Fantasy Football WR Rankings Week 5: Who to start, best sleepers, injuries, waiver wire picks at wide receiver

Just when you’re starting to get comfortable with your fantasy football rosters, bye weeks hit, and chaos ensues. Well, hopefully not chaos, but you could be left scrambling trying to plug some temporary holes. 

Temporary holes are one thing, but when the injury bug bites, that’s a whole other situation. And unfortunately, it looks like Rashee Rice managers could be without the rising star wide receiver for a long time. Rice went down after Patrick Mahomes ran into his knee, and the WR was unable to put any weight on his leg and was carted to the locker room. While we don’t have a definitive update yet, head coach Andy Reid said it didn’t look good. 

But that’s why these rankings can be so important. While many positional rankings lists don’t come out until much later in the week, we do the work for you early so that you can use the rankings in your waiver wire research as well as just making your lineup decisions. 

WEEK 5 FANTASY RANKINGS
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Fantasy WR Rankings Week 5: Who to start, sit at wide receiver

Rankings based on PPR scoring. These rankings will be updated throughout the week, so check back often. 

Who are the best fantasy WRs Week 5?

The entire Dallas offense essentially runs through Lamb. With Brandin Cooks and Jalen Tolbert as the other wide receiver options, Lamb sees voluminous targets week in and week out, and that won’t change any time soon. They’ve even started using Lamb in some designed run plays ala Deebo Samuel. His role in this offense is as secure as it gets. 

Ja’Marr Chase has really been surging the last couple of weeks, and they’ll be facing a Ravens’ defense that has been susceptible to the pass. After starting 0-3, the Bengals picked up a win over the Panthers, but they can’t afford to take their feet off the gas in a divisional clash. Look for Cincy to be aggressive, which should bode well for Chase. 

And Nico Collins rounds out the top 3 this week. There was some minor concerns that the addition of Stefon Diggs would eat into Collins’ production, but that hasn’t been the case at all. While it has negatively impacted Tank Dell, Collins continues to be a fantasy monster. He hauled in 12 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown against the Jaguars, and while Buffalo is a much better defense, Collins is matchup-proof. 

Who are the WRs on byes in Week 5? 

Philadelphia Eagles: A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith are the biggest names impacted by the bye week for the Eagles, but given that they both missed Week 4, they can use the extra rest. Other names to make sure are not in any lineups are Jahan Dotson, Parris Campbell, and Johnny Wilson.  

Detroit Lions: Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams will have to be taken out of fantasy lineups. St. Brown was a first round draft pick for many teams, and Williams has been one of the biggest sleepers to hit so far this season.  

Los Angeles Chargers: Quentin Johnston, Ladd McConkey, and Joshua Palmer are the fantasy-relevant players here to take out of any lineups. The Chargers haven’t been lighting it up through the air so far this season, so the bye week may not hit these fantasy managers too hard.  

Tennessee Titans: Calvin Ridley has been a disappointment the last couple of weeks, but DeAndre Hopkins has been coming on stronger after returning from a knee injury. Both will have to sit out in Week 5 due to the bye, but who will be the WR1 for Tennessee in Week 6? 

Who are the best fantasy WR waiver pickups Week 5?

With Wan’Dale Robinson, don’t hate the player, hate the game. After racking up 11 catches for 71 yards Thursday night against the Cowboys, Robinson now has 26 catches for 194 yards and a touchdown on the season. In PPR leagues, he’s become a legit weapon. While it may seem cheap to rack up so many points on so few yards, points are points, and you shouldn’t have to apologize for how you get them. He’s currently only rostered in 26% of leagues. 

Josh Downs is another name to consider. At one point in the offseason, he was picking up steam as a sleeper name, but then he suffered a high ankle sprain and had to miss about a month, including the first couple of games of the season. While the QB situation is cloudy right now with Anthony Richardson dealing with a hip pointer, Downs fared just fine with Joe Flacco under center as well. He hauled in eight catches for 82 yards and a touchdown against the Steelers, so he could be a nice Flex play against the Jaguars. 

Who are the best fantasy WR sleepers Week 5?

While the Cleveland Browns’ offense is not typically a unit to lean on, Jerry Jeudy has a nice matchup against the Browns. Deshaun Watson has bee disappointing under center, but Jeudy has been racking up plenty of targets. With the way Jayden Daniels and the Commanders have been playing, the Browns will likely be forced to try to keep pace through the air. 

Romeo Doubs could be in line for more targets as Christian Watson went down in Week 4’s matchup against the Vikings. While the severity of the ankle injury is unknown right now, Doubs could see an uptick in looks against the Rams, which doesn’t have a very stingy pass defense. 

What are the biggest WR injuries Week 5?

As mentioned in the introduction, Rashee Rice is clearly the biggest injury of Week 4. While we don’t know the diagnosis for sure, it looked bad, and fantasy managers should be expecting the worst. If that’s the case, how will things change with the Chiefs’ offense? Rice had been putting up monster numbers as was set to be in our top 5 this week before going down. Travis Kelce will likely be the biggest beneficiary. Patrick Mahomes got Kelce going with 7 catches for 89 yards, so look for him to be the primary option moving forward. Rookie speedster Xavier Worthy did hit paydirt in Week 4, but he’s fairly one dimensional and can’t just replace Rice’s role. Worthy runs deep routs, while Rice runs a lot of routes across the middle of the field and shallow crossers. Justin Watson is a comfortable target for Mahomes to turn to, but again, there isn’t much of a ceiling with him. As it pertains to wide receivers, it’s hard to see any player in particular ascending to a big time role, but time will tell. 

Malik Nabers was the other major name to go down in Week 4 as he suffered a concussion against the Cowboys. Since he played on Thursday night, he has a few extra days to get through concussion protocol, but for not we’re leaving him unranked until we hear of more progress. If Nabers misses, Wan’Dale Robinson could see even more targets than usual, and Darius Slayton could see more looks as well. But even if that’s the case, Slayton still would not be a recommended play against the Seahawks. 

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