We are now in the middle of the bye weeks, the most stressful and important period of the fantasy football season. The waiver wire will be more essential than ever now that stud players (at least the ones who are still healthy) are starting to take weeks off.
Fantasy football waiver wire: 5 quarterbacks to target for Week 5
With Drew Brees and Russell Wilson on bye, we look at the top waiver pickups at quarterback this week.
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Last week was a light one on byes, with only the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles off. But this week has significant implications for the quarterback position -- the Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, and Jacksonville Jaguars are on bye. That means Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, Blake Bortles, and Alex Smith are all unavailable, so their owners will have to find a Plan B for this week.
That’s where the waiver wire comes in, and we’ll help out with the top five recommended options at quarterback for Week 5. All players are owned in 50 percent or less of Yahoo! standard leagues.
Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles (37 percent)
Wentz has made a seamless transition from the FCS to the NFL, throwing for 769 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in his first three games and torching the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3. Fresh off the bye week, he gets a Detroit Lions defense that’s still missing important players with injury. Wentz will have tougher matchups down the road, but fantasy owners can trust starting him for now.
Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens (34 percent)
With Terrance West finally giving the running game some life, Flacco and the Ravens were able to attack the Oakland Raiders’ defense with a more balanced game plan. The result? 298 passing yards, one touchdown, and a rushing score on 32-of-52 passing. It wasn’t enough to keep the Ravens undefeated, but Flacco’s fantasy arrow is trending up with Steve Smith healthy and making explosive plays again. He has a tasty matchup with a Washington team that struggled to put away the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
Trevor Siemian, Denver Broncos (27 percent)
The bad news is that Siemian was knocked out of Sunday’s game with a sprained AC joint. The good news is that the injury is to his non-throwing shoulder, and he’s considered day-to-day. Siemian’s status will have to be monitored throughout the week, but if he’s good to go in Week 5 then he can rack up fantasy points against the Atlanta Falcons’ non-threatening defense. If Siemian is not ready? We’ll get to that in a moment ...
Brian Hoyer, Chicago Bears (5 percent)
Hoyer is hardly an inspiring talent, but he may have done enough to keep the starting job over Jay Cutler for at least one more week. Hoyer did enough to win on Sunday, throwing for 302 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions against the Lions. More importantly, he’s avoiding critical, scoreboard-flipping mistakes, which is not something you can say about Cutler. If John Fox gives Hoyer another start, he’ll have QB2 upside against the Indianapolis Colts’ poor defense.
Paxton Lynch, Broncos (1 percent)
Here’s the speculative pickup of the week in case Siemian isn’t ready to play. Lynch looked pretty good for a rookie thrown into the game on short notice, picking apart the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 170 yards and a touchdown on 14-of-24 passing. You have to like his chances of fantasy production practicing with the first team this week, and if Siemian is ruled out then Lynch will be on the QB2 radar against Atlanta.
