NFL Reactions: Week 5

-It's encouraging that Kyler Murray is running more lately, with Sunday's game against Cincinnati marking a new high with 93 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. He otherwise completed 20-of-32 passes for 253 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions. If Murray keeps running, though, he might pile up enough combined passing and rushing volume to provide useful fantasy value even if he's less than good in real life.

-Murray's rushing breakout should also prove beneficial to Arizona's running backs. David Johnson ran for 91 yards on 17 carries while adding three catches for 65 yards on five targets, and Chase Edmonds frustrated Johnson's owners with eight carries for 68 yards and a touchdown.

-Andy Dalton managed to play terribly for the majority of Sunday's game against Arizona, and he came perilously close to providing zero fantasy utility before piling up most of his 262 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Tyler Boyd almost sank with him before miraculously finishing with 10 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown on 14 targets, and even Auden Tate cashed in late with three catches for 26 yards and a touchdown on six targets.

-It's probably time to let go of the idea that Derrick Henry lacks consistency. Against a tough Buffalo defense he took 20 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown, his fourth rushing touchdown on the year, and he now has at least 11.6 PPR points per game in each of his five games.

-David Montgomery will always have his balance, but he maybe seemed less springy against the Raiders, plodding to 25 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries while catching his only target for 11 yards. It was a missed opportunity in what was supposed to be one of his better matchups of the year, but instead he goes into his sixth game with just 225 yards and two touchdowns rushing at 3.26 yards per carry. Allen Robinson, on the other hand, was remarkably good once again, catching seven passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns on eight targets. He might be one of the five best receivers in the league, even if he never has a good enough quarterback to realize it.

-As much as Derek Carr's numbers don't impress at a glance (25-of-32 for 229 yards), he generally seemed in control of the script against the Bears, or at least for most of the game anyway. It's somewhat encouraging given how well the Chicago defense grades in most cases, though the Bears also seemed uncharacteristically weak at the point of attack Sunday. If Carr can in any case keep trending in a positive direction, it would bode well for a Tyrell Williams bounce back whenever he can return from his foot injury. Trevor Davis could establish himself as the team's top receiver after Williams -- he caught all four of his targets Sunday for 42 yards while Hunter Renfrow struggled with one 12-yard catch on five targets.

-Even with Darren Waller playing brilliantly this year, there's an off chance fellow tight end and rookie fourth-round pick Foster Moreau might establish some modest redraft value, especially if no one aside from Williams steps up at receiver. Moreau is a good prospect out of LSU who boasts above average athleticism with a 4.66-second 40, 36.5-inch vertical, and 121-inch broad jump. He probably needs to block a bit less to be anything more than a bye week consideration in 14-team leagues, but four catches for a team-leading 46 yards on five targets against the Bears helps him make the case.

-Josh Jacobs had a highly encouraging game, turning 26 carries into 123 yards and two touchdowns while adding three catches for 20 yards on four targets. With 88 carries and six catches through five games, Jacobs is on a 16-game pace to outnumber his touch count in 40 games at Alabama by exactly one – 300 to 299.

-Bruce Arians is a fraud, the offensive coach version of a Riverboat Ron-style meme that uses baseless charm and mythical reverence to disarm your skepticism. I never fell for it with Ron, but I'm ashamed to admit I bit hook, line, and sinker on the Arians scam. He's rendered an All-Decade talent truly useless in O.J. Howard, and each time Ronald Jones proves his worth Arians penalizes him for it the next week. They deserve to lose, and they generally will. As much as Chris Godwin investors are psyched on him right now, they should look at the senseless volatility in Mike Evans' numbers and remember that Godwin could be next. (I am heavily invested in Godwin and hope to be wrong on this particular point).

-What a game for Teddy Bridgewater, and how nice it is for one of the league's more likable players to enjoy success after suffering so much earlier in his career. It helped that Michael Thomas was ruthless (11 catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns on 13 targets), but it seems like Bridgewater played legitimately well in this one. Going 26-of-34 for 314 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception is a fine fourth start.

