Browns vs. Vikings Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 5

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 5 matchup between the Browns and Vikings in London.

Find a breakdown of every Week 5 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Carson Wentz: It was not a clean game for Wentz last week through a real football lens, but he ended up getting there for fantasy purposes.

Wentz was QB9 (21.2 points), completing 30 of 46 passes (65.2%) for 350 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

He added 12 rushing yards.

Through three quarters, Wentz had 168 yards, 6.2 yards per pass attempt, with no touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

Jailbreak game script led to him going 11 of 19 for 182 yards (9.6 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Wentz has been a QB1 scorer in each of his two starts with Minnesota.

We have seen Kevin O’Connell coax out production from veteran passers before, but I would still have Wentz as a QB2 here this week.

On Sunday, Wentz was sacked 6 times and hit 14 times.

Minnesota was already without Donovan Jackson.

They then lost Ryan Kelly to his second concussion in three weeks.

Brian O’Neill suffered an MCL injury.

This is the wrong matchup to come into down several linemen.

The Browns are seventh in the NFL in pressure rate (43.7% of dropbacks) and third in sack rate (9.6%).

Wentz has averaged 6.7 Y/A when pressured these past two weeks compared to 8.4 Y/A when kept clean.

The Browns have opened the season against Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Jordan Love, and Jared Goff, allowing only Jackson to finish in the front-half of weekly scoring.

Against man coverage, Wentz has completed 11 of 21 passes (52.4%) for 85 yards (4.0 Y/A).

When blitzed, Wentz has completed 7 of 13 passes (53.8%) for 81 yards (6.2 Y/A).

Cleveland leads the NFL in rate of man coverage (47.9%) and is 11th in blitz rate (27.7%).

Dillon Gabriel: The Browns are making the move to Gabriel as their starter in London after Joe Flacco was coming off completing a season-low 47.1% of his passes on Sunday in Detroit to go along with 2 more interceptions.

We have seen Gabriel make two short appearances in garbage time this season, going 3-of-4 for 19 yards and a touchdown.

This preseason, Gabriel was 25-of-37 (67.6%) for 272 yards (7.4 Y/A) with a touchdown and an interception.

Gabriel appeared in 64 games over six collegiate seasons at UCF, Oklahoma, and Oregon.

He was one of only seven quarterbacks ever invited to the NFL Combine with over 2,000 career pass attempts.

Gabriel is undersized (5’11” and 205 pounds), which is the main hindrance.

He was also more of a bus driver, posting the lowest target depth (7.0 air yards) with the lowest big-time throw rate (3.2%) in this class.

17.0% of his passing yards came via screen passes, the highest rate of any passer in the class.

But he experienced and can keep the offense on schedule when he is at his best.

The conditions could be better for a quarterback making his first career start, but there is a low-bar to be better than what we seen from Flacco.

The Browns have had injuries at offensive tackle, forcing them to trade for Cam Robinson this week.

Gabriel will also be getting his first start against a Brian Flores defense.

Minnesota is second in passing points allowed (8.9 per game).

Gabriel is a back-end QB2 option for Week 4.

Running Back

Quinshon Judkins: Judkins dominated the Cleveland backfield again this past week, turning 25 touches into 115 yards and a touchdown.

Judkins handled 25 of the 28 backfield touches, giving him rates of 41.9%, 79.2%, and 89.3% since joining the team.

It is impressive what Judkins has done considering his short time with the team, the state of the Cleveland offensive line, and the strength of the schedule.

Cleveland was down both of their starting tackles on Sunday and was chasing points throughout.

The Browns still ran him 21 times.

Judkins ran into a loaded box on 57.1% of his runs Sunday.

Judkins was still only on the field for 36.8% of the dropbacks, but he still managed four receptions for 33 yards.

We would like to see those routes reach the 45-50% range to provide Judkins with more stability as a volume-based RB2.

A touchdown in each of the past two weeks has bolstered his line.

Minnesota has been inconsistent in defending the backfield to open the year.

They allowed only 65 total yards to D’Andre Swift in Week 1 and then 14 yards on 20 touches to Chase Brown in Week 3.

In the other two games, the Vikings allowed 248 yards to the Atlanta backfield in Week 2 and then allowed 134 yards and 2 touchdowns to Kenneth Gainwell this past week.

They have allowed 4.4 yards per carry to running backs (20th) with a 56.6% success rate against those runs (23rd).

Minnesota is 19th in points allowed to running backs, but running backs have scored 41.4% of the fantasy points allowed by Minnesota, the highest share in the league.

Jordan Mason: Mason handled 19 touches on Sunday, producing 72 yards against Pittsburgh.

He handled 70.4% of the backfield touches (RB17 in Week 4), but also lost late-game work to Zavier Scott.

Scott only had two rushing attempts, but he ran more routes (23) than Mason (20), catching 6 passes for 43 yards and a touchdown.

Even before the fourth quarter, things were even on passing downs, with Mason running 14 routes to Scott’s 13.

The game script directed targets to Scott, which is not implied here.

I would be hesitant to chase Scott’s box score outside of the deepest full-PPR formats.

