The Week 5 matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants features one team coming off a big loss against one coming off a big win. We've got the fantasy projections for you courtesy of numberFire.
Week 5 fantasy football projections: Falcons-Giants featuring Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Eli Manning
We break down the Week 5 matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants.
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Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons just couldn't stop the run against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4, which forced the offense to throw the ball in an attempt to mount a comeback. It was a good scenario to be in for fantasy owners of quarterback Matt Ryan, who threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns in the game. While a pair of interceptions and lack of an ability to produce another monster game for Julio Jones put a damper on the day, Ryan is still the third highest scoring fantasy quarterback through four games this season. That's not too shabby considering he was probably drafted in the second or third round in most fantasy leagues.
Of course Jones’ fantasy owners can only hope he has a “bounce-back” performance of sorts against the Giants. It shouldn’t be a big deal for him to do so, considering he’s averaging well over 110 receiving yards a game this season. The Giants are decent against wide receivers, but Jones is always a good bet to be targeted in the double digits on any given Sunday, meaning that there’s always a threat of him eclipsing 100 yards and adding a touchdown to go along with it.
New York Giants
Some football pundits out there are maintaining that quarterback Eli Manning may have saved the team's season with last week's Thursday Night Football blowout win over Washington. People would say that about a struggling quarterback who busts out for 300 passing yards and four touchdowns in a win, but the Falcons aren't exactly a pushover. Nevertheless, Manning does get home field advantage in the contest and if the Falcons' offense is clicking, he may end up throwing the ball a lot to try to keep up with Ryan.
That said, the Giants will undoubtedly hand the ball off to running back Rashad Jennings a lot this week. He's been a somewhat hot and cold contributor this season, but Week 5 should definitely see him put up big numbers against a Falcons defense that nearly 200 yards rushing and three touchdowns to the tandem of Jerick McKinnon and Matt Asiata last week. Fantasy owners should also note the Falcons give up more fantasy points to running backs than any other team in the league.
