Buy Low, Sell High: Week 5

Photo: USA Today Sports

Buy Low

Jaylen Waddle (WR-MIA) - He's too good to be kept down for much longer. Remember, he came into the season with an oblique injury and then missed a week with a concussion. Savvy fantasy players aren't going to part with him at a discount in redraft or dynasty, but it never hurts to ask.

Dameon Pierce (RB-HOU) - The offense and defense of the Texans are both rapidly improving, and both will feed into Pierce's value. He had a touchdown wiped off of the board by a penalty last week, and another was chalked up to a Devin Singletary to Dalton Schultz touchdown. He's going to go off with a multi-touchdown, 100+ yard game one of these weeks, maybe this week in Atlanta. Remember, they will be getting back their starting offensive tackles soon, if not this week.

Trevor Lawrence (QB-JAX), Travis Etienne Jr. (RB-JAX), Calvin Ridley (WR-JAX) - A reminder that patience is needed here. The Jaguars offense needs to get healthy again before we'll see another performance like Week 1. Starting left tackle Cam Robinson is due back this week, and next week brings a rematch with Indianapolis. Etienne's value has been snake-bit by two Tank Bigsby short-yardage scores, and Ridley has been let down by uncharacteristic drops and a tough matchup last week against his old team.

DeAndre Hopkins (WR-TEN) - Hopkins is a great rental wide receiver in dynasty leagues and a buy low in redraft because he's just now getting healthy again, and his skills seem to be intact. The low-volume pass offense in Tennessee might not hurt him as much as feared because Treylon Burks is banged up, and Chigoziem Okonkwo isn't as big a part of the pass offense as we expected in year two.

Joe Burrow (QB-CIN), Joe Mixon (RB-CIN) - Burrow was removed from the injury report and still played with little mobility and was easily checkmated by the Titans defense. That's why it's a good time to buy in redraft, and maybe even in dynasty if his team is doing well other than the quarterback position. It feels like we can't really know when Burrow will bounce back, but his Week 7 bye is around the corner, and after that, we should see a player more like the one we thought we'd get. Mixon should bounce back with Burrow, and he should be a cheap buy in dynasty leagues if he's on a 1-3 or 0-4 roster.

Taylor Heinicke (QB-ATL), Kyle Pitts (TE-ATL), Drake London (WR-ATL) - When a head coach has to confirm that his starting quarterback is still his starting quarterback, then it's one more bad game until we see a change. So unless Desmond Ridder improves against the Texans, we should see Heinicke soon. It's time to add Heinicke in redraft and dynasty Superflex. We know London can get it done with even Marcus Mariota and 2022 Ridder level play, and Pitts had a 1,000-yard rookie season with the ghost of Matt Ryan at quarterback. Heinicke was a viable fantasy quarterback for himself and his offense in Washington. This has to get better with the Washington, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, and Minnesota pass defenses up in Weeks 6-9.

Patrick Mahomes II (QB-KC) - Mahomes is probably untouchable, but you never know. The stretch of Minnesota, Denver, Chargers, Denver, and Miami looks like a runway for his stats to take off. The Jets game was rough and highly visible, so maybe you can do a lateral swap with another elite quarterback in redraft and get a throw-in.

Dallas Goedert (TE-PHI) - Goedert is blending into an ever-growing list of disappointments at tight end, but unlike Kyle Pitts, Darren Waller, George Kittle, David Njoku, and Pat Freiermuth, his coach is saying that Goedert's time will come and that it's the coaches fault for not getting him going so far this season. He can still become the red zone presence his size and skillset and summer reports suggest he should be, and this pass offense is now finally warmed up after a slowish start adjusting to the change at play-caller after Shane Steichen left to become the head coach of the Colts.