Two Packers land on All-Bust Fantasy Lineup for Week 5

By Nick Selbe/PointAfter

Week 5 of the NFL season was a doozy, featuring three overtime games and six other games decided by one possession. Similarly, there were several close calls in selecting the All-Bust fantasy lineup, but in the end, these players separated themselves from the pack in terms of falling short of expectations.

Like last week, this All-Bust lineup is quarterbacked by a player whose team remains unbeaten. Falcons fans might be thrilled with how Matt Ryan orchestrated the team’s go-ahead touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter, but fantasy owners are less enthused after his three-turnover performance.

A reminder on the selection process for each week’s All-Bust team: I determine the difference between the projected Yahoo point totals and the actual outputs of each player. The guys with the worst sums wind up here, with their substandard performances illustrated by PointAfter visualizations.

[Week 5's perfect fantasy lineup: Top scorers at each position]

Notes: All projected point totals were pulled Sunday morning from Yahoo’s standard scoring system. Players who were injured on Sunday weren’t considered. This story will be updated as necessary following the Monday Night Game.

QB: Matt Ryan, Falcons

Projected points (position rank): 18.8 (3rd)

Actual points (position rank): 8.2 (28th)

After a strong first four weeks, Ryan had his first truly bad game. Yet the Falcons still came away with a win over the woeful Redskins. Ryan had no touchdowns for the first time this year, and his 57.1 completion percentage was his lowest since Week 6 of last season.

Ryan has been fairly reliable throughout his career in terms of taking care of the football and having a high completion percentage. He’s averaged over 28 touchdown passes per season since 2010 and has been consistent with his accuracy.

Ryan just barely saved Peyton Manning from making a repeat appearance on this list, and a big reason for that was the questionable overruling of what would have been a 13-yard touchdown pass to Devonta Freeman with 51 seconds left. Freeman rushed for a touchdown two plays later, and the Falcons went on to win in overtime after Kirk Cousins threw a pick-six to Robert Alford.

RB1: Ameer Abdullah, Lions

Projected points (position rank): 11.0 (14th)

Actual points (position rank): 0.6 (T-69th)

Sunday was another awful day in what’s been a truly terrible season for the Lions. The NFL’s lone winless team was blown out by the Cardinals and saw its talented rookie fumble twice.

Abdullah was benched in favor of fellow rookie running back Zach Zenner for much of the second half following his two first-half fumbles. Abdullah finished with seven touches on offense, tied for his lowest of the season. This marks his second appearance on the All-Bust lineup, which makes his stellar debut seem more and more like fool’s gold.

RB2: Eddie Lacy, Packers

Projected points (position rank): 13.7 (7th)

Actual points (position rank): 3.5 (47th)

Jamaal Charles would have landed here but we’re not going to call someone a bust after he suffered what appears to be a season-ending injury.

On the flipside, few players have disappointed more this season than Lacy. After rewarding owners with a strong debut against the Bears, Lacy has just 224 yards from scrimmage in his past four games with no touchdowns. In his third NFL season, he’s seen his average rush attempts and yards per game decrease each year.

Lacy has yet to have a run of longer than 16 yards this season. With James Starks seeing virtually the same number of touches so far (70 for Lacy vs. 63 for Starks), fantasy owners can feel free to hit the panic button if they haven’t already.

WR1: Randall Cobb, Packers

Projected points (position rank): 11.8 (6th)

Actual points (position rank): 2.3 (T-68th)

Cobb makes his second consecutive appearance on the All-Bust lineup thanks to his season-worst 23-yard performance. For the second time this season (and first since Week 1), Cobb did not lead the team in targets, though he still maintains a sizable lead as Aaron Rodgers’ go-to option in the red zone.

Despite the presence of James Jones, Davante Adams and Ty Montgomery, Cobb owners should still feel comfortable with him in the starting lineup. The Packers will continue to throw the ball plenty with Rodgers calling the shots, and Cobb will get his touches.

WR2: Percy Harvin, Bills

Projected points (position rank): 7.4 (30th)

Actual points (position rank): -0.1 (N/A)

There were several options for the second wide receiver spot on the All-Bust team, but Harvin’s inability to gain positive yardage earned him the nod.

With both Sammy Watkins and LeSean McCoy inactive for the second straight week, it seemed like Harvin would play a bigger role in the offense. He lost a yard on his lone rushing attempt, and while he was targeted a team-high four times, he finished with zero catches.

Amazingly, Harvin is owned in 61 percent of leagues, though that number might drop after this week. Even more amazingly is the fact that Harvin leads all Bills receivers in targets, with nearly double the amount that Robert Woods has on the season.

TE: Jason Witten, Cowboys

Projected points (position rank): 8.2 (3rd)

Actual points (position rank): 1.3 (30th)

The Cowboys offense was no match against the Patriots defense, and Witten had his worst performance of the season. He had a season low 33 receiving yards and lost a fumble for the first time since 2010.

Witten is averaging just nine yards per catch, the lowest season average for his career. Last season, he finished with 703 yards, his lowest total since his rookie year.

Maybe it’s finally time that the ever-productive Witten starts to hit his statistical decline.

FLEX: Alfred Morris, Redskins

Projected points (position rank): 9.3 (21st)

Actual points (position rank): 1.5 (62nd)

For the past three years, Morris has quietly been one of the most reliable fantasy running backs in the league, averaging over 1,424 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns per season without ever missing a game.

Those days seem long gone now. For the past four weeks, Morris has essentially split time equally with rookie running back Matt Jones. Over that span, Morris has 53 touches and Jones 52. The Redskins don’t seem to have a strong preference for one player over the other in the red zone, either.

Kirk Cousins has averaged 42.3 pass attempts per game in the past three weeks. He’s tied with Matt Ryan for seventh in the league in that category on the season, and if the Redskins insist on throwing the ball that much, Morris will continue to lose what little fantasy relevancy he has left.

D/ST: Houston Texans

Projected points (position rank): 6.8 (14th)

Actual points (position rank): 0.0 (25th)

For the second straight week, the Texans defense finds itself on the All-Bust lineup.

Led by the incomparable J.J. Watt, Houston was supposed to have a strong defense, but that has not been the case so far. The 10th-highest owned defense seemed to have a favorable matchup on Thursday night against the Colts and 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck, but instead the team put up a goose egg, allowing 27 points and forcing no turnovers.

The Texans face the Jaguars, Dolphins and Titans in their next three games, all of which should be good matchups. But after two straight awful performances, fantasy owners shouldn’t feel too comfortable slotting Houston in their starting lineups.

Note: While the Jacksonville Jaguars defense was officially the biggest bust of the week (8.7 projected points vs. 1.0 actual points), the unit was only owned in 15 percent of leagues, so not many people were actually let down by the team’s stinker of a performance against the Buccaneers.

K: Dan Carpenter, Bills

Projected points (position rank): 7.0 (26th)

Actual points (position rank): 2.0 (28th)

In a 14-13 win over the Titans, the Bills did not attempt a single field goal, so Carpenter really isn’t to blame for his two-point performance. He did his part, making both of his extra point attempts. He’s owned in 67 percent of leagues despite having just seven field goal attempts on the season.

Nick Selbe is a writer for PointAfter, a sports data aggregation and visualization website that's part of the Graphiq network.

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