Fantasy Football: 5 Things We Learned in Week 5
DeShaun Watson Is Still Elite
There were concerns about Deshaun Watson coming into the season. How could he keep up his ridiculous production from his rookie season? Could he still rush the football like he did before tearing his ACL? The season started slowly for the former national champion, but since Week 1 he has begun playing like an elite quarterback again.
In fact, despite experiencing the expected regression in his bonkers 2017 touchdown rate, Watson is still the QB4 in fantasy football. He's second only to Cam Newton in quarterback rushing attempts and leads all quarterbacks in rushing yards with 201.
His rushing production is key to his fantasy value, but Watson has shown improvement as a passer this year, as well. While his 9.2% touchdown rate from 2017 has come back down to an average 4.2% clip this year, he's improved his completion percentage from 61.8% to 65.1% and seen his yards per game increase by over 80 passing yards to 324.2 yards.
With a finish as Week 5's QB1 (not counting the Monday game), Watson is proving that he doesn't need an extreme outlier season of touchdown production to be an elite option at the quarterback position.