Week five has officially passed us by in the NFL, and that means the fifth week of college football has also. It’s fantasy football time, and today we are going to be talking about weekly strategies, player insights, rankings, and projections. The main premise here is that you should be taking into account all of your player analysis and combining it with insights, rankings, and projections. You never want to leave out information in favor of another, just take it all in and make the best educated decisions you can make on each roster choice. Let’s get right into it by starting with something that many fantasy managers use these days, rankings, and not just generic rankings, but rankings for the season opener.
Weekly Rankings
Weekly rankings are awfully important to figure out the correct rosters to play each week in fantasy football, especially a Campus to Canton league.
College And NFL Rankings
College:
- Ashton Jeanty – Running Back
- Nick Nash– Wide Receiver
- Jalen Milroe – Quarterback
- Jack Bech – Tight End
NFL:
- Jonathan Taylor – Running Back
- CeeDee Lamb – Wide Receiver
- Trey McBride – Tight End
- Lamar Jackson – Quarterback
At this point, Ashton Jeanty will be here every week. He had another monster performance last weekend. He rushed 26 times and turned them into 259 yards and four touchdowns. So, throughout this season, Jeanty has rushed 82 times for 845 yards and 13 touchdowns in just four games. That is just unbelievable. He’s averaged over 40 fantasy points per game, and there’s no sign of slowing down. You just can’t move him any further down the rankings.
There’s another change at running back, this week Saquon Barkley has changed out due to his bye week and was replaced with Jonathan Taylor. Taylor has been unreal this season. He’s rushed over 16 times in all but one contest and rushed over 20 times in back-to-back games. He’s surpassed 100 yards in two of the four games and scored a touchdown in all but one. He’s questionable to play this week, but if he gets the green light, he’s a must-start.
Next, we have Nick Nash again. Nash gets the chance to stay on this list in spite of his team coming off a bye week. The reason is that he’s yet to score less than 15 fantasy points in a single game this year, and that was his outlier. He’s scored at least 29 in the other three matchups that he’s played in. San Josee is funneling him targets also, with him getting over 20 in back-to-back games. Nash will have another great week when San Jose State takes the field again.
We’re going to make s light switch back to CeeDee Lamb at wide receiver. It’s just an alternation of Lamb and Justin Jefferson at this point. Lamb lands at the top due to the situation. The Dallas Cowboys quite literally have nobody else to throw the ball to besides him, with Brandin Cooks now sidelined. Lamb has at least seven targets in each game, exceeded 60 yards in every game, and has scored in two of the four. He’s going to continue being the focal point of a struggling Cowboys offense that’s limited in weapons right now.
This was tough, but we’re going to switch up the quarterback rankings a bit. Jalen Milroe earned the top spot for his performance against Georgia last week. He dropped 47 fantasy points in a very difficult matchup, throwing for 374 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 117 yards and another two touchdowns. He was outstanding in a huge matchup for Alabama and has now scored at least 28 fantasy points in every single matchup.
As for the tight-end spot, there’s no change. Jack Bech will keep on getting listed at the top until he doesn’t perform. Last weekend, the wide receiver/tight end had 12 targets, 10 receptions, and 131 yards for two touchdowns. He’s scored five touchdowns in his last three games and has received over 10 targets in each of them. Similar to Nick Nash, there’s just no reason for you to bench him or list him lower than number one at the position.
For the NFL, the top tight end will change from Dallas Goedert due to the bye week. That’s why we’re going to put Trey McBride at the top. He missed last week’s game with an injury but if he returns then there’s no reason that he can’t be productive. In the three games that he’s played, he’s taken in at least six targets, which is a number that you’d see more from a receiver than a tight end. He’s only passed 30 receiving yards in one game without a touchdown yet. However, with the volume he’s receiving, that’s bound to change soon.
Finally, we have Lamar Jackson. The guy just gets it done on the ground and through the air. He’s done everything that you could want out of a fantasy quarterback, in blowout losses of losing situations. He’s thrown for 858 yards, five touchdowns, and only one interception while also running for at least 45 yards in every single contest. He’s scored two rushing touchdowns on the year just to top it all off. He’s got passing volume, rushing volume, and scores quite a bit.
Jersey And Bench (Start/Sit)
You all know the drill here, each week there will be players that you want to start, and players that you want to sit. Below are a couple of options and some background information on why you should do either of the following.
Jersey/Bench Picks
Jersey:
- Eli Holstein
- Brock Purdy
- Najee Harris
- Michael Pittman
- Ja’Corey Brooks
Bench:
- Quinshon Judkins
- Zack Moss
- Jakobi Meyers
- Miller Moss
- Hunter Henry
Let’s start with the jersey picks and begin with Eli Holstein. The Alabama quarterback transfer has been unreal this season for Pittsburgh. He’s coming off a bye week and I have a feeling that he’s going to put up some great numbers again. He’s scored at least 25 fantasy points in every single game this season, dropping 43 in his last game. On top of that, the offense keeps scoring at an unsustainable clip, having games of 55, 28, 38, and most recently 73. Holstein has been unbelievably good.
Next is Brock Purdy. Purdy is second in the league when it comes to passing yards with 1,130 of them. He gets a wonderful matchup against the Arizona Cardinals this weekend, a team that has surrendered the fourth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this year. What is even more integral is that both George Kittle and Deebo Samuel are anticipated to play for the second straight week. When those two are healthy, Purdy’s fantasy relevance goes even higher.
