It is a battle of WR1s on Thursday night as the Chicago Bears take on the Washington Commanders. The Bears are coming off one of Justin Fields’ most amazing passing days in Week 4, where he threw for 335 yards with 80% completion.
Sam Howell didn’t have quite the day that Fields had, but he still finished with 290 passing yards and a 71% completion rate. If you are considering your fantasy football WR1s, should you start DJ Moore or Terry McLaurin in Week 5?
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DJ Moore’s Fantasy Outlook This Week
Moore lit up in Week 4, finishing as WR7. He caught eight of his nine targets for 131 yards and one TD. The Bears passing game looked incredible against the putrid Denver defense. The Commanders are 20th in opponent passing yards allowed, so it will be more challenging this week.
Moore is WR23 in PFN’s Consensus Rankings this week, and he should be a WR2 or Flex in fantasy in Week 5. Moore’s success depends on Fields hitting 30 or so passing attempts. In Week 3, Fields had his season-low 22 passing attempts, and Moore only finished as WR32.
Justin Fields ➡️ DJ Moore for the TD. 🎯🐻
(🎥: @NFL) pic.twitter.com/0V3zk2rg5e
— theScore Bet (@theScoreBet)
Terry McLaurin’s Fantasy Outlook This Week
McLaurin has had an up-and-down season similar to that of the Commanders. His highest finish was WR8 in Week 4 against Philly, which turned out to be a much closer game than anticipated. McLaurin hit a season-high on receptions and yardage last week.
McLaurin is currently the WR16 in PFN’s Consensus Rankings for Week 5. He should have another solid day against a Chicago passing defense that allows the fourth-most passing yards to opponents over the first four weeks.
Terry McLaurin snagged that 😤pic.twitter.com/3jwTAW9u8d
— Commanders Nation (@WasCommandersCP)
Which of the WRs Should You Start?
There is simply more room for it to go wrong for Moore than for McLaurin.
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Fields had an incredible passing day in Week 4, but the chance of him replicating that is very low.
Even if Fields’ passing performance this week is average, he can support Moore, but there has already been at least one week this season that you got a basement performance from Moore due to Fields.
McLaurin is not the safest start in all of fantasy, but he is safer than Moore this week. Even though Jahan Dotson caught a TD last week, it seems like McLaurin is Howell’s main guy.
