Bucs vs. Cowboys Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 5

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Bucs vs. Cowboys Week 5 matchup on Thursday Night Football.

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

Trust = spike production for that player

Bucs vs. Cowboys Fantasy Quarterback Preview

Dak Prescott

Prescott ranks QB8 in points per game through four weeks (20.3).

He is fourth in the league in completion percentage (70%), completing 5.5% more passes than expected (5th).

His 5.3% touchdown rate is QB11.

We always know you have to prep for the blitz against the Bucs, and they are blitzing a ton again (3rd in the league at a 40.4% rate).

Only this year, they are not getting home.

The Bucs rank 31st in pressure rate (24.6%) overall and 31st when blitzing (29.1%).

Teams are throwing the ball within 2.79 seconds of the snap against the Bucs (4th fastest), which does account for being prepared for the blitz-heavy approach.

When Prescott works from a clean pocket, whether blitzed or not, he averages 8.5 yards per attempt (8th), completes 80.2% of his passes (2nd), and has a 7.5% touchdown rate (6th).

Prescott has completed 75.6% of his passes when blitzed (4th) this season.

When blitzed without pressure (like the Bucs to this point), Prescott has completed 23 of 25 passes (92%), although his 6.2 Y/A on those passes is 21st.

Tampa Bay is sitting in the middle of the league (15th) in passing points allowed (13.1 per game), but they have faced a lighter recent run of Deshaun Watson, Kyler Murray, and Jordan Love since a Week 1 game against Joe Burrow.

Tampa Bay will be without Antoine Winfield and could be missing Benjamin Morrison on the back end.

Dak could also get Tyler Smith back this week, who has missed the first four games with a thumb injury.

All of that signals that Prescott can operate efficiently as a home favorite.

He is a solid QB1 option.

Dallas is also third in pass rate over expectation (8.0%) to keep the passing tempo up, even if Tampa Bay doesn't provide push.

Teams are also throwing the ball 3.9% over expectations against Tampa Bay (7th) since they can still stop the run.

Jalon Daniels

Making his first career start, Daniels was the QB24 (11.4 points) in Week 4.

He completed 70.4% (19 of 27) of his passes for 148 yards (5.5 Y/A), a touchdown, and 2 interceptions.

Daniels rushed 8 times for 55 yards.

As expected, the passing game had plenty of handholding.

32% of his passes were at or behind the line of scrimmage.

Only 20% were 10 or more yards downfield (30th in Week 4).

On those throws, Daniels was 2 for 5 for 36 yards and an interception.

Daniels sits as a back-end QB2, but if you are playing him in 2QB formats, he at least does draw matchup appeal.

Dallas is 28th in passing points allowed (18.7 per game), allowing a 71.7% completion rate (30th), 8.6 Y/A (31st), and a 7.9% touchdown rate (30th).

Issues remained in the first game with Joey Porter Jr., and the Cowboys allowed 11.2 yards per pass attempt to C.J. Stroud on Sunday.

The acquisition of Porter Jr. allowed rookie Caleb Downs to move out of slot corner and into free safety, which could make an impact moving forward.

Dallas has allowed a league-high 188 rushing yards to passers so far, another carrot for Daniels to find his way to production.

Bucs vs. Cowboys Fantasy Running Back Preview

Javonte Williams

Williams had to work hard for yardage against Houston on Sunday (24 touches for 83 yards), but he scored 3 times to boost his afternoon.

Williams has now logged three top-10 scoring weeks on workload and touchdown equity.

Williams is averaging only 4.0 yards per touch (the fewest of any RB1 this season), but he has 81.1% of the backfield touches (RB7), with 44% of his fantasy points coming directly from touchdown production.

Only Derrick Henry (46.3%) has a higher touchdown dependency among top-40 backs through four weeks.

While that adds some potential regression here, Williams is still attached to a home favorite and has that workload and scoring equity in his pocket.

That keeps him on the board as a volume-based RB1/RB2.

Getting Tyler Smith back would be an added plus, especially since yardage and efficiency could still be tough to come by here.

The Bucs have allowed 3.3 YPC to running backs (3rd) with a 69.7% success rate (4th) against those runs.

They have allowed a first down or touchdown on 15.8% of backfield runs (3rd).

The Bucs will give up production out of the backfield, however, ranking 24th in receiving points allowed per game to backs (10.3).

Bucky Irving

Irving turned 16 touches into 61 yards on Sunday against Green Bay.

He handled a season-low 66.7% of the backfield touches as both Sean Tucker and Kenneth Gainwell scored touchdowns.

Tucker had 3 touches for 10 yards and a score.

Gainwell had 5 touches for 27 yards and a touchdown through the air.

Irving did not have a catch or a target for the first time this season, running a route on 41.7% of the dropbacks, his lowest rate in a full game this season.

This was following a glute issue that forced Irving out of Week 3, but Todd Bowles said after the game that it was by design to get Tucker involved in short yardage.

When we left off in 2025, Irving was an empty-calorie back, limited in the passing game and at the goal line.

We started the season with that idea on the back burner.

Just one month in, it appears to be back on the table.

