Week 5 DFS Picks: Tournament Plays

Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

It is not that tournament players cannot be used in cash games.

If a player here works out for your team structure in cash games surrounding your primary core, use them.

These are just the players that come with some element of inherent risk, but they also are the primary players I still want to be ahead of the field on, compared to the percentage of rosters they are projected to make this weekend.

I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but please refer to the Week 5 Worksheet for a detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Quarterback

Justin Herbert ($8,000/$6,100)

There is plenty of volatility here between the state of the Los Angeles offensive line, but also plenty of upside given the state of the secondary for Washington.

Herbert was pressured on 49.1% of his dropbacks in Week 3 (28th in the league) and 45.5% last week (25th).

Under pressure these past two weeks, Herbert is 14 of 38 (36.8%) for 151 yards (4.0 Y/A) with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.

With the loss of Joe Alt, this offensive line is down both of its starting tackles.

They will be facing a Washington defense that is ninth in the league in pressure rate (42.6% of dropbacks).

When Washington has pressured the opposing passer, they have averaged 5.9 yards per attempt (18th) with a 0% touchdown rate.

The positive news for Herbert is that when Washington has not gotten to the quarterback, they have been shredded.

Without pressure, Washington has allowed 10.3 yards per pass attempt, ahead of only the Cowboys (11.2 Y/A).

They have allowed a 9.2% touchdown rate without pressure, 29th in the league.

Washington has allowed Jordan Love (20.9 points), Geno Smith (26.1 points), and Michael Penix (18.7 points) all to outproduce their seasonal average against them over the past three weeks.

C.J. Stroud ($6,700/$5,200)

Stroud took advantage of his best matchup of the year, and this offense showed its first signs of life.

Stroud set season highs in completion rate (78.6%) and passing yards (233), ending the week as QB14 (18.4 points).

Houston finally incorporated some creativity into the offense, utilizing a season-high 50% rate of pre-snap motion and a 21.4% play-action rate.

Those rates ranked 19th and 18th in Week 4, but they were baby steps forward for an offense that had done little entering last week.

This unit took advantage of a downtrodden defense.

They will draw another one this weekend.

Baltimore has had a rough start this year.

Nnamdi Madubuike is out for the remainder of the season.

Roquan Smith is expected to miss multiple weeks due to a hamstring injury.

Marlon Humphrey is dealing with a calf injury and is not expected to play.

Kyle Hamilton has missed practice this week.

Jaire Alexander has not played since the start of the season.

As a result of all these mounting injuries, the Ravens have allowed a touchdown on 42.9% of their opponents' drives over the past two weeks, tied for the highest rate in the league.

Baltimore has only a 30% pressure rate (28th) and a 1.5% sack rate (30th) over the past two weeks.

Opposing passers are averaging 19.3 passing points per game against Baltimore, the second-most in the league.

Bryce Young ($6,600/$4,700)

This one is not for the faint of heart.

Either this is a good matchup for Young or a good matchup for the Miami defense.

Miami has allowed a league-high 77.6% completion rate, 8.8 yards per pass attempt (31st), and a 6.5% touchdown rate (28th).

Miami has allowed a top-five scoring week to all of Daniel Jones (29.5 points), Drake Maye (26.3 points), Josh Allen (23 points), and Justin Fields (27.1 points).

If Young cannot turn in at least a viable performance here, then this offense may be broken beyond repair.

Miami has also allowed 40.8 rushing yards per game to passers (30th) with 4 rushing touchdowns.

Running Back