FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXXIX

Welcome to our 104th edition of the FDH Fantasy Newsletter, as we continue to bring you weekly fantasy sports updates in addition to our usual content on FantasyDrafthelp.com. Our archive of past editions is available right here on The FantasyDrafthelp.com Blog and specific links to past editions are available at FantasyDrafthelp.com.

This week, we bring you our NFL Week 5 preview.

NFL Week 5 preview

Here’s a few standard preface notes:

^ Notwithstanding the claims of any website to be your “home for Sunday morning injury report news,” nothing beats Google News – nothing. Entering a player name into this search engine trumps any other means of gathering information because it culls the data from an unbelievably wide variety of sources.

^ Especially earlier in the season, it’s always good to refer to a strong baseline of where players should have been drafted – and nothing beats FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2010.

^ Unless there are any injury questions, we never discuss “gimme” players. Such core players should be started week in and week out unless there is any question surrounding their playing status. Winning teams only need to worry about “playing the matchups” with one, two or (at the most, during bye weeks) three spots in the lineup. With a full slate of games, and players drafted in a certain order for a multiplicity of reasons, we especially don’t advocate much juggling for the first two weeks of the season. Some websites promise you a crystal ball for how to manage high-risk, high-reward juggling during the season. We don’t. We play the percentages. That approach may be boring, but it’s highly effective and much more intellectually honest in what we promise you.

^ By the way, here are your core players who should not be benched if healthy or available (players listed in their order on our draft board):

QB: Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Matt Schaub, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Tony Romo

RB: Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, Steven Jackson, Michael Turner, DeAngelo Williams, Rashard Mendenhall, Ryan Mathews, Jamaal Charles, Knowshon Moreno, Shonn Greene, Matt Forte, Beanie Wells, Cedric Benson, Jonathan Stewart, LeSean McCoy, Ronnie Brown

WR: Andre Johnson, Randy Moss, Reggie Wayne, Roddy White, Miles Austin, Greg Jennings, DeSean Jackson, Larry Fitzgerald, Brandon Marshall, Anquan Boldin, Marques Colston, Steve Smith (Carolina), Chad Ochocinco, Calvin Johnson, Steve Smith (NY Giants), Dwayne Bowe, Michael Crabtree, Donald Driver, Vincent Jackson

TE: Dallas Clark, Antonio Gates, Vernon Davis, Brent Celek, Jason Witten, Tony Gonzalez, Jermichael Finley

^ Here are the players who have been added to the list this season:

QB: none

RB: none

WR: Wes Welker

TE: none

^ Here are the players who have been removed from that list this season:

QB: none

RB: Ryan Grant

WR: Pierre Garcon, Mike Wallace

TE: none

^ Links for each game take you to the NFL.com home page for each game, with stats and analysis.

^ All times listed are EDT.

^ Teams listed as “All-In” have a combination of all of the above players and any marginal players reaching a status where QB/RB1/RB2/WR1/WR2/TE all should be played. Teams listed as “All-Out” should have only the above “locks” for their team in a fantasy lineup, with all marginal players being benched.

^ All advice is relative, because there are exceptions to every rule. There are no marginal players who absolutely should be played or benched, but the ones we refer to here should be in the vast majority of circumstances.

^ Of the non-gimme players we like this week, the stronger plays are the ones in all caps.

Week 5

Sun. Oct. 10

Buccaneers at Bengals, 1:00 PM All-out on marginal Bucs, QB Palmer, WR OWENS

Falcons at Browns, 1:00 PM QB RYAN, RB Hillis

Giants at Texans, 1:00 PM All-in on marginal Giants and Titans (with RB FOSTER, WR WALTER and QB E MANNING as strong plays)

Chiefs at Colts, 1:00 PM RB Jones, all-in on marginal Colts (with WR Garcon in for the injured Collie)

Packers at Redskins, 1:00 PM All-out on marginal Packers, QB McNabb, RB Torain, WR S Moss, TE Cooley

Jaguars at Bills, 1:00 PM QB Garrard, TE Lewis, RB F Jackson

Broncos at Ravens, 1:00 PM QB ORTON, WR Royal, WR Lloyd, WR Gaffney, WR D Thomas

Bears at Panthers, 1:00 PM All-out on marginal Bears and Panthers

Rams at Lions, 1:00 PM QB Bradford, RB Best, TE Pettigrew, TE Scheffler

Saints at Cardinals, 4:05 PM RB Ivory, RB Hightower

Chargers at Raiders, 4:15 PM RB Tolbert, TE Z Miller

Titans at Cowboys, 4:15 PM All-out on marginal Titans, WR Bryant, WR R Williams

Eagles at 49ers, 8:20 PM All-out on marginal Eagles, QB A Smith

Mon. Oct. 11

Vikings at Jets, 8:30 PM TE Shiancoe, RB Tomlinson

Byes: MIA, NE, PIT, SEA