Sunday is in the books, and the sweats have begun at TopProp Fantasy Sports. The best way to challenge your friends (or rivals) and add a new layer of competition, TopProp adds another dimension to traditional season-long fantasy leagues. Let’s take a look at our plans for Week 5.
TopProp allows users to create bonus point based contests between two teams within your league. There is also the option to create a contest between two teams in a public or experts league. And remember to enter the referral code ‘FantasyPros’ when you sign up for a chance to win a signed Christian McCaffrey jersey.
The Challenge
In our FantasyPros Tags League, there are some interesting contests we can create at TopProp Fantasy Sports. With Sunday’s action wrapped up, there are still a few sweats going on in our FantasyPros Tags League.
Another week, another set of injuries and monster performances, putting fantasy managers on a roller coaster ride. Superstars Russell Wilson and Saquon Barkley both picked up multi-week injuries in a week filled with them. Rookies Ja’Marr Chase and Kadarius Toney both had their true breakout games and head into Monday night as Week 5’s WR5 and WR6, respectively. There are a few matchup options to choose from, but we will focus on targeting the team that has Russell Wilson and happens to be in first place this week.
The Strategy
The first place team in the league, Let Russ Cook heads into Monday night with two players still left to play. Russell Wilson being knocked from the game early created a challenge opportunity that we will look to take advantage of.
Let Russ Cook is riding high due to being the top team in the league and, with seven bonus points, enter Monday night with a 136.5-130.8 lead over Brandon’s Winston and Stafford. However, Brandon’s team has two higher upside players remaining and will be our challenge team. As seen in the photo above, it will be Marquise Brown and Jonathan Taylor vs. Michael Pittman and Baltimore D/ST.
Marquise Brown is finally starting to look like the number one receiver the Ravens hoped he would be. He’s been far from perfect but is averaging 4.8 receptions, 81.5 receiving yards, and 0.75 touchdowns per game. He has scored in three of his four contests this season. There is no telling if he will be able to keep it up once Rashod Bateman joins the team, but that is a problem for Week 6. For Week 5, Brown gets a Colts team that has allowed at least 77 receiving yards and a score to each team they have faced with a healthy number one receiver. Indianapolis has surrendered the 12th most fantasy points to the wide receiver position.
Jonathan Taylor has had an up and down season. He has been susceptible to gamescript and has seen over 16 carries just twice this season. However, with Nyheim Hines still on the team, he has seen three or more receptions just twice. Taylor projects to have another tough day on the ground due to gamescript, but thanks to some leaky red zone run defense, he is still expected to have a productive day. Baltimore has relinquished the 14th most fantasy points to opposing running backs this season. This is largely due to allowing at least one rushing touchdown in every game this season. Head coach Frank Reich sounds committed to letting Taylor eat after his 103 rushing yard performance in Week 4, so he should get some featured work in neutral situations. He is the RB23 through four games and has an excellent chance at a high-end RB2 level outing if he can find the end zone.
Michael Pittman has been promising this season but has never quite got back to the production level he was enjoying in Week 2 before Carson Wentz got hurt. He had 93 receiving yards in the first half alone and finished with 123 yards. Pittman has averaged 5.8 receptions for 69.8 receiving yards coming into Monday night. He is getting the targets but may have another inefficient outing, especially if Marlon Humphrey covers him. He is going to have his true breakout game eventually. It just may not come tonight.
Baltimore D/ST has been up and down through four weeks. They have just one double-digit outing and have averaged just 2.5 sacks and 0.5 interceptions per game. They have been held to four points or less in three of four contests. They have a neutral matchup on Monday night and are going to need to have a sack party or force multiple turnovers to avoid another disappointment for Let Russ Cook.
The Play: Marquise Brown and Jonathan Taylor have dominant performances on Monday Night Football.
The Fade: Michael Pittman and Baltimore D/ST produce but do not come close to matching the output of Brown and Taylor.
The Prediction: Marquise Brown and Jonathan Taylor outscore Michael Pittman and Baltimore D/ST by at least six points – bringing Brandon’s Winston and Stafford into the winner’s circle for Monday night.
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Raju Byfield is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Raju, check out his profile and follow him @FantasyContext.
