Week 4 brought us our first bye week due to the Covid cancellation of the Titans and Steelers game and fantasy managers scrambled to adjust. Thankfully, everybody is ok and the NFL had a simple fix issuing a bye to the teams and having an easy way to reschedule the game. With the recent news that there are still positive tests coming out of Tennessee, and unsanctioned practices being held as well (Morons!), I believe their week 5 game against the Bills is in serious jeopardy. Now we have planned and unplanned bye weeks and Covid uncertainty added to the flurry of injuries we’ve already dealt with, making it is even more important to find productive players to put in your flex spots. We have to be prepared!
As you know, every Thursday here on Razzball, I will be posting the weeks “Sexy Flexies” to give you a couple of players to consider starting in your flex spot. The objective isn’t to point out the obvious guys you’re starting in your RB or WR slots, but to take a look at a couple of players who are a bit more under the radar. These will likely be guys that you won’t start every week but will be good rotational pieces in the flex spot of your lineup based on matchup and opportunity.
What I do here is look at the match-ups and opportunities and highlight for you a couple of guys who I believe will perform in the situation they are in for the given week. For this column, we will be looking at players who are ranked 60th or later at the flex position for the week, according to Fantasy Pros Consensus Ratings, but will still get you double digit fantasy points in your flex spots. Let’s take a look at the players who will be the “Sexy Flexies” for week 5!
Russell Gage– WR – Atlanta Falcons – vs Carolina
Somewhere in Vegas, Scott Frankel is smiling. Russell Gage is finally making his way into the Sexy Flexies article this week in a nice bounce back spot after a quiet week 4. In the first 2 weeks of the season, Gage drew 20 targets from Matt Ryan and reeled in 15 receptions to start the year off hot. He was concussed in week 3 and was still shaking off the cobwebs in week 4, which saw the Falcons whole offense struggle in their primetime game. Gage still enters week 5 tied for 15th in the league in receptions with 19, and his QB is 3rd in the league in pass attempts. With Julio Jones likely to sit this one out, it is a good opportunity for Gage to get back on track in week 5.
The Falcons square off against the Carolina Panthers this week and their young, inexperienced defense is among the worst in football. Their defense ranks 28th in overall defense at PFF and Rudy Gamble’s Pigskinator ranks them at 19 this week. The Panthers have been using rookie safety Jeremy Chinn in the slot, which is where Russell Gage lines up 80% of the time. I expect Gage to be able to beat the rookie a bunch in this game and be a favorite target of Matt Ryan in a game that has sneaky shootout potential. He should be able to get you double digit points in your flex with ease this week, maybe even by halftime, making him a lock and load Sexy Flexie!
Laviska Shenault Jr. – WR – Jacksonville Jaguars – at Houston
Coming out of college this past draft season, Laviska Shenault was described by his college coach simply as “a total freak”. He is an explosive playmaker who is a YAC monster and is extremely dangerous with the ball in his hands. Each week that goes by the Jaguars are getting “Viska” more and more involved with the offense and even scheming plays specifically to get the ball in his hands. Having teammate DJ Chark back healthy actually helps Shenault as it takes opposing defenses attention over to Chark who usually will draw the team’s best cornerback.
This week, the Jaguars face the Houston Texans who have an extremely exploitable secondary. DJ Chark will likely draw shadow coverage from Bradley Roby which leaves Shenault to see a lot of one of my favorite corners to target, Vernon Hargreaves. Hargreaves is ranked 103rd out of 112 CBs ranked on PFF and Moustachio Minshew will look to get the ball in his playmaker’s hands against him. Coming off a game where Shenault had 91 total yards, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him hit the century mark this week. I think the Jaguars will be playing from behind and forced to throw more so a minimum of 6 catches is highly likely. Laviska has had double digit fantasy points in 3 of his 4 games so far and I look for this to be another double-digit game for him as well.
Lets go out there and have a big week 5 and hopefully these Sexy Flexies will help you get some wins this week. Both players have great double-digit point upside and should have significant roles in their team’s game plan this week. If you haven’t listened yet, check out the Razzball Weekly Fantasy Football Podcast, where I got to fill in for DT this week and go over a lot of helpful information with B_Don! Enjoy, and good luck in all your matchups this week!
