Week 5 Reactions: Is This The End?

We're five weeks into the season and a New York team is winless while the other is 3-2 and on a three-game winning streak. The 3-2 record puts New York in a three-way tie for first place, while the other is obviously in prime position to get the no. 1 pick in next year's draft.

No, the Giants aren't tied with Dallas and Philly for first place in the NFC East, they're still looking for their first win after losing at home to the Chargers on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Jets have won three in a row and sit tied with the Bills and Patriots atop the AFC East. If it wasn't bad enough for Giants fans, a number of injuries suffered Sunday will only mash salt in the wounds.

Wideout Sterling Shepard was knocked out of Sunday's game in the second quarter because of an ankle injury, and then Brandon Marshall left only a few plays later with a similar issue. Later in the game, Dwayne Harris was forced out after suffering a broken foot, leaving the Giants with only two healthy receivers: Odell Beckham and Roger Lewis.

But then it got worse: Beckham suffered a gruesome leg injury in the fourth quarter and could be out for the season because of a broken ankle. There's no questioning just how important Beckham is to the Giants, as he proved again Sunday by catching his 11th fourth-quarter touchdown over the past three seasons, the most of any player in the league. Now facing the possibility they could be without Beckham and Harris for the season, as well as Shepard and Marshall for a few weeks, the Giants not only become one of the worst teams in the league but also one of the worst fantasy producing units. There will be plenty of people who roll with the "targets have to go somewhere" argument, especially with how bad the running game is, but there's no way I'm touching anyone on that team with a 10-foot pole.

Speaking of struggles, it's becoming pretty clear that we're witnessing the end of Ben Roethlisberger's career. The Steelers' quarterback reportedly considered retirement during the offseason, and given his production lately it looks like he made the wrong decision. Roethlisberger's home/road splits over the past few years have been well documented, but they came crashing down Sunday when he threw a career-high five interceptions (including two pick-sixes) in a 30-9 loss to the Jaguars. Roethlisberger completed 33 of 55 passes for a season-high 312 yards, though it came all from volume as evidenced by his season-low 5.7 YPA. He came into the game having failed to reach 270 passing yards in a game, and his six passing touchdowns through five weeks puts him behind 16 other quarterbacks, including Blake Bortles, Trevor Siemian and Jared Goff, who weren't ranked anywhere near Roethelisberger before the season started. Following Sunday's game, Roethlisberger echoed what many people have been thinking this year:

Okay, enough with the bad and onto the good. One player who was perfectly fine in the Giants game was Chargers running back Melvin Gordon, who rushed 20 times for 105 yards and caught six of eight targets for 58 yards and two touchdowns. Gordon's detractors will always point to his fairly poor efficiency as a runner, but his continued role in the passing game has allowed fantasy owners to overlook his rushing struggles. Sunday's game was his third time this season with at least six targets and five receptions, and his 5.3 yards per carry were the most since Week 9 last year and the third-highest of any game in his career. Gordon complained earlier this week that he wasn't getting enough touches (which is tough to hear from a player who averaged more than 3.0 YPC once in the first four games), but the coaching staff listened and doubled his rushing attempts from Week 4. With no one in the Chargers' backfield to seriously compete for touches, Gordon is going to continue being the ugly fantasy running back option who keeps churning out solid scores.

In the same vane that Gordon was a positive in the Giants game, Leonard Fournette was absolutely dominant for the Jaguars in their surprising win over the Steelers. While Gordon was the highest-scoring running back in PPR formats in Week 5, Fournette wasn't far behind, rushing 28 times for 181 yards and two touchdowns while catching his only target for three receiving yards. Fournette was already having a strong game but he took it to another level with a 90-yard touchdown run with under two minutes remaining as the Jaguars were simply trying to run out the clock. Fournette dashed through an open hole and went untouched to the end zone, scoring his sixth touchdown of the season. Fournette set career-highs in carries, rushing yards and yards per carry, and he's now scored at least one touchdown in every game.

Sticking with the running backs, congratulations to Frank Gore, who rushed 14 times for 48 yards and passed Eric Dickerson to move into seventh place on the all-time rushing yards list with 13,304 yards. He is now just 359 yards away from passing Jerome Bettis and 381 away from getting above LaDainian Tomlinson. Every player above Gore on the all-time list is in the Hall of Fame, as are seven of the eight players behind him (Edgerrin James' 12,246 rushing yards, which are more than Marcus Allen, Franco Harris and Thurman Thomas, may not be enough to get him into Canton). It's unclear how much longer Gore will play -- he's never said this is his last season -- though his playing time could be reduced if Marlon Mack stays healthy. After missing both of the last two games because of a shoulder injury, Mack had nine carries for a team-high 91 yards and a touchdown Sunday against the 49ers. The Colts surely don't expect him to average over 10 yards per carry every game, but he has been showing enough to warrant more touches, which will come at the expense of Gore. (And for those wondering, Gore still needs an additional 5,052 rushing yards to pass Emmitt Smith for the all-time mark).

Moving to wide receivers but sticking with the Colts, the continued absence of Andrew Luck hasn't completely stopped T.Y. Hilton from being an solid fantasy producer, as he caught seven of nine targets for 177 yards, making him the third-highest scoring wide receiver in PPR leagues. It was the second time in the last three weeks that he eclipsed 150 yards, and while he only has one touchdown to show for it, fantasy owners who were worried after he racked up 106 yards in the first two games of the season combined are breathing a little easier.

Hilton has now caught a pass in every game over the last two seasons plus this year, which sounds like a pretty remarkable feat until you hear that Larry Fitzgerald extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 200 on Sunday. Fitzgerald became just the third player in league history to hit that threshold, a feat only accomplished by Tony Gonzalez (211) and Jerry Rice (274). The last time Fitzgerald failed to catch a pass was in a 38-14 loss to the Bills in Week 7 of the 2004 season when Josh McCown (yes, the Jets' starting quarterback) completed just nine of 24 passes for 101 yards. Fitzgerald has been a reception monster since that day, as only Rice (1,549) and Gonzalez (1,325) have more catches in NFL history. The preseason talk that Fitzgerald will slow down because of his age still hasn't materialized, as he's been targeted at least 10 times in three of five games and there's little reason to think it'll slow down as the Cardinals continue to play without David Johnson. Fitzgerald is now on pace to catch 102 passes this year, which would be his fifth season with at least 100 and third in a row. The (presumed) end of Gore's career is going down as a sputter, but Fitzgerald continues to impress even in his age-34 season.