Let’s play a quick game. Where do you think Bijan Robinson, Josh Jacobs, De'Von Achane, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ladd McConkey, Jerry Jeudy, and Jonnu Smith ranked at their positions after Week 5 of 2024?
We will revisit later.
Inflection points in seasons are fascinating. Often, they are easy to spot in retrospect. The benefit of hindsight has that effect.
In 2024, the Rams sat at 1-4 entering their Week 6 bye. The bye came at the right time. Week 1 was an overtime loss to the Lions. It also cost them Puka Nacua, who sustained an injury. Week 2 was a shocking 41-10 blowout loss to the Cardinals. That cost Cooper Kupp. Down the receivers who accounted for the vast majority of receiving production, the team needed a break. Coming out of the bye saw a win over the Raiders, a team dealing with its own issues. Nacua and Kupp returned to lead a surprising win against the Vikings, who had started 5-0 before losing by two against the Lions the week before.
One break at the right time led to a 9-2 run and a playoff berth.
The Rams' season ended against another team that had its own inflection point.
The Eagles started 2-2 in 2024 before their Week 5 bye. The team was featuring a pass-heavy attack, and Saquon Barkley was off to a good start, but pacing to 1,638 yards through the first five games.
Coming out of the bye, the team shifted its offensive focus, leaning heavily on the run. Barkley exploded, ramping his 17-game pace to 2,353 yards. The team hardly lost again, going 16-1 en route to a Super Bowl championship.
We think we have seen a lot of football. We are nearly to the halfway point of the fantasy football regular season.
The story is just starting.
Time to revisit that group of players. We know Robinson, Achane, Jacobs, McConkey, Smith-Njigba, Ridley, and Smith emerged as significant fantasy contributors in the 2024 season.
Did you know Robinson was RB21, Achane was RB19, Jacobs was RB23, McConkey was WR51, Smith-Njigba was WR32, Jeudy was WR46, and Smith was TE22?
From Week 6 to Week 17, that group would go on to three top-seven running back seasons, three top-twelve wide receiver seasons, and the second-highest scoring tight end.
The Giants kicked off Week 6 with a potential franchise inflection point, upsetting the division rival Eagles behind their rookie duo of quarterback Jaxson Dart and running back Cam Skattebo. The Eagles leave the game hunting answers. The Giants feel like their season has just started.
Fourteen games remain, loaded with potential inflection points of their own—time to touch them all.
Number Watch
Mac Jones, San Francisco - 1 Win, $100,000
Jones has a chance to earn a $100,000 bonus with a win in Week 6. His contract includes a clause stipulating that four wins and 25% of the team's snaps will trigger the bonus. He has an additional bonus of $550,000 if he plays 50% of the snaps and the team makes the playoffs. He’s played 222 snaps out of 364, 61%.
Matthew Stafford, LA Rams - 49 Passing Yards, 1 Passing Touchdown
Stafford can catch Dan Marino for ninth on the all-time passing yardage list. There is significance in passing Marino, who held the career passing yardage record from 1995 until 2011, when Drew Brees passed him. It speaks to the shifts in the NFL and Stafford’s place in its legacy.
Stafford’s next passing touchdown holds significance as well. It brings him into a tie with Jared Goff for fifth on the Rams' career passing touchdown list. Stafford passed Norm Van Brocklin in Week 5 to move into fifth on the Rams franchise yardage list.
Stafford currently leads the NFL with 1,503 passing yards.
Joe Flacco, Cincinnati - 1 Win
Flacco can join Jack Kemp in an exclusive club, quarterbacks who beat the same team twice in the same season while playing for different teams. Flacco beat the Packers in Week 3 with the Browns and makes his Bengals debut against the team.
Josh Johnson holds the record of being on 14 different teams, though Johnson only recorded playing time with seven different teams. Ryan Fitzpatrick is on top, recording playing time with nine different teams and throwing touchdowns for eight of them. Josh McCown spent time with nine teams, throwing passes for eight and touchdowns for six. The Bengals are Flacco’s sixth team; a touchdown pass for them would put him on a short list of quarterbacks with touchdowns for six different franchises.
Mark Andrews, Baltimore - 98 Receiving Yards
Andrews can become Baltimore’s career leader in receiving yards, needing 98 to pass Derrick Mason’s career 5,777. Andrews needs 18 receptions to pass Mason’s team record. It has been a slow start to 2025 for Andrews and Baltimore’s entire team, sitting at an unexpected 1-4.
DeAndre Hopkins, Baltimore - 9 Receptions
Hopkins is chipping away at joining Keenan Allen, who hit the 1,000 career receptions threshold in Week 5. With nine catches, Hopkins would join Allen in the exclusive club.
David Njoku, Cleveland - 15 Receptions
Njoku needs 15 receptions to catch Dante Lavelli for second on the Browns career receptions list. Njoku is coming off his best game of the season, a 6-67-1 game in rookie Dillon Gabriel’s debut.
Alvin Kamara, New Orleans - 161 Receiving Yards, 20 Receiving Yards
Kamara is close to becoming the fifth player in the exclusive 5,000 rushing yards - 5,000 receiving yards club. The current list is Marshall Faulk, Tiki Barber, Marcus Allen, and Lenny Moore. Kamara passed Allen’s career reception total of 588 to move into fifth on the career running back reception list in Week 5.
Kamara can catch Hershal Walker for the 8th most receiving yards by a running back, though Christian McCaffrey is ahead of Kamara, just six yards from Walker.
Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco - 50 Receiving Yards
McCaffrey set an NFL record in Week 5, becoming the first running back to start the season with five straight 50+ yard receiving games.
Walker has the NFL’s longest streak outside of starting the season, recording 50 receiving yards in ten consecutive games between late 1987 and early 1988. McCaffrey and Lydell Mitchell had streaks of seven games. McCaffrey hitting the mark again would tie him with James White at six, for the fourth-longest streak.
McCaffrey has 14 more yards than Kamara, putting the same career yardage marks in play that Kamara is chasing.
Puka Nacua, LA Rams - 52 Receptions, 588 Receiving Yards
To give an idea of Nacua’s torrid start, 52 receptions would be the eighth most catches in the first six games of a season. Nacua is there in five games. Adam Thielen’s 58 receptions in 2018 are the most through six games.
Nacua’s yardage total is not quite as impressive as his receptions. Tyreek Hill had 814 yards through the first six games of 2023. Nacua would need 226 to get there, a total not entirely out of play against the decimated Ravens defense.
Revenge!
We are back! No, Immaculate Grid has not sponsored us yet, but hope remains. Who is playing for a little extra this week?
- RB Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia at NY Giants - Lost 34-17, 12-58-0 / 2-9-0
- RB Rico Dowdle, Carolina vs. Dallas
- WR Jonathan Mingo, Dallas at Carolina
- RB Miles Sanders, Dallas at Carolina (Sanders was placed on season-ending IR following Week 5)
Last Week
- WR Stefon Diggs, New England vs. Buffalo- Won 23-20, 10-146-0
- WR DeAndre Hopkins, Baltimore vs. Houston, Lost 44-10, 2-46-0
- WR Mack Hollins, New England vs. Buffalo - Won 23-20, no stats.
- WR Demarcus Robinson, San Francisco vs. LA Rams, Won 26-23, 3-39-0
- QB Jimmy Garoppolo, LA Rams vs. San Francisco, Lost 26-23, no stats