Naysayers depart! After looking like we had four solid teams and four piles of hot garbage, the XFL has rebounded after Week 4. There were surprises galore such as the Tampa Bay Vipers taking down the once-mighty DC Defenders. As we head into Week 5, many players we thought were unassailable fantasy juggernauts *cough* Cam Phillips *cough* proved to be mortal after all. It may be a new week, but it is still PJ Walker sitting atop the fantasy rankings this week.

This doesn’t mean that it is all the same though. We have several risers, Tre McBride and Dan Williams look poised to make a run at Camp Phillips as the WR1 on the season. As always, pay attention to social media and the XFL Injury Reports as they come out for the most up-to-date information.

Week 5 Fantasy Rankings

PJ Walker Houston QB01 De’Veon Smith Tampa RB01 Cam Phillips Houston WR01 Jordan Ta’amu St.Louis QB02 Lance Dunbar Dallas RB02 De’Mornay Pierson-El St.Louis WR02 Matt Jones St.Louis RB03 Austin Proehl Seattle WR03 Tre McBride LA WR04 Darius Victor NewYork RB04 Josh Johnson LA QB03 Dan Williams Tampa WR05 Donnel Pumphrey DC RB05 Kahlil Lewis Houston WR06 Donald Parham Dallas TE01 Jalan Tolliver Tampa WR07 James Butler Houston RB06 Nick Holley Houston RB07 Flynn Nagel Dallas WR08 Mekale McKay NewYork WR09 Taylor Cornelius Tampa QB04 Cameron Artis-Payne Dallas RB08 Rashad Ross DC WR10 L’Damian Washington St.Louis WR11 Kenneth Farrow Seattle RB09 Trey Williams Seattle RB10 Jordan Smallwood LA WR12 BJ Daniels Seattle QB05 Jacques Patrick Tampa RB11 Keith Ford St.Louis RB12 Tim Cook NewYork RB13 Jake Powell NewYork TE02 Brandon Barnes LA TE03 Eli Rogers DC WR13 Reece Horn Tampa WR14 Martez Carter LA RB14 Jeff Badet Dallas WR15 Alonzo Russell St.Louis WR16 Colby Pearson NewYork WR17 Luis Perez NewYork QB06 Nick Truesdell Tampa TE04 Keenan Reynolds Seattle WR18 Jhurrell Pressley DC RB15 Ja’Quan Gardner Seattle RB16 DeAndre Thompkins DC WR19 Brandon Reilly St.Louis WR20 Austin Duke NewYork WR21 Cardale Jones DC QB07 Philip Nelson Dallas QB08 Keith Mumphrey St.Louis WR22 Adonis Jennings LA WR23 DuJuan Harris LA RB17 Evan Rodriguez Seattle TE05 EJ Bibbs NewYork TE06 Marcus Lucas St.Louis TE07 Khari Lee DC TE08 DeAndre Goolsby Tampa TE09 Andre Williams Houston RB18 Sam Mobley Houston WR24 Blake Jackson Houston WR25 Ryheem Malone Houston WR26 Christine Michael St.Louis RB19 Nick Brossette DC RB20 Matt Colburn NewYork RB21 Khalid Abdullah DC RB22 Elijah Hood LA RB23 Brandon Silvers Seattle QB09 Marquise Williams NewYork QB10 Matt McGloin NewYork QB11 Sean Price Dallas TE10

Quarterbacks

https://twitter.com/XFLBattleHawks/status/1235038600376377344

PJ Walker has been dominant this season, but Jordan Ta’amu is starting to make a claim to the title of “Best Young XFL QB.” Ta’amu is making the most of Offensive Coordinator Chuck Long’s balanced offense. St. Louis continually puts their young quarterback in positions to excel with his arm and his legs. In addition, St. Louis may have the second most potent rushing offense which leaves Ta’amu and his bevy of receivers plenty of room to work. Heading into a Week 5 matchup against a reeling DC Defenders defense, look for Ta’amu to make a case to be the QB1 this week.

