The fantasy football week 5 schedule is about to start and some Week 5 sleepers and free agent options to start include Jerick McKinnon, Darrin Reaves, Eddie Royal, Justin Forsett, Donald Brown, Bishop Sankey, Larry Donnell, Brian Quick, Andre Williams, Owen Daniels, Denard Robinson and Antone Smith, as those names have the chance to step up this week for fantasy owners.
McKinnon comes in with the chance to shine again on Thursday night along with Matt Asiata, as those two have done a solid job with Adrian Peterson out of the mix. Donald Brown has stepped up into a starting role with Danny Woodhead and Ryan Mathews out, while Andre Williams has slowly started to get more carries for the Giants. Eddie Royal has been a TD machine of late, while Bishop Sankey may get more touches moving forward to help get the titans going, as Shonn Greene has not done much this season.
Darrin Reaves is a big sleeper option, as he will be getting the start for the Panthers and this comes with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart injured. The Panthers are coming into the week with a big game after their loss last weekend and Cam Newton will be looking to get the running game going. Reaves has the chance to have a big game, as do Denard Robinson and Antone Smith, as both of those players have been taking advantage of their chances this season. The Falcons have a four headed monster and Smith should be getting more carries going forward.
Justin Forsett and Lorenzo Taliaferro have done an excellent job with Ray Rice gone and Bernard Pierce injured and now they have the chance to keep that going. The Ravens have played well and they have also been rushing the ball consistently. The Rams have Brian Quick as their top receiver and he could be a strong option in deep leagues. The team has Austin Davis at QB and while he is not a big name, he broke Brett Favre's records at Southern Miss and he needs to throw the ball to someone and that someone has been Quick.
Larry Donnell has emerged as a strong TE option for the Giants, while Travis Kelce has also been very good for the Chiefs at the position. The two players each have great athletic builds and strong hands and both Alex Smith and Eli Manning have taken advantage of mismatches in coverage with those players. Donnell had three TDs last week and Kelce added one and they are strong starters this week as well.
McKinnon ended up rushing the ball 18 times for 135 yards last week for a career best game and now he will try and follow that up on Thursday. Reaves is a solid option for this week, but once the RBs get healthy he will likely be done. But for one week he could be a solid option after Williams went down and he had 26 yards last week coming in for Williams. Royal has been targeted at least six times in each game this season and that is a good sign and he comes in after putting up five catches for over 100 yards and two TDs in his last game.
