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Fantasy Football Week 6 Rankings: Flex and PPR Outlook

Fantasy Football
October 11, 2016

Five weeks of the 2016 NFL season have already flown by, and Week 6 is only days away. This means that for many of you, you’re close to reaching the midway point in your fantasy football regular season.

The fantasy landscape looks quite a bit different than it did when 2016 began, and there’s a good chance your fantasy roster does too. Sure, guys like Antonio Brown and A.J. Green have remained relatively consistent, but early season fantasy stars like Isaiah Crowell and Melvin Gordon have fallen off.

Meanwhile, young players like Chicago Bears running back Jordan Howard, Minnesota Vikings receiver Adam Thielen and Bears wideout Cameron Meredith have recently jumped into the spotlight.

We’ve also seen a number of injuries impact the fantasy world—most recently, concussions for both Carson Palmer and Cam Newton. These injuries obviously affected the offenses of the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers, respectively.

Tom Brady’s Week-5 return from suspension made a positive impact on the passing offense of the New England Patriots.

Today, we’re going to take what we’ve learned over the first five weeks of the season and use it to help you prepare for Week 6. We’ll be providing flex rankings for the top 50 skill players, while examining some of the top fantasy storylines coming out of Week 5.

We will provide separate lists for standard and PPR scoring, and we will base our rankings on factors like past performances, projected role, matchup and injury where applicable.

 

Week 6 Flex Rankings

For better or worse, one of the biggest stroylines of Week 6 was the return of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Those who are not major fans of the Patriots probably would have been content to not see him on the field, but owners of Patriots pass-catchers loved it.

Brady was nearly flawless in his 2016 debut against the Cleveland Browns, and a number of different players benefited.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski looked like the playmaker we are used to seeing, hauling in five passes for 109 yards. Fellow tight end Martellus Bennett scored three times and produced 67 yards on six catches.

Wideout Julian Edelman even got in on the action with five receptions and 35 yards. He didn’t have a huge day, obviously, but his PPR value was a lot higher than it was against the Buffalo Bills in Week 4. He finished that game with one reception for just 16 yards.

Week 5 also marked the coming out party for Patriots wideout Chris Hogan. The former Bills receiver hooked up with Brady four times for 114 yards. He should be a popular waiver-wire target in most leagues.

Hogan wasn’t the only wide receiver to have a breakout game in Week 5, of course. Minnesota Vikings wideout Adam Thielen stepped in for the injured Stefon Diggs and filled the No. 1 role beautifully. He finished with seven catches, 127 yards and a touchdown against the Houston Texans.

“Obviously, with Diggs down, we moved Adam around quite a bit,” quarterback Sam Bradford said of Thielen, per Chris Tomasson of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press “He just made plays all over the field for us in the slot, outside, a variety of different routes. To have a guy like Thielen who can step up and have a 100-yard game when Diggs is out, is huge for us.”

The Vikings are on their bye this week, but keep an eye on Thielen moving forward.

Also, be sure to keep tabs on a couple of young Chicago Bears players—running back Jordan Howard and wideout Cameron Meredith.

Meredith had his own breakout receiving game against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. He racked up 130 yards and a touchdown on nine receptions. Howard got his second start, and he again shined in the ground game.

Howard produced 118 yards on the ground and 45 yards with a touchdown as a pass-catcher.

Meredith and Howard were aided by another strong performance from quarterback Brian Hoyer. Though the Bears couldn’t hold on to a late lead, the loss was not Hoyer‘s fault. He passed for more than 300 yards for the third consecutive week, and he’s looking like a surprisingly solid fantasy starter.

More importantly, though, Hoyer provides more fantasy value to Chicago skill players than they might have with Jay Cutler under center.

Since we’re talking about breakout fantasy performances, we have to mention Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Sammie Coates. The former Auburn Tigers star torched the New York Jets defense for 139 yards and two touchdowns on six receptions.

We can’t realistically expect huge performances like this from Coates on a weekly basis, but he is definitely worth adding if available in your league. With Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell both on the field for Pittsburgh, Coates is going to be a difficult player for opponents to target.

That Jets pass defense, by the way, has become an absolute mess. Pro Football Focus currently rates the Jets 31st in pass defense. The only team rated lower are the Colts.

This is good news for owners of Arizona Cardinals players this week.

Speaking of disappointing defenses, what the heck happened to the Cincinnati Bengals? Last year, Cincinnati boasted a playoff-caliber defense that allowed an average of just 17.4 points per game—second fewest in the NFL.

This year, the Bengals are allowing an average of 22.0 points a game and are rated 17th in defense by Pro Football Focus. The defense has been getting hammered by the run, also (114.0 yards per game allowed).

The Cincinnati defense was just plain dismantled by the Dallas Cowboys over the weekend during a 28-14 drubbing. Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns, and Dak Prescott gashed the Bengals for 227 yards through the air.

Prescott, by the way, is on the verge of breaking a notable record held by Tom Brady.

Prescott’s efficient play makes him a sleeper fantasy option at quarterback. Elliott has become a must start.

That Cincinnati defense, meanwhile, is looking rough. Expect it to get battered once again this week, as the Bengals head into Foxborough to take on the Patriots.

Read more Fantasy Football news on NerdyFootball.com

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