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Matthew Stafford’s Struggles

Matthew Stafford

Matthew Stafford

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Sean McVay considered retirement but came back. Aaron Donald considered retirement but came back. Andrew Whitworth retired. The Rams’ offensive line has not come back.

An offense that entered Week 5 a desperately-low 28th in EPA play — not to mention 30th in, you know, actual points — projected as ill equipped to handle the Cowboys’ ferocious pass rush. “Ill equipped” ended up being charitable. Matthew Stafford took five more sacks to bring his season total to a league-worst 21. He threw his league-worst seventh pick. He lost his second and third fumbles to climb up the leaderboard. For the fourth time in five starts, Stafford failed to produce more than one score.

He, again, struggled to strike up a connection with anyone not named Cooper Kupp or Tyler Higbee, at one point getting desperate enough to target Tutu Atwell. An offense that appeared out of ideas is really just out of players. “F them picks” produced a Super Bowl championship. No regrets. It also produced a roster that has made only 13 top-100 selections since 2016, thinning its depth to dangerously-low levels in nearly every position group. That’s how Ben Skowronek is suddenly getting 5-6 targets per game. Of the players the Rams actually did pick, too many have been Atwell-like busts. Others, such as Cam Akers, have met the vagaries of NFL fate. Unfortunate, but part of the game.

Again, the Rams paid the cost and ended up the boss. But that was upfront. The bill has come due and there is no easy fix with this credit card that has limits. On spending, on picks. Before this season, we might have thought McVay’s genius was enough to fix what seemed to be glaring problems. Perhaps it still is. But that doesn’t really count as a plan. Sadly, it is about the only one the Rams have right now. Fantasy managers have already voted with their feet and moved on to other options, including at quarterback, where Stafford is no longer sniffing top-12 value.

Five Week 5 Storylines

Rashaad Penny suffers broken leg, putting season in doubt. Penny entered Sunday having appeared in just 41 of a possible 69 games since entering the league in 2018. That ratio is about to get a lot worse. Playing on a one-year deal, Penny will not be back this year, only thickening the “what might have been?” air that has long surrounded his career. The feeling is especially acute because of last season’s league-winning finish, and Week 4’s signs of life. Unfortunate for those who were beginning to believe they could count on Penny as an RB2, but a major development for managers holding onto Ken Walker. As he displayed with his 69-yard score in New Orleans, the No. 41 overall pick is taking Penny’s place as a potential league-winner in an offense punching above its weight without Russell Wilson. The 2-3 Cardinals are an excellent place for Walker’s RB2 campaign to begin in Week 6.

Breece Hall continues breakout with 197 yards from scrimmage. Hall’s monster day could have been truly epic were he not vultured for a pair of one-yard scores by Michael Carter, and we do mean vultured. Carter’s touchdowns came after 79-yard and 21-yard grabs by Hall set the Jets up at the goal line. Gassed, he had to tap out in favor of a back we can now confidently call his backup. Hall still managed to find the end zone once on his own, putting an exclamation point on a takeover that has seen Hall out-gain Carter 275-62 over the past two weeks. He has at least 19 touches in each of his past two contests. One was a back-and-forth affair with the Steelers. The other, Sunday’s outlasting of the Dolphins after Teddy Bridgewater played only one snap. Even if Carter isn’t “just a guy,” Hall has clearly become the guy. He’s a top-18 option at running back moving forward.

Damien Harris’ hamstring issues crop back up, Rhamondre Stevenson goes bonkers for 175 yards. Harris dealt with hamstring problems in 2019 and 2021. His latest limited him to five touches against the Lions. Stevenson did not miss his shot, dominating the Pats’ Bailey Zappe-led offense in all-purpose fashion. It is the effort we all knew Stevenson was capable of. It still won’t be the norm when Harris is on the field. That seems unlikely to be Week 6 against the Browns, but this being the Pats, we could lack official confirmation until Friday, if then. If it is indeed the Stevenson show against the Browns, he will be facing a defense that just coughed up 199 yards from scrimmage to Austin Ekeler.