Mason should be able to accrue touches in a positive game script, but this is a tough matchup for Mason as a runner, especially down multiple starters up front.

Mason rushed 7 times for 29 yards with Kelly and O’Neill sidelined on Sunday.

We are likely going to need Mason getting into the end zone as a volume-based RB2.

They were mortal in allowing 91 yards rushing to Jahmyr Gibbs on Sunday, but Cleveland has allowed a league-low 2.9 YPC to running backs, even including that.

24.5% of the runs against the Browns have gained 5 or more yards, the lowest rate in the league.

They are allowing 0.16 yards before contact per rush on running back runs.

The league average is 1.19 yards before contact on those runs.

Wide Receiver

Justin Jefferson: Jefferson had his best outing of the early season in Dublin, catching 10-of-11 targets for 126 yards.

Wentz has targeted Jefferson 35% and 26.2% of the time these past two weeks.

Jefferson is a WR1 based on opportunity and talent, but this is a tougher matchup overall compared to the past two weeks against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, paired with the state of this offensive line and the aggressive nature of the Cleveland defense.

After allowing 3 catches for 33 yards to Ja’Marr Chase in Week 1, Zay Flowers (7-75-0) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (7-70-2) have had solid outings.

St. Brown added the touchdowns to his total, so we will need Jefferson to get there if he is going to be around those yardage totals.

Especially highlighting Wentz’s sample against man coverage.

With Wentz on the field, Jefferson has a team-high 31.6% of the targets against man coverage, but for only 1.46 yards per route run.

When Wentz has been blitzed, he has targeted Jefferson 41.7% of the time.

Jordan Addison: Addison returned to the lineup on Sunday, catching 4 of 8 targets for 114 yards.

His day was anchored by a blown coverage that resulted in an 81-yard catch and run where he was brought down just short of the end zone.

While that big play elevated Addison’s game, he immediately returned to a full-time role as the No. 2 target in this offense.

Addison was on the field for 98.1% of the dropbacks.

He is back in the fold as a boom-or-bust WR3/FLEX.

Addison has better splits against zone coverage.

He has posted 1.45 yards per route run with a first or touchdown on 32.7% of his targets against man coverage.

Against zone coverage, Addison has averaged 1.72 yards per route with a first down or touchdown on 37.4% of his targets.

Jerry Jeudy: Pulling in 3 of 9 targets for 48 yards on Sunday, Jeudy has zero top-30 scoring weeks to open the season, with one week as a top-40 scorer.

Jeudy is third in the NFL in most targets (30) without an end zone target yet on the season.

He is coming off a season-high 26.5% target share.

The absence of Cedric Tillman can push targets in Jeudy’s direction, keeping him in play as a volume-based WR4/FLEX.

The matchup is not favorable, however, if one is looking for a ceiling outcome.

DK Metcalf is the only wide receiver to reach 70 yards in a game against Minnesota, needing an 80-yard touchdown to get there.

Isaiah Bond: Last week, we noted that Bond was starting to get an extended look in the offense.

Now with Cedric Tillman sidelined, Bond will have a larger role, giving him life as a deeper-end FLEX in full-PPR formats and dart throw in single-game DFS.

On the tiny sample with Tillman off the field this season (35 routes), Bond leads the Browns with 24.3% of the team’s targets.

On Sunday, with Tillman off the field, Bond was on the field for 82.1% of those dropbacks, matching Jeudy with 5 targets.

He caught 2 of those for 42 yards.

Tight End

T.J. Hockenson: Hockenson collected 4 of 5 targets for 39 yards on Sunday.

Hockenson has not hit 50 yards in a game yet to open the season, averaging only 8.8 yards per catch and 6.4 yards per target.

Those yards per catch would be a career low, while the yards per target would be a low mark since his rookie season.

Hockenson is the TE13 in target share (16.8%).

His 1.03 yards per route rank TE27.

That fringe TE1 area is where he resides for fantasy, needing a touchdown to get by.

Cleveland has been tough on tight ends to open the season, allowing 5.3 yards per target (6th) with a 60.9% catch rate (6th) to the position and a pair of touchdowns.

Browns TEs: David Njoku’s slow start to the season continued on Sunday, catching 2 of 3 targets for 11 yards.

The best week Njoku has had to open the season is TE15.

This offense has provided little reason to lean into Njoku as more than a TE2.

The addition of Harold Fannin has widened the target tree, hurting Njoku.

Njoku has 14% of the team’s targets (TE21), which is lower than Fannin’s 16% (TE17).

Fannin has slowed down the past two games with 25 and 24 yards.

It is just hard to handle any pass catcher in this offense as a reliable starter.

If using Fannin as a TE2, there could be some matchup signal for him.

Minnesota leads the NFL in the rate of Cover 2 (22.5% of snaps).

Fannin leads the team with 30.8% of the targets against Cover 2.

Minnesota has not been giving tight ends much room to operate so far, allowing 5.7 yards per target (8th) with 1 touchdown, but they are 20th in receptions allowed per game (5.3) to the position.

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