Fantasy Football Week 5 Quarterback Start/Sit: Jaxson Dart, Matthew Stafford, and More

New fantasy football contributors need opportunities. Those can come as the result of injuries, which start even before the season, or benchings, which sporadically happen throughout the season. Usually, we don't see too many quarterbacks benched in the first month, but we have already had a few players meet that fate.

Jaxson Dart took over for Russell Wilson last week in New York, and now, Joe Flacco has been relieved by rookie Dillon Gabriel in Cleveland. More streaming options come available as these new guys take over starting roles but beware of overusing them: rookies will almost always go through growing pains, including Dart and Gabriel.

Let's look at three quarterbacks to start and three to sit in Week 5 of the NFL season. This won't include any obvious names, like Josh Allen. Instead, we have six guys below who are worthy fantasy players some weeks but are better left on the bench other weeks.

Use FantasySP's start/sit tool to compare players and help make your toughest lineup decisions each week.

Start

Jaxson Dart, New York Giants @ New Orleans Saints

I've been preaching that Dart isn't a good fantasy player to begin his career, so it's ironic that I put him here as a guy to start in Week 5. This is all about the matchup, as the Saints have allowed the sixth-most yards per pass attempt and sixth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks.

Dart was successful from a fantasy standpoint in his debut, ranking as QB11 for the week. That was more about his running than his passing, though, as Dart ran for 54 yards and a touchdown but threw for just 111 yards on 5.6 per attempt with a touchdown.

That's likely to be the recipe moving forward, especially with Malik Nabers out for the season with a torn ACL. Dart will keep running the ball, as he was part of the designed run game all day, but his passing will be inconsistent, the way it was last week.

Week 5 offers a chance at a better throwing day because of the good matchup (before three consecutive contests against the Eagles and Broncos). With his running sure to be part of the game plan, Dart again has a chance to be near the top 10 fantasy QBs.

Justin Fields, New York Jets vs. Dallas Cowboys

Dallas is currently offering the best matchup for opposing quarterbacks, allowing the most yards per pass attempt and the most fantasy points to QBs. Teams have been throwing all over the Cowboys since after Week 1 (when the Eagles had a modest day); Jordan Love just burned Dallas for 337 passing yards on 7.8 yards per attempts with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Fields missed Week 3 with a concussion, but he looked good in his return on Monday, throwing for 226 yards on 8.4 per attempt with a touchdown and no interceptions. He also ran for 81 yards and another score. Fields was fantasy QB4 on the week.

He was also good in Week 1 against the Steelers, when he had very similar stats to Week 3, but Fields struggled mightily in Week 2 against the Bills before going down with the concussion. He is reliant on matchups, but Fields will always run, which makes him intriguing in fantasy.

Dallas has been susceptible to QB running, letting Jalen Hurts get 62 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1 and two other guys go over 20 rushing yards. Fields has a positive outlook.

With the matchup in his favor and two good performances under his belt, Fields is a strong fantasy play in Week 5.

Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers vs. Miami Dolphins

Young was listed here last week as a deep streamer because of a good matchup against the Patriots, but he had a rough outing as his team got blown out, throwing for just 150 yards on 5.0 per attempt. There's always a low floor with Young; it's enough to always stay away in fantasy if you are risk averse.

This is the second-best matchup after the Cowboys, though. Miami is allowing the second-most yards per pass attempt and second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks. It's to the point that every QB has fantasy value against the Dolphins, including Young.

He's nothing more than a low-level or deep-league streamer again. There's always the chance for a dud, even with a great matchup. If you're one of those desperate owners, though, there's at least a positive outlook here, and Young has found a favorite receiver in Tetairoa McMillan who should do some damage.

Sit

Bo Nix, Denver Broncos @ Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia has allowed the ninth-fewest yards per pass attempt and 12th-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks. The Eagles were in the top five in both categories last season and still have the makings of a top defense, which could bear out over more games.

Nix struggled through the first three weeks of the season. He took advantage of a good matchup against the Bengals on Monday night to finally break out with 326 passing yards on 7.8 per attempt. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.

I still don't trust Nix as a weekly starter, though. He was drafted on that fringe, but the first three weeks show that he has a low floor, as twice Nix was QB19 or worse. His running gives him a bit of a nice ceiling and floor most weeks, but I don't want to count on him in tougher matchups.

With the Eagles still showing strong performance, I'm not looking for Nix to have a big week here and see him better left on the bench.

Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams vs. San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco's place as a great pass defense might be in danger. Nick Bosa tore his ACL in Week 3, another in a long line of injuries that is gutting this team. That makes this status a little uncertain, but I'm still following the numbers until we see a few games and how this unit will look.

The 49ers have allowed the second-fewest yards per pass attempt and the sixth-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks. Even last week without Bosa, San Fran still held Trevor Lawrence to 174 yards on just 5.6 yards per attempt, as four turnovers from the offense cost the Niners the game.

Stafford is having a very good season. He is completing 67.6% of his passes (which would be the second highest of his career) for 278.5 yards per game on 8.2 yards per attempt with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. There's not much more he can be expected to do throwing the ball.

That has Stafford at QB12, and that's about as high as we can expect him to climb on a regular basis. Stafford doesn't run the ball, so his fantasy production comes from only throwing; that was fine even five years ago, but it puts a ceiling on his fantasy performance now with so many runners and keeps him as a fringe starter, even as he has been so good.

With a tougher matchup here, I'm not too keen on counting on Stafford to have a big game. Puka Nacua and Davante Adams are great, and Stafford will keep slinging it around, but he's still beholden to matchups.

Carson Wentz, Minnesota Vikings @ Cleveland Browns (in London)

Wentz has positive numbers through two games as the starter in Minnesota. He didn't have to do much as the team blew out the Bengals in Week 3 (173 yards on 8.7 per attempts with two touchdowns), but Wentz put up big stats in Ireland last week, throwing for 350 yards on 7.6 per attempt with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Wentz was also sacked six times in Week 4. He lost a few offensive linemen to injury, but it's still concerning that a guy who we think of as having some mobility would be taken down so often. That's something to watch moving forward if he's not getting rid of the ball, though it doesn't affect fantasy stats.

The matchup turns against him in this one also, as the Browns have been very good defensively despite uneven numbers. They are right in the middle in yards per pass attempt allowed but have given up the seventh-fewest fantasy points to QBs. Cleveland completely shut down Joe Burrow in Week 1, held Love to modest numbers in Week 3, and kept Jared Goff to a below-average game last week. Lamar Jackson had a very good day in Week 2, but that's going to happen to a lot of teams against Jackson.

Here we have a backup quarterback who has taken advantage of two good matchups to put together good games. With things getting tougher this week in London, I'm not looking for Wentz to have a strong fantasy day.