Gabe Davis revives for the seventh biggest PPR effort by any wide receiver all year. And that was on only three catches. That’s because two of them were 62-plus yard touchdowns. Davis housed a 98-yard score, the longest by any player in the league this season, on the third play from scrimmage. It highlights both what fantasy managers have been waiting for, and the frustrations still to come. Davis is one of the most dangerous down-field threats in football. He is also low volume, and must wait for the right moments to strike. Even in this loaded offense, there are going to be more 2/22 duds. We might not always see the 4/105/1s coming. We just have to keep the faith, and keep Davis in our WR2 spots. It is going to result in some pain. It will also win weeks.

Tyreek Hill (foot) ends up in boot after Teddy Bridgewater ends up playing one snap. You could say the Dolphins’ road trip to New Jersey didn’t go as planned. It also wasn’t as bad as it appeared for Hill, including in the box score. Although it showed only seven catches for 47 yards, it failed to detect the 61 yards in defensive pass interference penalties Hill drew on shaky Skylar Thompson targets. Back on the health front, Profootballtalk has reported Hill’s injury is not believed to be serious, and that Hill might not miss any time. That could be a challenge for a wideout who was already dealing with a quad issue, but fantasy managers can remain hopeful Hill will suit up for a potential shootout with the Vikings. Tua Tagovailoa (concussion) should be back under center.

Don’t forget, for the latest on everything NFL, check out Rotoworld’s Player News, or follow @NBCSEdgeFB or @RotoPat on Twitter.

Five More Week 5 Storylines

Panthers make the only decision they could, fire Matt Rhule after 11 wins in 38 games. Rarely has a lack of ideas felt this palpable. Rhule entered the league not knowing how to generate points at the NFL level and exited it giving five targets to Shi Smith in a 37-15 defeat. Ostensibly, Baker Mayfield‘s atrocious play was “the problem,” but it was merely a symptom of Rhule’s larger issue. He could never decide how to move the ball in the big leagues, and went from one quarterback scam to another. His firing is an overdue necessary good for both sides — Rhule will return to college and experience success — but won’t be bringing any 2022 windfalls for fantasy managers. Rhule’s interim replacement is Steve Wilks, the man who oversaw one of the worst NFL campaigns of the past 10 years, the 2018 Cardinals. There will be no special sauce for how to get this offense going. It remains “wait till next year” for D.J. Moore.

Ezekiel Elliott continues to go nowhere as Tony Pollard has big day. Elliott’s workloads have actually gone up the past two weeks. His efficiency has remained on a straight arrow down. Elliott’s 22 carries for 78 yards against the Rams were as going through the motions as running back touches get, and lacked the cure-all of an end zone call. The painted area is somewhere Zeke has visited just one time all year. He isn’t compensating elsewhere, logging only one run longer than 12 yards and catching five balls in five games. That latter number is particularly stunning considering Zeke’s past pass-catching prowess and the Cowboys offense’s check-down nature with Dak Prescott (hand) on the shelf. Out-rushing Pollard just 305-248 despite out-carrying him 81-46, Elliott is a back in terminal decline. Perhaps the Cowboys will finally face the music once Prescott returns. Elliott is no longer a reliable RB2.

Chase Edmonds becomes droppable as Dolphins lose to Jets. The Dolphins have spent two-straight weeks playing from behind on the road with backup quarterbacks. Those are the kinds of situations where you lean heavily on your most reliable back. In Miami it has become Raheem Mostert, who has out-touched Edmonds 36-8 since Week 3. After Edmonds managed to stay afloat with three fluky touchdowns in Weeks 3-4, he notched one touch against the Jets and was given fewer snaps and routes than Myles Gaskin. He has been fully Shanahan’d by Mike McDaniel, making him waiver wire fodder in 12-team leagues. You could push back against that by highlighting Mostert’s injury history, but Edmonds’ recent usage is so bad it’s clear he might not even lead a theoretical post-Mostert committee. With bye weeks beginning, bench spots are best used elsewhere.

