Makhi Hughes

By Week 5, I feel like we finally have enough information to stop guessing so much. We have an idea of who is producing on a week-to-week basis and who is giving us a big game here and there. If you have been following my waiver pickups, this is the hard part. Now we have to figure out how to plug those productive players into our roster spots based on our league settings and matchups. This is where I can help with some of those tougher decisions.

Some players have earned enough trust that I am not sitting them just because the matchup gets tougher. Other players are going to depend much more on their role, opportunity, and who they are facing that week. That is what we are looking at in Week 5. As always, every C2C league is different. Your scoring, lineup requirements, and roster can change a close decision.

Let’s get into it.

Quarterbacks
Starts

Gio Lopez, Wake Forest vs. Stanford

I am not letting 1 bad week scare me away from Lopez. Through 4 games, he has thrown for 1,112 yards, 8 touchdowns, and only 1 interception. He is also averaging 9 yards per attempt, so he has not needed a crazy amount of passes every week to give us production.

Last week was his worst game of the season, and I know that can make us second-guess putting him back into our lineup. I am going the other way. Stanford has allowed at least 27 points in every game, and I trust what Lopez has shown us through 4 games more than I am worried about 1 bad Saturday.

Keelon Russell, Alabama at Mississippi State

Keelon Russell is starting to look like someone I can’t leave out of my lineup each week. He has thrown for 1,129 yards and 8 touchdowns while adding 168 rushing yards and 3 more touchdowns on the ground. What I like most is that he is not dependent on one part of the offense. If the passing production slows down, he can still get us points with his legs.

We are also starting to see him do it against better competition. That matters because we do not want to fall into the trap of trusting numbers that only came against easier opponents. Mississippi State also has enough offense to keep Alabama from shutting things down too early, which could help keep Russell involved and build up our points.

Sits

Byrum Brown, Auburn at Tennessee

Brown is always going to make this decision difficult because of what he can do with his legs. That rushing ability gives him a way to save a fantasy day even when the passing production is not there. The problem is the passing game has been too inconsistent for me.

Brown threw 3 interceptions against Baylor and has thrown 2 more since. He also finished with only 140 passing yards against Vanderbilt. Now he has to go on the road to Tennessee. The rushing upside is what makes me think about it, but I do not trust the passing side enough this week. Sometimes the rushing floor is not enough to make up for everything else we are worried about.

Isaac Wilson, Colorado vs. Texas Tech

Colorado is expected to turn to Wilson over Julian Lewis at quarterback. That makes Wilson interesting. It does not automatically make him someone we need to put into our lineup. We still have to see what this offense looks like with Wilson running it. 

How much will Colorado use his legs? How aggressive will they let him be throwing the ball? Does the quarterback change actually make the offense better? Those are all questions we do not have answers to yet. I would rather watch Wilson’s first start and learn from it than put him into my lineup and hope we guessed correctly.