5 Fantasy Football Splits That Matter for Week 5

Jaron Brown Has Replaced J.J. Nelson

With John Brown unavailable for the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2, J.J. Nelson exploded for 5 catches, 120 yards, and 1 touchdown. That performance was one of many contests in which Nelson has thrived without Brown in the lineup.

While Nelson has shown flashes of production early on, it's actually Jaron Brown who has received consistent run with John Brown sidelined. Jaron has played in 85.3% of the Cardinals' offensive snaps, second only to Larry Fitzgerald (95,7%) among Arizona's receivers. Nelson is next in line with 50.9% of the offensive snaps under his belt. Jaron has also quietly averaged 9.6 targets in the last three weeks.

John was in on 61.6% of offensive snaps Sunday, a number we can expect to tick upward once he's fully healthy. Even so, it was Nelson (29% snap rate on Sunday) rather than Jaron (95.3%) who saw his opportunity decrease dramatically.

That's a lot of numbers just to emphasize that Jaron is the stone minimum ($4,500) on FanDuel in Week 5 and is thus a fantastic option -- especially against a Philadelphia Eagles defensive unit that ranks 12th in Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP per play but looks to be without Fletcher Cox (PFF's 21st among 122 qualifiers on the interior line) for the second consecutive week.