James Conner suffers yet another ailment, injuring ribs. It wasn’t one thing with Conner, so it had to be the other. Finally over his knee and ankle issues, Conner re-injured ribs he was already protecting with extra chest protection following his late 2021-22 problems. Coach Kliff Kingsbury said afterward that Conner was “OK” and that the team was merely being “very cautious.” Encouraging, I guess, but will “very cautious” extend to this week’s smash spot in the Seahawks? It very well may considering how much practice time Conner has already missed this year. The team could reckon it’s finally time to keep him off his feet. If it does, Eno Benjamin will vault into plug-and-play RB2 territory vs. a Seahawks “defense” permitting the fifth most running back fantasy points. That’s because Darrel Williams is doubtful with a knee issue of his own.

Pat Freiermuth suffers third concussion in 11 months. A popular summer fade because he was so touchdown dependent as a rookie, Freiermuth has indeed not been scoring. The good news is, he decided to compensate elsewhere. He entered Week 4 third in tight end receptions and sixth in seam yardage. Then the only thing that couldn’t happen happened. All three of Freiermuth’s brain injuries have occurred since last Week 12, a terrifying fact for a 23-year-old. Freiermuth somehow missed only one game as a rookie. That figures to be the bare minimum this time around, especially in light of the Tua Tagovailoa controversy. Hopefully we are not seeing a promising young career derailed before it even really gets started.

Questions

1. Can someone create a “Situational football” Wikipedia so Kliff Kingsbury can read it?

2. Do west coast fans ever plan on preventing crazed people from the northeastern corridor and upper midwest from taking over their stadiums?

3. How exactly does Terry McLaurin get out-produced by a different one of his backups each week?

Early Waivers Look (Players rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues)

QB: Geno Smith (vs. AZ), Jameis Winston (vs. CIN), Carson Wentz (@CHI), Jimmy Garoppolo (@ATL), Zach Wilson (@GB)
RB: Ken Walker, Eno Benjamin, Mike Boone, Isiah Pacheco, Rachaad White, Jaylen Warren, Caleb Huntley, Joshua Kelley, Tevin Coleman
WR: Jakobi Meyers, Rondale Moore, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Alec Pierce, Chase Claypool, Skyy Moore, Nico Collins, Wan’Dale Robinson
TE: Taysom Hill, Irv Smith, Robert Tonyan, Hunter Henry, Evan Engram
DEF: Patriots (@CLE), Colts (vs. JAX), Bears (vs. WAS), Panthers (@LAR)

Stats of the Week

J.K. Dobbins played just 26-of-65 snaps in the Ravens’ narrow victory over the Bengals. It would appear his bigger Week 4 role was a mirage caused by Justice Hill‘s in-game injury.

As Adam Levitan points out, Travis Etienne has out-snapped James Robinson 64-52 over the past two weeks after Robinson had an 89-59 advantage in Weeks 2-3. Trail mode has been Etienne’s friend, and coach Doug Pederson has pledged to get Etienne more touches in addition to the snaps.

Taysom Hill is third in tight end fantasy points per game. The American people deserve better than this.

Jalen Hurts leads the league in carries inside the five-yard line. He is operating as a real-deal goal-line back.

Awards Section

Week 5 Fantasy All-Pro Team: QB Josh Allen, RB Austin Ekeler, RB Leonard Fournette, WR Gabe Davis, WR Justin Jefferson, WR Tyler Lockett, TE Mark Andrews

Tweet of the Week, from John Laghezza: Arthur Smith perfecting the reverse Belichick: Taking out your own best player.

Tweet of the Week II, from Dan Hanzus: Classic early-window-against-bad-team performance by Kirk Cousins today. He’s King Kong in such situations.

Player Tweet of the Week, from Keenan Allen: WTF are we doing?

Mike Tomlin Play of the Week, from Brooke Pryor: Trailing 31-3, Steelers kick a FG and Boswell misses again. 48-yarder goes wide left.

Idea of the Week: Only the Falcons should be allowed to attempt field goals and it should only be with Matt Bryant.