Fantasy Football Week 5 Quarterback Preview: Brock Purdy concerns, plus DFS, streamers, start/sits and more
Everything you need to know about quarterback for Fantasy Football in Week 5
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2 min read
The injuries for the San Francisco 49ers just do not stop. Heading into Week 4, the team was without Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle, and they had just gotten Brock Purdy and Jauan Jennings back. Ricky Pearsall left Week 4 with a knee injury, and Jennings clearly was not 100%. The one guy who seemed to get through unscathed was Purdy, then he woke up Monday morning and his toe was bothering him again. The 49ers have a short week and a tough matchup against the Rams, and as of Tuesday afternoon, we have no idea who they are going to have available.
The thing is, if you just plug Purdy into the projections, things look pretty great. Through two games, he is averaging 8.0 yards per pass attempt and a league-high 293 passing yards per game. Even with all the injuries, the 49ers have been much more efficient passing the ball than running the ball, which has led Purdy to average 36.5 pass attempts per game. Considering his career efficiency is even more outrageous than his 2025 efficiency, that all adds up to a very high yardage projection in a game that San Francisco could be chasing the score.
The question is whether Purdy can do it without any wide receivers. We are not currently projecting Pearsall or Jennings to play in Week 5. That could mean the top four starting wide receivers are Kendrick Bourne and Demarcus Robinson. Skyy Moore and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Even with Purdy's history and the fact that 43% of his passes on Sunday went to Christian McCaffrey and Jake Tonges, you should probably sit Purdy if he doesn't have Pearsall or Jennings. If Jennings is able to go, then you may be safe with Purdy as a low-end starter. Kyle Shanahan has run an efficient offense with a lot of backups in the past, but this may be a bridge too far for him. At the very least, make sure you have a second option on your bench at quarterback. I have a couple of options in the waiver wire section below.
Let's get to the rest of the preview:
Week 5 QB Preview
QB Preview
Numbers to know
- 17 -- Cam Ward has been sacked a league-high 17 times. It is hard to evaluate him in this environment.
- 7.3 -- Patrick Mahomes averaged 7.3 yards per attempt in Xavier Worthy's first game back. This was the first game all year that Mahomes was over seven yards per attempt.
- 29.5 -- The Dolphins are giving up 29.5 FPPG to opposing QBs, the second-highest mark in the league. Every QB has scored at least 28 points against them. Bryce Young is up in Week 5.
- 5.0% -- Sam Darnold's 5.0% off-target rate is the best in the league. Unfortunately, he's only throwing 25 passes per game, so it is hard to trust him in Fantasy.
- 13 -- Trevor Lawrence's has had 13 passes dropped through four weeks, the most in the league.
- 15 -- Drake Maye has 15 scrambles, the third most behind Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
- 1 -- Daniel Jones only had one rush attempt in Week 4. That number has gone down every week of the season.
- 106.1 -- Matthew Stafford's 106.1 passer rating would be a career high if he maintained it all season.
QB Preview
Waiver Wire Targets
Adds/Streamers (QB Preview)
This is the true test of just how much risk you will accept. Young has been terrible each of the past two weeks. He has only been good for Fantasy purposes in one of four games this season. But he is playing the Dolphins. They have given up 28 or more Fantasy points to both Daniel Jones and Justin Fields. I like Young's chances of getting close to 20 and finishing the week as a top-12 QB.
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Smith is not a top-12 QB for me this week, but if you streamed him last week and you don't want to trust Bryce Young this week, I would just stick with Smith. Last week was a disaster, but he bounced back from his Week 2 disaster nicely with three touchdowns against the Commanders. I don't expect the Raiders to slow down the Colts offense, which should mean a more pass-heavy approach from Smith in a dome game with an over/under of 47.5.
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One To Stash (QB Preview)
Even with the loss of Malik Nabers, I still want to stash Dart as he develops. The game plan in Week 4 was extremely conservative, with 42 rush attempts, but there will be plenty of games coming where the Giants are forced to throw more often. In four-point per pass touchdown leagues, Dart could have some stream appeal in the second half of the season when the schedule gets a little bit easier.
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QB Preview
DFS Plays
Top DFS Play
Projections powered by
Sportsline
I have talked a lot about the Dolphins defense, but the Cowboys have given up even more Fantasy points to QBs, and that is who Fields faces in Week 5. For the season, Fields is now averaging 7.9 yards per pass attempt and hasn't thrown an interception in his first 60 attempts. He's also run for at least 48 yards in all three games. He could be the number one overall QB this week.
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Contrarian DFS Play
Projections powered by
Sportsline
This shouldn't be a surprise. Young is a cheap QB who has been terrible the last two weeks, and now he faces one of the worst defenses in the NFL on a short week at home. The risk here is that Chuba Hubbard does so well that Young doesn't have to throw much, but I am expecting a top-12 performance from Young with a very low roster rate and price.
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QB Preview
Heath's projections
My full set of Week 5 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. You'll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 5. Projected stats for all starting quarterbacks are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.