-Kirk Cousins (22-of-27 for 306 yards and two touchdowns) and Adam Thielen (seven catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns on eight targets) got the squeaky wheel treatment, but the squeakiest wheel, Stefon Diggs, only saw three catches for 44 yards on four targets. However, to torture this metaphor further, you can only grease so many wheels when Dalvin Cook is playing at his amazing customary level, dominating not only on the ground Sunday (21 carries for 132 yards) but also six catches for 86 yards on six targets.

-Jonathan Hilliman is a sub-practice squad type, so if Wayne Gallman (concussion) misses time then Daniel Jones could lead the team in rushing until Gallman or Saquon Barkley (ankle) returns. Rookie fifth-round pick Darius Slayton got lost in the shuffle in a deep wideout class, but he looks like a potential steal after leading the Giants with 62 yards and a touchdown on four catches (five targets). Slayton compares to a prospect like Chris Conley, boasting rare explosiveness (4.39-second 40, 40.5-inch vertical, 135-inch broad jump). Since the Giants activated him, Slayton turned 12 targets into nine catches for 157 yards and a touchdown.

-Luke Falk played at the same school and was a similarly successful player there, but he's definitely no Gardner Minshew. It's hard to see how anyone in this offense other than Le'Veon Bell could possibly catch passes on a useful basis until Sam Darnold returns.

-Miles Sanders has been better than expected as a pass catcher, and after snagging four of five targets for 49 yards against the Jets he's up to 10 catches for 133 yards on 15 targets. The issue is that his ball security will remain an indefinite concern, and in the meantime he's struggled more than expected as a runner. Jordan Howard ran for 62 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries against the Jets (4.8 YPC), but Sanders took nine carries for just 15 yards. Sanders goes into Week 6 with 193 yards on 54 carries (3.6 YPC), while Howard boasts 248 yards on 53 carries (4.7 YPC).

-Lamar Jackson had a rough box score Sunday, throwing for 161 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions, but only one of the interceptions was his fault. He had a great start to the game, but the first interception occurred when Minkah Fitzpatrick interfered with Mark Andrews to the disinterest of the refs, while Devin Bush's interception quite literally did not happen -- the ball hit the ground, and even before that the ball only got to Bush because Nick Boyle dropped an on-target pass from Jackson. Still, the Ravens offense is more or less decoded at this point, and it's tough for the passing game to jumpstart when Marquise Brown and Mark Andrews are the only threats -- and both of them nicked up, moreover.

-Juju Smith-Schuster is one of those gamers with special yet undefinable traits that allow him to exceed the sum of his parts. He shouldn't have gotten open in the first place on his 35-yard touchdown, and Marlon Humphrey should have been able to tackle him after the catch. Eventually, though, Juju finds a way. Unfortunately for him, he'll need to keep overachieving with Mason Rudolph heavily concussed.

-Tom Brady diced up the Washington defense for 348 yards and three touchdowns, predictably getting Julian Edelman (eight catches for 110 yards and one touchdown on nine targets) and James White (six catches for 46 yards on nine targets) involved, and less predictably sending three targets to Sony Michel, who caught them all for 32 yards. Michel also ran for 91 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. It would obviously be great for his fantasy value if he could keep getting targets, and it's frankly an egregious failure of Josh McDaniels' that it hasn't happened before now. The guy was almost an in-space specialist at Georgia – people justified that pick by comparing him to Alvin Kamara. It's bizarre that New England has used him like he's LeGarrette Blount.

-Washington is depressing to talk about, but at least Terry McLaurin is good. Steven Sims was a pretty good receiver at Kansas, so it's weird to watch Washington turn him into a (rather successful) running specialist at receiver. Sims caught 214 passes in college yet only ran 10 times for 16 yards. The undrafted rookie has five catches for 25 yards versus 81 yards and a touchdown rushing.