There have been a lot of negative things said about Najee Harris after seemingly getting outperformed by Cordarrelle Patterson last week. However, don’t give up on him just yet. Harris is going up Against the 27th-ranked run defense in the Dallas Cowboys, which means they’ve also given up the third most PPR points to players at the running back position this season. Najee might not have had a great week, but he’s still atop the pecking order in the backfield with no indications that we’ll see otherwise.
Michael Pittman also falls on the list of players to jersey. Pittman has had a ridiculously underwhelming season up to this point, with the Indianapolis Colts passing attack getting hot and cold. With veteran Joe Flacco possibly starting under center this weekend, Pittman should be able to improve his fantasy relevance due to increased volume in the passing attack. Anthony Richardson’s legs put the Colts more in a run-first mindset, though Flacco’s arm could have them opening up the passing game as well.
And the last of the jersey picks is Ja’Corey Brooks. There might have been some worry about starting Ja’Corey Brooks due to his matchup against Notre Dame last weekend. However, that didn’t bother him much. He has his best fantasy performance of the season with nine targets, five receptions for 71 yards and two touchdowns. He’s had over 71 yards in each game this year with a touchdown in all but one contest. Louisville gets an SMU squad that isn’t the best at defending the passing attack, which bodes well for Brooks.
Flipping over to the bench picks now, we have Quinshon Judkins starting off. The great Ohio State running back might be better on the bench only due to the matchup he’s looking at right now. Ohio State has to meet up with Iowa, one of the best defenses in the nation, especially when defending the ground game. Judkins will still get involved on the ground, but he’s competing with other running backs in the backfield, which is only going to further hurt his total against a stout defensive group. He’s going to need big runs to put together a good day, and Iowa doesn’t allow many.
Zack Moss finds himself on the bench this week and for good reason. He’s been a very capable fantasy football running back this year, though this week is a very tough matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. A team that allows the fewest rushing yards per game in the league. On top of that, the Bengals have openly said that Chase Brown has earned more touches in the backfield after outperforming Moss last week. The combination of Brown stealing touches away from him and this stingy Ravens defense spells disaster for him this weekend.
Next, we have Jakobi Meyers on the bench list. Meyers is going to be the number one overall receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders once again this week with Davante Adams out with an injury. This should mean he’d receive a lot of volume. The problem is that the Raiders aren’t very good through the air right now, and they’re going up against a defense that allows the third-fewest passing yards per game and the third-fewest PPR points to wideouts in 2024. This might be too stingy of a matchup.
We also need to talk about Miller Moss. Moss had his best fantasy performance of the season last week against Wisconsin with 32 points, though outside of that, he’s struggled to even hit 20 points. In fact, he’s scored 20 points just one time, with his other two performances being 18 and 13. With a tough matchup against Minnesota this weekend, it’s hard to set your expectations too high for him. For right now, bench him for another week to see if he can keep up his own momentum.
Finally, we get to Hunter Henry. I mean, it’s hard to just trust anybody in this matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. But it’s especially hard to trust Henry. Henry is playing a position that doesn’t often get much volume, and the Dolphins are allowing the 10th fewest points to opposing tight ends. Oh, and we can’t forget about how abysmal this Patriots passing offense has looked all season.
Projections
Projections are numbers that estimate how many fantasy points a specific player might get in a given week. They can vary depending on the situation or matchup and need to be monitored weekly to get a good understanding of what experts think of them.
Weekly Projections
College:
- QB – Alonza Barnett – 36.90 points
- RB – Ashton Jeanty – 36.33 points
- WR – Tetairoa McMillan – 17.97 points
- TE – Harold Fannin– 9.84 points
NFL:
- QB – Josh Allen – 24.06 points
- RB – Jordan Mason – 14.06 points
- WR – Justin Jefferson – 11.56 points
- TE – George Kittle – 8.83 points
These are the players who are projected to garner the most fantasy points at their position in both college and the NFL. These numbers are calculated by basically estimating the stats that a player might have given their track record and upcoming matchup. If they have an easier matchup and are historically good against that specific team, the projections will be a little higher. If it might be a blowout, the projection might be even higher than that. The reason why it is important to understand these projections is that if you’re ever stuck wondering what to do, they could give you an idea of how a player might perform. Let’s say you can’t decide who to start between two wide receivers, but one is estimated to be 10 points more than the other. That number alone can indicate that the higher projected receiver could be in line for a significantly better day, and you can feel comfortable starting them over your other option. They aren’t guaranteed to be accurate every week, and they do change quite often, because, at the end of the day, they are simply projections, but it’s a good place to start making lineup decisions.
With all of that being said, it is critical to stay on top of your weekly strategies and pay close attention to rankings, and player insights. You never know when you might be caught up between two players and need to figure out how to break the tie in your mind. That is exactly where rankings and projected points play a factor, in helping lay all of the information out for you in an easy-to-read format. Each week is going to be an exciting time for everybody, so before we get ahead of ourselves, just remember to double-check your starting lineups and make sure that you’re happy with the players you have locked in at the moment. I heavily recommend you take some of our listed rankings into consideration, and also for you to check out other projections and rankings as well to get a clear vision of how each week might play out in both college and the NFL.