Injuries and quarterback controversies continue to dominate the headlines for Dallas, Seattle, and New York. In Dallas, the mobile Phillip Nelson comes in for an injured Landry Jones again. While Nelson struggled to generate much offense in Week 1 when he started for Jones, he provides a small upside with his mobility, but still, fade your Renegades stock this week… Meanwhile, in Seattle, BJ Daniels looked far more productive than Brandon Silvers in Week 4, but Coach Jim Zorn has not named a starter yet, hurting fantasy value for both. Daniels has the higher upside thanks to his explosive athleticism, but Zorn may not unleash him this week… Lastly, the Guardians have a brewing quarterback controversy with Matt McGloin and Luis Perez this week. Both players took first-team reps early in the week at practice. Perez falls higher in the fantasy rankings, but Coach Gilbride might go with McGloin’s “pedigree” moving forward.

Runningbacks

https://twitter.com/XFLBattleHawks/status/1233893717410566145

Keith Ford looks like a back primed for a breakout as we head into the second half of the XFL season. Although he has only touched the ball eight times through the first four weeks, he has two touchdowns and is averaging nearly 7.0 yards per touch. Pairing his physical style of running with Matt Jones may be a boon for the BattleHawks offense. Considering the soft matchup against the Defenders this week, look for Ford to have a breakout and be a strong Flex play this week.

Most XFL teams seem to be firmly committed to their backfield duos with a few exceptions. In Los Angeles, it is difficult to tell what combination of Elijah Hood, DaJuan Harris, Larry Rose, and Martez Carter will be used in a given week. No Wildcats back has truly set themselves up as an RB1, but Carter may be the most explosive and physical runner with RB1 potential… The DC Defenders appear to be done with the Jhurrell Pressley era already. Donnell Pumphrey has definitely taken over the lead-back role, but it remains to be seen whether Nick Brosette or Khalid Abdullah will take the backup role. Brosette got good run in Week 4 but was thoroughly ineffective. Abdullah has looked like the better option and has more upside for this week’s fantasy rankings.

Wide Receivers

The biggest question this week is what will the Houston Roughnecks passing offense look like this week with both Khalil Lewis and Sammie Coates showing up on the injury report as DNPs Wednesday at practice. Lewis leads Houston in targets and Coates is fourth, their absence from this weekend’s game would leave Ryheem Malone, Sam Mobley and Blake Jackson vying for their routes. Cam Phillips may see an uptick in targets, but defenses will be able to roll coverages towards him and Nick Holley with Coates and Lewis out. It will be a roll of the dice with which of those three you should start so plan accordingly as a touchdown-dependent Flex play.

Tre McBride is picking up where Nelson Spruce left off and going beyond Spruce’s production with Josh Johnson back. If McBride continues on his blistering pace, he may surpass Cam Phillips as WR1 by the end of the season… Tampa has three reliable, high-volume, receivers in Tolliver, Horn and Dan Williams.

This play may have only counted for 38 yards, but making it happen took 6️⃣5️⃣.@jsudwilliams | #WinTheDay pic.twitter.com/P4HOB8Ojmn — Tampa Bay Vipers (@XFLVipers) March 4, 2020

All three are startable each week and have low-end WR1 potential with a WR2 floor… Start making contingency plans for your DC receivers if the Cardale Jones free-fall continues. Rashad Ross, DeAndre Thompkins, and Eli Rogers have had anemic output for the last two weeks. Fade them to WR2/Flex range in fantasy rankings.

Tight End

https://twitter.com/xfl2020/status/1234255624155926529

*Insert generic praise of Donald Parham and his status as the second-most targeted player and second-highest yardage-gainer in the entire XFL*

Okay, now that we got that out of the way. Nick Truesdell is back. Look for him to slide back in and try to develop a rapport with Taylor Cornelius… Brandon Barnes is comfortably holding onto his role as the #4 target for the Wildcats and remains a safe start… Jake Powell, Khari Lee, DeAndre Goolsby, and Marcus Lucas are the only other tight ends who have scored at least 15 points on the season. Plan accordingly at tight end as they are an endangered species in fantasy rankings.