Fantasy football – NFL Week 5 start sit: Players to upgrade, tough matchups

Throughout the NFL regular season, we’ll meet here on Thursdays to break down the film from a fantasy football perspective. I’m looking for trends and tendencies on both side of the ball to give fantasy managers a jump when they set their weekly lineups. Schemes matter. So does offensive deployment in weekly matchups. And remember, the game tape always tells us a story.

Looking at the Week 5 slate, we’ll start with a running back who looks pretty sharp on the tape and has a premium matchup. We’ll also highlight an ascending wide receiver with big potential before finishing with a few question marks and players to monitor when you’re watching the games this weekend.

All references to fantasy scoring are for PPR leagues unless otherwise noted.

Week 5 upgrades

Breece Hall, RB, New York Jets

You can play Hall as a lower-tier RB2 this week against a subpar Broncos defense. Through four weeks, the Broncos are giving up an average of 44 fantasy points per game to running backs. That’s a big number. And Hall looks really fluid on the tape right now. He’s a glider, with the ball carrier vision to find daylight. In Week 4, Hall saw just nine touches, which he turned into 9.9 points. But I have to believe the Jets will prioritize the run game here, while also deploying Hall underneath as a receiving option for quarterback Zach Wilson, who played good football in the Week 4 loss to the Chiefs.