Here's my inside look at some of the Sunday's Week 5 matchups from an injury and player personnel perspective:
Panthers-Falcons
At one point during last week's loss at the Packers, the Falcons were actually down 4 safeties, but the team is optimistic that starters Ricardo Allen (elbow-questionable) and Keanu Neal (hamstring-questionable) will be able to play.
S Damontae Kazee (torn Achilles-IR) and 4th-round rookie S Jaylinn Hawkins (concussion-out) both started for Allen and last week.
Packer TE Robert Tonyan became a huge factor due to issues the Falcons had in the secondary and you can expect that to be the case again in this game if Allen and Neal can't go.
As I pointed out in this space last week, the Cardinals were without their top-3 safeties and the Panthers offense had a huge advantage and it showed.
Starting WR Julio Jones (hamstring-questionable) did not practice at all this week and did not play in the 2nd half of last week's game.
While he has played before without practicing, he has to show me he's over this injury before I use him again (I have him in the FP.com dynasty league).
Raiders-Chiefs
I'm told rookie WR Henry Ruggs (hamstring, knee-questionable) will play. He "looked 100%" during Friday's practice and took in a majority of the first-team reps.
Good news for the Chief defense: Veteran CB Bashaud Breeland came off the suspended list on Saturday. They have depth issues at the position, so his addition to their roster will help.
Cardinals-Jets
Cardinal 3rd-year WR Christian Kirk (groin) was not listed on the injury report this week for the first time since Week 2, so hopefully he becomes a factor in their passing game going forward.
Jet starting WR Breshad Perriman (ankle-doubtful) is not expected to play and has not practiced since suffering his injury early in their Week 2 game against the 49ers, where he left after playing just 20 snaps.
I'm told he suffered a "significant" ankle injury in that game and is at least another week away from playing.
Slot WR Jamison Crowder (hamstring) came out of last week's game well and took in all of his normal reps and has no injury designation for this game.
QB Joe Flacco, I'm told, had no issues throwing in training camp and all and had his usual power in his throws, but was not cleared medically until last month.
Eagles-Steelers
Here's the projected top pass target group for this week's game for Eagle QB Carson Wentz:
RB: Miles Sanders (Wentz missed him for 2 potential TDs this season--one last week and one the previous week).
WRs: Travis Fulgham (just 4 catches in 2 seasons), Greg Ward, John Hightower (rookie-just 5 receptions), Quez Watkins (rookie-first NFL game), J.J. Arecega-Whiteside (just 10 receptions last season, 0 this season)
TE: Zach Ertz
Hopefully for Wentz owners WRs DeSean Jackson (hamstring strain-out) and Alshon Jeffery (foot surgery, illness-out) return next week against the visiting Ravens.
As for the Steelers, the Eagles have no depth at CB opposite Darius Slay, so you should expect them to spread out the Eagles D with a lot of "11 personnel" in this game.
And the Eagles are as bad as it gets covering TEs (see George Kittle's 15 for 15 last week, Logan Thomas in Week 1-they forgot to cover him, and Week 2 with Tyler Higbee's 3 TDs). They have the NFL's worst group of LBs and it's not even debatable.
Although he's hard to trust, veteran TE Eric Ebron is looking pretty good here based solely on this matchup.
Rams-Washington
Rookie RB Cam Akers (separated rib cartilage) will play, but his role is still in question.
Their coaches wanted to see how he handled starting in Week 1, but he didn't play well (only saw 24 snaps), which is why Malcolm Brown took over and had the most snaps out of the backfield (44) in that game against the Cowboys.
Akers suffered his injury during his 3rd snap in Week 2 at the Eagles and has not played since. He did not look good in that game, either. He clearly was impacted by not having an offseason or 4 preseason games, and missed 100s of potential snaps.
Hopefully he does well in this game, but until he has a clearly defined role and HC Sean McVay is willing to stick with him, it's hard to use him. All he is now is part of a RBBC until the situation sorts itself out.
I'll say this about new Washington starting QB Kyle Allen: He has better than average arm strength. He'll get exposed the more he plays (that happened during his 12 starts last season), but has the ability to throw down the field. It doesn't show in his YPA, but the tape, I'm told, shows something different.
Jaguars-Texans
How bad do the Jaguars miss some of their key pieces on defense since Week 5 last year?
They traded away DEs Yannick Ngakoue, Calais Campbell, won't have 2nd-year DE Josh Allen (downgraded to out on Saturday) today, traded starting CBs Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye, starting S Ronnie Harrison, and slot CB D.J. Hayden (hamstring) was placed on IR this week. And rookie CB C.J Henderson (shoulder-questionable) just saw limited work on Thursday and Friday.
I know it has been a struggle for Texan QB Deshaun Watson so far (he struggled to get to 300 yards last week against the bad Viking secondary, if you watched him as I did, you would agree), but he won't get a better matchup than this one today and the Jaguars now have the NFL's worst pass rush talent without Allen in the lineup. Their pass rush has been awful the past 2 games.
Dolphins-49ers
Once again, the 49ers are dealing with significant injury issues at CB: both starters (Richard Sherman-calf strain-IR, Emmanuel Moseley-concussion) are out and nickel CB K'Waun Williams (knee, hip) was placed on IR Saturday.
Oft-injured but talented veteran CB Jason Verrett will start on one side and inconsistent CB Ahkello Witherspoon figures to start on the other side after veteran CB Dontae Johnson (groin) was ruled out on Friday. Johnson started last week against the visiting Eagles and gave up the game-winning TD.
I can understand why many cut journeyman QB Ryan Fitzpatrick after his lackluster performance against the bad Seahawk secondary last week (I got lucky that he got me over 20 points--see his rushing numbers), but being that he has yet another favorable matchup, you might want to give him one more start.