-Jacksonville's looming decision on Nick Foles looks tougher each week, as Gardner Minshew played well once again. Three lost fumbles is bad, but the Carolina pass rush made it tough on him and he otherwise threw for 374 yards and two touchdowns on 44 attempts. D.J. Chark might be an All-Pro this year, as his eight catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns leave him with 485 yards and five touchdowns through five games. Dede Westbrook looks like a disappointment, but seven catches for 82 yards was his best game of the year so far.

-Kyle Allen struggled against Jacksonville, but Christian McCaffrey once again volunteered to be an NFL offense in himself, running for 176 yards and two touchdowns while catching six passes for 61 yards and a score. Most snake draft leagues don't allow you to trade up in the draft, but McCaffrey might almost be worth the 12-team equivalent of the 1999 Ricky Williams trade.

-You know Atlanta coach Dan Quinn is toast because he gave up 53 points to Bill O'Brien. Matt Ryan got his numbers, again, but once again they weren't competitively meaningful. You can more or less gauge the health of the Atlanta offense by the share of Ryan's volume secured by Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley. In recent weeks the theme has been elevated target volume for Austin Hooper and Mohamed Sanu at the expense of the previously two mentioned receivers. Ridley got going a bit in this one (five catches for 88 yards and one touchdown on nine targets), but Hooper, Sanu, Devonta Freeman, and Ito Smith combined for 25 targets while Julio saw only seven targets.

-Deshaun Watson is a beast when the Houston route combos don't play into the hands of the defense. The Panthers showed how to beat Houston with a Cover-4 defense, but Atlanta runs more man defense, and poorly, which is perfect for killer wideouts like Will Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins. It still hasn't been the year Hopkins' owners were hoping for, but we know from history that he doesn't struggle for long, and Fuller posting 217 yards and three scores should make things a bit easier for Hopkins. Carlos Hyde is objectively worse than Duke Johnson, but because O'Brien is a bad coach it might not ever matter. Hyde had one more yard than Duke (60 to 59) despite receiving 21 carries to Duke's nine. Disgusting.

-It's a bad look for Anthony Lynn and the Chargers to lose at home against the Broncos, especially since Mike Williams and Melvin Gordon were both available. A healthy Chargers offense would feature a heavy dose of Austin Ekeler even after Gordon's reacclimation, but not if Ekeler is catching 15 passes for 86 yards.

-Perhaps Vic Fangio is making some progress as Denver's head coach, but most of the coaching credit should arguably go to offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, who somehow has Joe Flacco playing at a totally competent level so far in 2019. Courtland Sutton is almost certainly one of the best receivers in the league, even in just his second season out of SMU. Emmanuel Sanders is impressive, but we might consider Sutton the WR1 on that team soon enough. Royce Freeman is a fine running back, but Phillip Lindsay continues to prove he's the better of the two.

-Dak Prescott mostly played well against Green Bay, as it's easy to argue that none of his three interceptions should have happened. One happened on a play where Kevin King committed uncalled illegal contact, and another occurred on a pushed back down and distance after a negated Zeke first down where the 6-foot-3 King held the 5-foot-8 Tavon Austin but the refs called it on Austin, presumably in an attempt at ironic humor. Amari Cooper was responsible for the third, burning Jaire Alexander in a route only to tip an on-target pass back to Alexander for the easy pick. Cooper (11 catches for 226 yards and a touchdown on 14 targets) is a monster though and Michael Gallup (seven catches for 113 yards and a touchdown on 14 targets) is very good, too. Despite whatever media criticism he receives this week, Dak's fantasy owners should be grateful to have him this year.

-It's hard to blame Aaron Rodgers too much with Davante Adams (toe) out against a decent defense, but 238 yards and zero touchdowns in a 34-point game is quite disappointing. Perhaps Marquez Valdes-Scantling (one 18-yard catch on four targets) was overmatched by the coverage from Byron Jones, or perhaps they just made it so easy on Aaron Jones that MVS wasn't necessary. Jones not only ran wild for 107 yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries, but led the team with eight targets as well, snagging seven for 75 yards.