Fantasy Football Week 5 Wide Receiver Preview: Waiver adds, starts, sits, stashes, and more

The expectation, basically since Andy Reid talked at halftime of the Chiefs Week 4 win over the Chargers , is that Rashee Rice is going to miss the remainder of the season. Many have speculated that he tore his ACL. But as of Tuesday morning, we have no confirmation of that and now we aren't expecting to know for sure until after the Chiefs Week 5 game.

The fact that Rice has not been placed on Injured Reserve and that the full ACL tear has not been confirmed is both a blessing and a curse for his Fantasy managers. The obvious blessing is that sliver of hope that Rice somehow avoided catastrophic damage and might play again in 2024. The curse is that you can't drop Rice until you know for sure. With four teams on a bye this week, that could mean some really difficult waiver decisions on Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Those choices are made even more difficult by the fact that there are a handful of excellent waiver wire adds available, including two who project in my top 30 wide receivers for Week 5, Wan'Dale Robinson and Josh Downs .

One option to delay the tough decision is to drop your kicker or defense to make an add, but that's only giving you until Sunday morning. Use that time to see if we get an earlier than expected answer on Rice, or if you can find a trade to make. With bye weeks and a large number of injuries, everyone is in need of something right now. Scour your leaguemates' rosters, find their needs, and solve your problem.

Here is the rest of the Week 5 WR Preview:

Week 5 WR Preview Who's Out Numbers to Know Matchups That Matter Waiver Wire Targets DFS Plays Projections WR Preview Who's Out

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

WR Preview Numbers to Know

• 277 -- Jayden Reed has 277 receiving yards in the two games he's played with Jordan Love at QB.
• 27 -- Diontae Johnson has seen 27 targets in the two games since Andy Dalton took over.
• 3.33 -- Tutu Atwell is averaging 3.33 YPRR, second only to Jauan Jennings .
• 66.1% -- Nearly two-thirds of all Giants passes are going to Malik Nabers and Wan'Dale Robinson. They are both starts in Week 5.
• 5.6 -- Garrett Wilson's yards per target is down to a career-low 5.6. He's faced some difficult matchups but elite wide receivers should be this bad regardless of opponents.
• 30.4% -- Josh Downs has a 30.4% target share, the same number as Michael Pittman , since he returned in Week 3.
• 10 -- Brandon Aiyuk has not scored more than 10 PPR Fantasy points in a game this season.
• 129 -- Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle have combined for 129 receiving yards in two games without Tua Tagovailoa .

WR Preview Matchups that matter WR Preview Waiver Wire Targets WR Preview DFS Plays WR Preview Heath's Projections

My full set of Week 5 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine . 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 5. Projected stats for all starting wide receivers are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine .