The Week 5 matchup between the Chicago Bears and Kansas City Chiefs features two teams looking to pick up their second win of the season. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 5: Bears-Chiefs featuring Jamaal Charles, Alex Smith and Jay Cutler
We break down the Week 5 matchup between the Chicago Bears and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Chicago Bears
Bears fans should be breathing a sigh of relief knowing that Jay Cutler is back at quarterback. He helped Chicago squeak out a win over the Oakland Raiders last week after missing Week 3 due to injury. Jimmy Clausen proved far from an adequate backup in Cutler’s absence, and now the team’s true starter gets to face a Kansas City Chiefs defense that is giving up more fantasy points to quarterbacks than any other team in the NFL. Cutler isn’t considered part of the elite class these days, but things are looking up for him this week.
As always, Matt Forte will take care of the ground game for the Bears. He’s averaged over 24 touches per contest so far this season and it’s obvious that while the coaching staff maintained his usage may go down this year ... that’s not happening anytime soon. The Bears can’t afford to lose momentum right now, so Forte should be running all over the football field at Arrowhead Stadium this week. Given that Cutler can be shaky at times and Alshon Jeffery is still making his way back from injury, Forte is the most steady fantasy option on the team.
Kansas City Chiefs
Being held out of the end zone for the first time this season didn’t stop running back Jamaal Charles from producing last week, he just had to do it in a different way. He got all six of the passes thrown to him out of the backfield for 70 yards and still managed to rush for 75. More than 140 all-purpose yards in a game isn’t bad. Charles should be able to do even better against the Bears, a team that has been run all over the last few years. Charles could definitely be in charge this week and the Chiefs need him to perform if the club plans to stay in contention in the increasingly difficult AFC West down the road.
Those looking for another fantasy option on the Chiefs aside from Charles should consider taking a look at quarterback Alex Smith. He has a reputation of being steady, but not spectacular, throughout his career. However, he was pretty spectacular last week, at least from the standpoint of racking up yardage. He threw for 386 yards to be exact, albeit in an effort to close a big gap against the Cincinnati Bengals. Either way, Smith should have a much easier time getting the ball down the field against Chicago.
