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If you woke up Sunday morning and elected to draft both Stevan Ridley and Brandon Bolden to your weekly roster, your RBs most definitely helped you place in the $$$ or earn a week win with both rushing for 100+ yards and hitting pay dirt. Don’t celebrate too much however, as Week 5 has arrived and it’s time to peg which running backs are worthy of drafting to your roster for Draft$treet’s $300 freeroll.
Start ‘Em
Marshawn Lynch RB Seattle Seahawks ($13,784) – The Seahawks will badly want to secure their first road win of the season on Sunday at Carolina. The best way to go about doing that would be to ride Lynch who enters Week 5 as a Top 10 fantasy back. Backing him this week looks all the more palatable with him running up against the Panthers 26th ranked rushing defense that’s given up an average of 134.8 yards per game (#26) on a healthy 4.9 yards per carry (#29). Defensive Coordinator Sean McDermott’s stop unit has surrendered an average of 25.8 FPPG to RBs to date, so ride Beast Mode in this juicy match-up and look for 100+ yards and at least one TD.
Trent Richardson RB Cleveland Browns ($13,471) – The Browns possess one of the worst offenses in the league, but one of the bright spots on this unit has come in the form of rookie plow Trent Richardson. The first year player has hit pay dirt in each of his L/3 games and has combined for 100+ yards rushing and receiving twice. With New York surrendered an average of 118.2 RYPG at 4.5 YPC, the recipe for success is there with Cleveland more than likely playing catch-up throughout the game’s entirety. Look for him to flirt with a 100-yards rushing and build upon his lead in the team touchdown department.
Sit ‘Em
Michael Turner RB Atlanta Falcons ($10,529) – Coming off his first 100+ yard effort of the season, the Burner saw his asking price rise heading into Sunday’s road clash with the Redskins. Alarms are going off in the background as I type this – Don’t read into the hype! I could probably rush for 50 yards and a score on Carolina’s porous run “D” right now! While Washington leaves much to be desired in its backend defensively, Ryan Kerrigan and his mates have still been stout against the run giving up just 89.0 YPG and an average of 11.8 FPPG to RBs. With Ryan looking to take advantage of the Skins through the air in what has the potential to be a shoot-out, Turner’s butt is best served sitting on your bench.
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BenJarvus Green-Ellis RB Cincinnati Bengals ($8,208) – When you think of teams that can stop the run, the first that come to mind would be the Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans, and Baltimore Ravens. However, the top dogs in that category entering Week 5 are the Miami Dolphins who are giving up just 56.8 YPG at a paltry 2.4 YPC. And they haven’t done it against no-names either having already limited Arian Foster (79 yards) and shut down Darren McFadden (22 yards). It’s not a fluke either since the Fins were third against the run last year as well. BJGE’s averaged just over 50 yards in four career run-ups against this stop unit; bench him!
**Week 5 Value Start**
Donald Brown RB Indianapolis Colts ($5,953) – Provided the Packers don’t all of a sudden start playing like the Packers we’ve come to know the last few years and the Colts are able to hang, Donald Brown might just be able to put forth a borderline RB1 effort against a Green Bay defense that has proven to be porous against the run. The Saints found themselves in catch up mode early last week, so it forced Brees to throw the pigskin a whopping 54 times. While the Colts will certainly look to move the ball through the air, they’ll also want to control the game so as to keep Rodgers and company on the sideline as much as possible. With that the case, look for them to utilize Brown immensely in this one either on the ground or with short dump-offs. His low salary will allow for you to add some of the higher priced studs to your RB1 and RB2 slots; talk about value!
