The Week 5 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars. We've got the fantasy projections for you courtesy of numberFire.
Week 5 fantasy football projections: Steelers-Jacksonville featuring Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Blake Bortles
We break down the Week 5 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Pittsburgh Steelers
Even though the Steelers took a surprising loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, the team still had some standout fantasy performances. Their best performer on the day was wide receiver Antonio Brown, who finished Week 4 with seven catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns. He's a big time pass catcher who should have an absolute field day against the Jaguars, a team that gives up the second most fantasy points to wide receivers so far this season.
A big day for Brown doesn't necessarily mean that running back Le'Veon Bell will have to suffer by any means. Although he was cooled off a little bit last week on the ground, Bell is an excellent pass catcher and he can rack up total yards very quickly as a result. Neither the Jags' run defense nor their pass defense is very intimidating, which means that Bell should be able to get his share of looks no matter how they come. 150-plus total yards and a touchdown is not out of the question for him this week.
Jacksonville Jaguars
On a team that ranks in the bottom five in terms of fantasy points allowed to both running and passing games, rookie quarterback Blake Bortles should have plenty of reasons to have to throw the ball against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While he only managed 254 yards and a touchdown to go with two interceptions against the San Diego Chargers last week, he did throw up 37 attempts. If he has to sling the rock again this week, he might just be able to improve on his accuracy and put up some numbers, although those numbers will likely come in a losing effort.
While Bortles still has a lot of work to do on his game, the lone bright spot for the Jaguars is running back Toby Gerhart. The term bright spot has to be used loosely here but it’s not his fault, as Gerhart can run the ball when his team is down multiple touchdowns and forcing passes. That said, on 10 carries last week, he managed a measly 32 yards rushing but did score his first touchdown of the season. Gerhart only played 20 snaps last week and part of the reason for that was because he fumbled the ball. He’s just a flex play at most this week against the Steelers.
