Fantasy Football Rankings, Week 5: Quarterbacks

The two first round quarterbacks from 2008 have really begun to make their mark on fantasy football over the first four weeks of this season. Of course, we're talking about Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco.

Looking first at Matt Ryan, he's been putting up pretty good fantasy stats since he entered the league but has basically been residing among the middle tier of fantasy quarterbacks. He was valuable to have as your second quarterback or backup. I think the main reason he never couldn't move into the upper tier of elite fantasy quarterbacks was because Atlanta leaned heavily on the run with Michael Turner and Jason Snelling.

This season, it seems as though the keys to the offense have been handed over to Matt Ryan and the passing game is driving this team. He has an amazing group of receivers to work with in Roddy White, Julio Jones and Tony Gonzalez. It also seems that Jacquizz Rodgers will continue to become a part of the offense. That would give Ryan a very versatile weapon out of the backfield. Ryan currently sits first among fantasy quarterbacks for scoring and I would not be surprised if he finishes in the top five among fantasy quarterbacks.

Joe Flacco has been a consistently average fantasy starter. His last three seasons have been almost identical to each other with a small rise in passing touchdowns in 2010. He has averaged the same amount of passing yards per game over the last three years (226). This season has been a different story and it will be interesting to see if he is able to keep it up.

Like Atlanta, Baltimore has been an offense that likes to run first. That will probably not change, especially as the weather grows colder and they face their division rivals. Although I think that Flacco may be able to finally break the 4000 yard mark in passing and come close to thirty passing touchdowns. Torrey Smith is having a breakout sophomore season. Anquan Boldin and Dennis Pitta have been fairly consistent to start the season. Ray Rice has always been a receiving threat out of the backfield. So far, Flacco has been averaging 300 yards passing/game, which has landed him at seventh among all fantasy quarterbacks. He'll be facing some really good defenses over the next three weeks and that could mean trouble. If Flacco is able to continue his high level of play, he could finish among the top ten fantasy quarterbacks.

My predictions for quarterbacks to have a good Week 5:

Ryan Tannehill, Dolphins - In Week 2, Brandon Weeden passed for over 300 yards and two touchdowns against the Bengals secondary. Tannehill will be facing those Bengals this week and he is coming off a 431 yard performance against a pretty good Arizona defense. He is doing pretty good with the receivers that he has to work with.

Brandon Weeden, Browns - Weeden is just a rookie and his receivers are not much better than Miami's but in two of his first four games, he has passed for over 300 yards. The Giants secondary that he will face this week has been struck with multiple injuries which should help him out.

A few other quarterback who should have really good games but not to be unexpected are Eli Manning (Giants), Ben Roethlisberger (Steelers) and Andrew Luck (Colts).