New on Sports Illustrated: Player Props, DFS Advice and Injury News

Good morning! Did you set your fantasy lineup yet? The Falcons and Jets kick off across the pond soon, so make sure breakout star Cordarrelle Patterson is in your lineup and Calvin Ridley, who didn’t make the trip to London, is on your bench. Let’s start off with injury news before we get into everything you need to know on this fine NFL Sunday.

Who’s In and Who’s Out

This week’s injury report has some of the top names in fantasy football: Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Ezekiel Elliott, Joe Mixon. Who’s playing? And just how healthy are they? Visit our Week 5

injury updates page throughout the morning to check the status of your fantasy stars as kickoff approaches.

John Froschauer/AP/Shutterstock

Winners Club Live Stream: Ask Your Start/Sit Questions

Join Michael Fabiano and Jennifer Piacenti on this week’s live stream to get your lineup questions answered and to hear their best bets for Sunday’s games. Join here.

Must-Read Articles Before Kickoff

DFS Lineup Advice: Shawn Childs has analysis to help you craft the perfect daily fantasy lineup to win big today. I’m on board with Tom Brady against Miami.

SI Staff Picks: Our analysts make their picks against the spread and moneyline bets for Sunday’s slate of games and highlight their best bet for you to follow. They’re all over the Chargers at home against the Browns. The Bolts are 2.5-point favorites on SI Sportsbook.

Fantasy Player Rankings: Still racking your brain about who to plug into your lineup? Consult Michael Fabiano’s weekly player rankings here to sort out any angst before your lineup locks.

Player Prop Locks: Childs lays out five player props he’s all over this week, including a few bounceback predictions for some of the NFL’s top receivers.

MLB Playoff Betting Central: Football isn’t all that’s on today. There’s ALDS action as well, and our betting analysts broke down the AL and NL division series from a betting perspective. See who they picked in each series.

SI Sportsbook: Get the latest odds for Week 5 in the NFL and the MLB Playoffs.

Subscriber Q&A

We got quite a few lineup questions from Winners Club subscribers for this week’s newsletter. Here are the featured questions and answers:

Question from Richard: Who do I start in a half-PPR league between Jakobi Meyers, Damien Williams, Laviska Shenault and Emmanuel Sanders?

Answer: I’ll get into this in greater detail in my play of the day below, but go with Williams, especially in a half-PPR league. He has pass-catching upside and gets a porous run defense in the Raiders. Plug him in confidently.

Question from Jennifer: Jamison Crowder, Emmanuel Sanders, Brandin Cooks, or Tyler Boyd?

Answer: Boyd is your top option, even with Tee Higgins back in the Bengals lineup. Since Week 1, Boyd hasn’t scored fewer than 13 PPR points and that’s with only one touchdown in that time frame.

Question from Colin: No Joe Mixon. Should I start Samaje Perine, James Conner or Alex Collins?

Answer: Hopefully you didn’t start Collins on Thursday night. The volume he saw was great, the production was not at all there, though. With the possibility of Mixon playing, I’d opt for Conner, who has two rushing touchdowns in each of the last two games.

Remember to send in your questions to winnersclub@si.com and tweet at me @Kkylewood or at @SI_Fantasy throughout the day if you need anything else answered.

Play of the Day

After the performance he put up in relief work a week ago, if Damien Williams is capable of doing that over four quarters on Sunday, his DFS price tag will be the steal of the day. He’s less expensive than many underperforming or injured running backs and has a great matchup against Las Vegas. All he did last week against Detroit was take eight carries for 55 yards and a touchdown to go with two receptions for 15 yards. That was after David Montgomery left in the fourth quarter.

Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

The Bears clearly trust him to field that much work in such a short time. Williams was last seen playing meaningful snaps two years ago in the Super Bowl for the Chiefs in 2020 when he totaled 100 yards on the ground and added a rushing and receiving touchdown. If you were lucky enough to get him on waivers this week, you’re starting him and you should do the same in DFS while his price is low.

Good luck today with your bets and matchups, I'll talk to you on Tuesday.