Fantasy Football Week 5 Running Back Preview: Waiver adds, deep stashes, starts, sits, and more

The first week of byes are upon us and it may hit us harder at running back than any other position. Saquon Barkley, Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, and J.K. Dobbins all get a break this week. Factor in all the injuries we're dealing with and some of you will most definitely be starting running backs that you do not want to start. I have some waiver wire adds for you below, but it's also possible these starting running backs will come from your bench. Or they'll be guys you were expecting to bench soon.

Near the top of that list have to be Travis Etienne, Rachaad White, and Javonte Williams. Both Etienne and White were outperformed in Week 4 by their backups and it wasn't the first time that had happened this season, at least on the ground. Williams saw his situation improve a little, with a season-high 18 touches but turned those into just 10 PPR Fantasy points. All three have underperformed their draft capital but all three also rank inside my top 25 running backs in full PPR leagues for at least one more week.

Full PPR is a key distinction because all three backs also rank top-20 this year in receptions. This is particularly important for White, who faces a Falcons defense that has seen the sixth-most running back targets through four weeks. That's a good thing too, because White appears to be the most likely of this group to lose even more work in the running game. 

Etienne and Williams face less favorable matchups through the air, but the Raiders have allowed 5.39 yards per rush to running backs this year and Denver is favored for the first time all season. I'm not going to feel good about starting either of them, but Kareem Hunt is the only back available on the waiver wire I would start over them. You can find my full set of Week 5 RB projections at SportsLine.

Now, let's get to the rest of the Week 5 RB Preview:

Week 5 RB Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 5 at this time. Here's what it means:

• 42% -- Bucky Irving's 42% snap share in Week 4 was a season-high. He's a high-end flex trending toward becoming a low-end starting running back.
• 21.4% -- Kareem Hunt avoided a tackle on more than a fifth of his rushes. He certainly looked like the best running back in Kansas City.
• 70.5% -- Jordan Mason has handled 70.5% of San Francisco's rush attempts. Only Kyren Williams has handled a higher rate.
• 2.96 -- Despite two bad weeks, J.K. Dobbins still leads all running backs at 2.96 yards before contact per rush. 
• 4.55 -- Chase Brown leads all running backs with 4.55 yards after contact per rush. He may be coming for more of Zack Moss's carries.
• 12 -- Najee Harris has 12 red zone rush attempts and he's scored on zero of them. Only seven backs have more red zone rush attempts than Harris, they all have at least three red zone rushing touchdowns.
• 8 -- Kyren Williams leads all running backs with eight carries inside the five and five rushing touchdowns from that close.

My full set of Week 5 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. You'll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 4. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.