Tonight the Seattle Seahawks are hosting the Los Angeles Rams for the Week 5 featured Thursday Night Football matchup, and Yahoo Fantasy is offering NFL DFS single-game contests. The general concept of creating a team remains the same, but this is a one-game player pool. The twist is that any position player can be rostered, and one is designated to receive a 1.5x multiplier on their Yahoo fantasy points. Using Awesemo’s expert NFL projections and rankings, these are the top Yahoo NFL picks for the Week 5 Thursday Night Football game tonight.
Yahoo NFL Picks: Week 5 Thursday Night Football
Top SUPERSTAR Options
The SUPERSTAR position will get a 1.5x multiplier on their Yahoo points in the single-game format.
Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams – $34
Tonight Matthew Stafford gets the edge over his counterpart Russell Wilson. Even though he is on the road, Stafford has the benefit of facing the fantasy-friendly Seattle defense. Though Seattle is allowing a league-average 25 points per game, opposing teams seem to march at will up and down the field. In his first season outside of Detroit, Stafford has been outstanding, averaging 304.5 yards passing per game, which is fourth in the league. Additionally, he has 11 touchdowns and only a pair of interceptions. Though he does not do much on the ground, he should flirt with 300 yards and a couple touchdowns tonight.
Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks – $33
The last 14 times Russell Wilson has played the Rams, he has exceeded 260 yards passing only twice (268 and 289). This includes last season’s playoff upset at the hands of John Wolford, who was knocked out of the game and had to be replaced by Jared Goff, who completed the upset despite an injured thumb on his throwing hand. At some point this funk with Wilson will have to end. In these games Wilson has thrown for fewer than 200 yards five times. In eight of these games he had only zero or one touchdown passing. In the meeting prior to this dismal stretch, Wilson put up 300-plus yards passing and 100-plus rushing in a performance for the ages.
Now, the above paragraph should not influence decisions tonight. It is one game, and anything can happen. Wilson is an elite quarterback, and he has two excellent receivers and a defense that is likely to have him throwing from the jump in order to keep his team in the game. That is what fantasy gamers need to focus on tonight.
Yahoo NFL Core Picks
D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, Seattle Seahawks – $25
The Yahoo salary algorithm is taunting gamers by assigning both D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett the same cap hit. Fantasy gamers are forever chasing or second guessing their decisions when it comes to this duo. In the last four regular-season games, only Metcalf has surpassed 70 yards and he barely did it with 78 in his rookie season. While Jalen Ramsey will be lurking in the backfield, one big play from either of these receivers will have their supporters grinning from ear to ear
Darrell Henderson Jr., Los Angeles Rams – $23
After missing Week 3, Darrell Henderson (ribs) came back to play 90% of the snaps on Sunday. Expected to be the backup for Cam Akers, Henderson has performed well as the starter after Akers went down in the preseason with a torn Achilles. Henderson should be in line for around 20 touches tonight, including a handful of targets in the passing game. Though touchdowns are fickle, he ran one in each of the first two games, which was comforting to see.
Yahoo NFL Value Picks
Alex Collins, Seattle Seahawks – $15
This all comes down to the health of Chris Carson, who has not practiced during the short week while dealing with neck soreness. Even if Alex Collins is named the starter, it is still going to be tough to consider him for the SUPERSTAR 1.5x multiplier. Collins was drafted in the fifth round by Seattle in 2016. He was cut that preseason, signed with the Ravens and ended up leading the team with 973 yards rushing in 15 games while adding 187 yards receiving. The next year Collins was third with 411 yards behind Gus Edwards (718) and Lamar Jackson (695).
Collins started on Seattle’s practice squad in 2019 before playing in three games. Last year he appeared in three more games after injuries took out the regulars. The point is that he is familiar with the Seattle offense and coach Pete Carroll. While he has terrific speed, there is a reason his talent held him to just 42 games over six seasons.
Van Jefferson, Los Angeles Rams – $13
Van Jefferson is third on the Rams with 18 targets and second with 226 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Though he is clearly down the preference list for Stafford, he saw six targets in each of the last two games and is on the field about 70% of the time. This makes him an excellent bargain option who provides tremendous salary cap flexibility.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of offensive options tonight, including half a dozen skill position players who could reasonably tally two touchdowns. That means there will be many ways to construct rosters, and a variety of strategies will be viable.
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