Fantasy Football: Keep, Trade, Drop Week 5 NFL 2021 Season

After the past weekend of NFL action, who should you think about keeping, trading, or dropping from your fantasy football team?

Author:
Ryan Frederick
Publish date:
Oct 12, 2021 8:55 AM EDT

This week in football, there was late-game drama, injuries, rookie quarterbacks were starting for six teams, and of course, ridiculously high-scoring fantasy performances. Davante Adams, Josh Allen, Nick Chubb, and Derrick Henry continued their dominant starts. As we quickly approach the regular season's halfway point, fantasy leagues are starting to separate themselves from the haves and have nots. You may start seeing the number of trades pick up, and the spending on waiver wire additions get a bit higher as people get more desperate. All of the injuries this week to critical players like Saquon Barkley, Russell Wilson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Daniel Jones will surely shake things up even more this week. Here is who you should be looking at closely as we move into Week 6.

TRADE: Myles Gaskin, RB, Miami Dolphins

Myles Gaskin was one of the players identified by many people as someone who could be in line for a big year. The Dolphins neglected the running back position in the draft again this year, leaving people to let their thought of Gaskin in the Dolphins offense run even wilder. He had gotten off to a lackluster start to the season, including a Week 4 performance when he only had two rushes for three yards and took a back seat to Malcolm Brown. In Week 5, though, Myles Gaskin was able to break out a little bit, mainly in the passing game, to finally deliver a solid fantasy performance with ten catches, 99 total yards, and two touchdowns. If you have been having a tough time deciding what to do with Gaskin, now would be a tremendous sell-high opportunity, especially with all of the injuries going on to other teams in your league. Look for a team that just lost Saquon Barkley or Chris Carson and see if you can capitalize and sell high while you can off a lovely week.

DROP: Tevin Coleman, RB, New York Jets

It sure seems that the script is flipping in the running back room for the Jets. Comparing snap percentages between Tevin Coleman, Michael Carter, and Ty Johnson:

Tevin Coleman: Week 1: 26%, Week 2: 10%, Week 4: 18%, Week 5: 9%

Michael Carter: Week 1: 25%, Week 2: 45%, Week 3: 43%, Week 4: 51%, Week 5: 52%

Ty Johnson: Week 1: 54%, Week 2: 45%, Week 3: 57%, Week 4: 33%, Week 5: 39%

There is a strong movement towards a two-man backfield for the Jets, and Coleman is trending towards being the odd man out. The Jets struggle on both sides of the ball and will throw a lot more than running because they will be trailing in more games than not. If you are holding out hope for Coleman to be more involved, it does not look like it will be coming on the Jets. It is time to move on from Tevin Coleman and find a more reliable option on the waiver wire or with a trade.

KEEP: Jaret Patterson, RB, Washington Football Team

This fly's directly in the face of why you drop Tevin Coleman, but there are signs here on why you should be hanging onto Jaret Patterson. First, the news about Antonio Gibson's stress fractures in his shins should make Patterson an immediate hold. If Gibson were to miss anytime, J.D. McKissic and Patterson would be the two pieces to fill in. Second, the injury to Curtis Samuel would also leave a hole in the receiving game for Washington. If you pair the two injuries together with McKissic's receiving ability, it is not too far of a leap to see Patterson finding his way to a decent amount of work for Washington. He is a tough runner and showed off some strong running and catching ability in a preseason matchup against the Bengals when he had 96 total yards and a powerful touchdown run. The room for growth is there for Patterson making him someone to keep on your roster moving forward.