5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 5

Pittsburgh Steelers' Passing Offense

Entering the year, the names on the Falcons' defensive depth chart made them look like legit Super Bowl contenders. But that has all gone in the pooper ever since the opener.

With the entire middle of the Falcons' defense now gone, they enter Week 5 ranked 26th against the pass and 28th against the rush, according to numberFire's metrics. That includes Week 1 when both Keanu Neal and Deion Jones were in the lineup. They've been bleeding points without those two on the field.

Over the past 3 games, the Falcons have allowed at least 335 yards and 3 touchdowns to each quarterback they have faced. Those quarterbacks have a combined 59.3% Success Rate, which would rank second in the league behind Goff if it were a single quarterback.

The positive for the Falcons is that they're no longer playing indoors, which has a tendency to inflate offensive production. The negative is that this outdoor game is against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

By now, you know how lethal this Steelers offense can be when it's playing at Heinz Field. They averaged 28.25 points per game there in 2017 and dropped 37 on the Kansas City Chiefs earlier this year despite a loss. This may be the one situation worse for a defense than having to play in a climate-controlled environment.

The Falcons may take some solace in what happened to the Steelers last week, though. The Baltimore Ravens -- who were without stud corner Jimmy Smith -- went into Pittsburgh and held the Steelers to 14 points, blanking them the entire second half. It's a sign of mortality for this offense.

But these two situations could not be more different. As mentioned, the Falcons rank 26th against the pass, according to numberFire's metrics. The Ravens lead the league there through four weeks. And the other defense that gave the Steelers fits -- the Cleveland Browns -- ranks second here. The Steelers have torched the two poor pass defenses they have faced, and they get another one at home this weekend. We can comfortably overlook the perceived struggles of this unit.

The main focus here is going to be the passing offense because they always feast at home. But it's worth mentioning that James Conner is certainly in play, too. The Falcons funnel targets to opposing running backs, and Conner does have at least five targets in each game this year. Toss in the loss of defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who will also miss this game due to injury, and Conner's a mighty fine play at $7,800 on FanDuel.

The other player in line to take full advantage of the Falcons' injuries is Vance McDonald.

With the injuries to the Falcons' defense being largely in the middle of the field, it's going to open up opportunities for opposing tight ends. Zach Ertz had 10 targets against them in Week 1, Benjamin Watson turned 6 targets into 71 yards in Week 3, and Eifert was on his way to a monster day last week before going down with an injury. This is a defense we can target liberally with tight ends.

In most circumstances, we might want to have some hesitation around McDonald. Not only is he likely to be popular -- generally bad news for tight ends -- but he has yet to exceed five targets in a game. That's begging for a bust.

This situation's a bit different. The main reason is that McDonald is just $4,600, which is criminally low for someone who has shown as much upside as McDonald the past few games. He also helps us jam in more high-cost running backs, and it's hard not to love that.

McDonald is the cheapest way to get exposure to this game as a whole, and we should be willing to plug him in as a result.

That's not to speak ill of the wide receivers. You just gotta decide which one you want to use.

Because James Washington is just $5,100 on a slate where we may need value, let's look at the Steelers' crop of receivers in just the three games that Washington has started. Here's their Week 5 pricing along with their target breakdown in those games.

Because Washington will be playing snaps in a potential shootout, you can still use him. But McDonald seems to be the preferred low-cost option here.

As for the wide receivers, you can't go wrong with either Antonio Brown or JuJu Smith-Schuster.

If you're looking for upside via receiving yardage, Brown's likely the better target. He hasn't topped 93 yards yet this year, but he's getting fed targets deep down the field. If Ben Roethlisberger's able to connect with him on one or two of those, we could get a classic Brown blow-up game.

Based on the red-zone looks, Smith-Schuster's likely the better bet for touchdown upside. This is a hair confusing because Smith-Schuster has found the end zone just once this year while topping 115 yards receiving three times. But the usage does make the two look this way. You can't go wrong with either, so if filling out a bunch of tournament lineups, it's wise to get exposure to both.

As for Roethlisberger, he's likely the highest-upside quarterback on the slate. He has had at least 350 yards and 3 touchdowns in both games against lower-level pass defenses this year, and one of them was on the road. Getting a quarterback with his touchdown potential in a game this tasty for fantasy means he's well worth the $8,400 price tag he carries.