And now he is playing with a mobile quarterback in a lower-ceiling offense.

That all lowers Irving as a back-end RB2/RB3.

Tucker and Gainwell are still touchdown-dependent FLEX Plays best left for single-game DFS.

This backfield has matchup appeal despite being road underdogs.

Dallas ranks middle of the pack in allowing 4.0 YPC to running backs (16th), but they are allowing 15.7 rushing points per game (26th) to backs since they have allowed 4 rushing touchdowns and face 24.3 backfield attempts per game (23rd).

Bucs vs. Cowboys Fantasy Wide Receiver Preview

CeeDee Lamb

Lamb had career highs with 17 receptions and 21 targets on Sunday against Houston.

He turned those into 189 yards and a touchdown.

Lamb has at least 100 yards in each of the past three games and a touchdown in three of four.

He closed the gap on Jaxon Smith-Njigba as WR2 in overall scoring with his monster game and hot start.

Dallas is facing the league's highest rate of two-high coverage this season (71.3% of dropbacks), which has propelled Lamb.

He has been targeted on 32% of his routes, averaging 3.40 yards per route against those two-high looks, compared to a 13.2% target rate per route for George Pickens.

The Bucs play single-high at the second-highest rate in the league (66.2%) since they blitz so much, but we were in a similar spot with Houston last week, and they altered their approach for Dallas.

Lamb is in a spot to keep things going here as a front-end WR1.

He has both Prescott's passing touchdowns against the blitz this season, accounting for a team-high 54.1% of the air yards on blitzes.

Tampa Bay is 23rd in yards allowed per target to WR1 receivers (10.6) with an 8.7% touchdown rate (27th) to those receivers.

George Pickens

Pickens watched the Lamb show on Sunday, getting only 3 targets.

Dallas just kept letting Lamb attack Kamari Lassiter, and Houston was content to let it happen.

Pickens made the most of his limited opportunities, hauling in a 53-yard catch and finishing with 75 yards on 2 catches.

In the 14 games since Lamb returned from his ankle injury last season, Pickens has three WR1 scoring weeks but also eight games outside the top-24.

Pickens still has WR20 overall usage despite being the WR36 in scoring, so there should be better days ahead.

I'd still stick with Pickens as an upside WR2.

If the Bucs stick with the single-high defenses they have deployed so far, Pickens has much more appeal to get on track.

Pickens has a team-high 32.5% target share (2.13 yards per route) when Dallas does get those single-high looks.

Emeka Egbuka

Egbuka caught 2 of 4 targets for 13 targets on Sunday.

Egbuka has yet to log a week higher than WR30 through four games, and his top-down role as a potential target hog hasn't materialized in his second season.

His 19.8% target share ranks WR29, and he has been targeted on 17.4% of his routes.

Egbuka is a WR3/FLEX in the offense as it stands.

You can make the case for added upside here through the matchup.

Even after adding Joey Porter Jr. last week, Dallas was allowed 16 catches for 285 yards and 2 touchdowns to Houston wideouts on Sunday.

Dallas is 29th in points allowed per target to wide receivers (2.05).

Chris Godwin

Godwin grabbed 6 of 7 targets for 31 yards on Sunday.

He led the team with 26.9% of the targets, but once again, everything was at the line of scrimmage.

Godwin averaged 0.3 air yards per target, which has been the story over the opening four games.

Godwin is averaging 2.8 air yards per target for the season with 33.3% of his targets at or behind the line of scrimmage.

Godwin is a floor-based WR4/FLEX with greater appeal in full-PPR formats.

He does get those matchup notes highlighted above, but needs the downfield targets to make them actionable.

Ryan Flournoy

Flournoy is only a single-game DFS option.

He has 13 catches for 104 yards on the season, averaging only 8.0 yards per catch.

He is running a route on 75.4% of the dropbacks to keep on the radar, with multiple catches in all four games.

Ted Hurst

Hurst only caught 2 of 3 targets for 25 yards on Sunday.

He also ran a route on only 47.2% of dropbacks, a season low.

Tez Johnson ran more routes (19) and caught 2 passes for 17 yards.

That makes Hurst a touchdown-or-bust swing for single-game DFS.

Bucs vs. Cowboys Fantasy Tight End Preview

Jake Ferguson

Ferguson caught 3 of 4 targets for 11 yards on Sunday.

Ferguson remains a touchdown-dependent TE2.

He has 83 yards receiving this season, and 49.6% of his fantasy points come from touchdowns.

The Bucs have allowed a 9.1% touchdown rate to tight ends (22nd) through four weeks.

Cade Otton

Otton has at least 5 targets in every game this season, but he has 15 catches for 157 yards.

He has not had a week higher than TE16 in weekly scoring and has had only one top-20 scoring week.

Otton is a low-ceiling TE2.

You at least know Otton will play a lot.

He has been on the field for 85.4% of the dropbacks (TE4).

Dallas has allowed 8.8 yards per target (29th) and 2.6 fantasy points per target (31st) to tight ends, giving gamers a reason to take a matchup-based hack on him delivering here.

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