Fantasy Football QB Report: Stream Blake Bortles, Plus Week 5’s No. 1 and Matchup Downgrades

Fantasy Football QB Report: Stream Blake Bortles, Plus Week 5’s No. 1 and Matchup Downgrades article feature image
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Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports. Pictured: Blake Bortles

  • The Action Network ranked all 32 starting quarterbacks based on their Week 5 fantasy football value.
  • Here's a deeper dive on three QBs you should start, including both signal-callers featured in the matchup with the season's highest total.
  • We also break down why you should consider fading one QB and streaming another.

Which quarterbacks have the most favorable fantasy matchups? Who is the best streaming option? And who has a poor matchup?

Here's a breakdown of five notable quarterbacks featured in Sean Koerner, Chris Raybon and Matthew Freedman's Week 5 fantasy football rankings.



The No. 1 QB

Tom Brady, New England Patriots

The Patriots opened with the highest implied team total on the slate (31) against the Colts, and Brady's 13.2-point floor projection in the FantasyLabs Player Models is the top mark among Week 5 quarterbacks.

Brady leads all the quarterbacks with an average rank of 2.0 between Koerner, Freedman and Raybon.

The Most Favorable Matchups

Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

Roethlisberger draws a Falcons defense that is severely beaten up following the key losses of Ricardo Allen, Deion Jones and Keanu Neal.

Roethlisberger also gets to play at Heinz Field, where he's averaged 26.04 fantasy points per game since 2014 (per the FantasyLabs Trends tool).

He leads all quarterbacks with his median and ceiling projections, while his 2.3 average rank is slightly behind Brady for Week 5.

Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons

Through the first four games of the season, the Steelers defense ranks in the bottom eight in yards per play (6.0), passing yards per game (304.8) and passing touchdowns (12).

Falcons-Steelers has the makings of a shootout as this matchup opened with a total of 56.5, and the spread is only three points as of writing (see live odds here).



Matchup Downgrade

Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings

The Eagles' secondary can be beaten, but the matchup downgrade comes in the trenches against a Vikings offensive line that's ranked as the sixth-worst unit in pass blocking (Pro Football Focus) against the Eagles' No. 3-ranked pass rush. And through four games, Cousins has been pressured on a league-high 89 dropbacks.

Our rankers all have Cousins ranked 14th or worse.

The Best Streamer

Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars

Aside from the Chiefs allowing offenses to score on a league-high 48.8% of their drives and surrendering 6.7 yards per play (the third-worst in the NFL), Leonard Fournette (hamstring) isn't expected to play in Week 5.

In the five games that Bortles has played without Fournette, the quarterback has averaged 287.8 passing yards, 1.8 passing touchdowns, 8.69 yards per attempt and 24.85 fantasy points per game.

Want another edge? Be sure to keep up with the week's news on FantasyLabs.



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