from here on out — but finishing in the RB6-12 range is a real possibility, especially if his toe is still an issue.


The Brady thing is really weird. There's been so much turnover at quarterback already this season that a top-20 finish is still a distinct possibility, but there's zero question the benching talk would be much louder if this wasn't a legendary future Hall-of-Famer. Granted, that's earned. If you're going to give the benefit of the doubt to someone, it's Tom Brady. But his supporting cast issues wouldn't be so glaring if he was simply playing better. The Pats' protection has been bad, there's no two ways about it, but bad quarterback play stresses a line. The Chiefs were bearing down on the box like they were facing Chad Henne or Caleb Hanie. Teams are obviously going to keep doing that until Brady makes them pay. Brady's "weapons" are more limited than they should be, but this is still a guy who should be able to complete more quick slants to the Julian Edelmans of the world.


And his downfield accuracy. Wowee zowee. The Pats aren't going to be rebuilding their Rome in a day, and perhaps not a season.


Ryan McDowell: Regarding Brady, my initial thought was surprise that his fall from grace has been so sudden, but he was only a low-end QB1 last year, and we’ve come to learn players in that tier are nearly a dime a dozen. It’s clear that the presence of Rob Gronkowski makes a huge difference for Brady. In games without Gronk last year, Brady averaged just over 17 fantasy points a game, but almost 24 per game when Gronk was in there. Maybe the combination of Gronkowski not being a full strength and Brady being a year older has brought us all a dose of reality. I’d agree with Raymond that he’s droppable in most yearly leagues, though I do expect three or four QB1 weeks through the remainder of the season.


I’m also on board with the rest of you regarding McCoy. He’ll bounce back and could even climb to top 12 status by the end of the season. The most surprising part of the past two games for me was the fact he saw only two targets in both games combined. We know there are many running backs who must see some action in the passing game to be effective for fantasy owners, though I’ve not really considered McCoy one of those.