Football is a team sport comprised of individual matchups, the most important of which might be those between wide receivers and cornerbacks.
In this piece, I leverage snap data from Pro Football Focus to project NFL Week 5 WR/CB matchups.
For more, see the FantasyLabs Matchups page, where we provide all sorts of basic and advanced data — including fantasy and red-zone performance — for each offensive skill-position player based on his matchup.
Also consult our Week 5 injury report for status updates on receivers and corners.
I will update this piece for Sunday morning based on the week’s practice reports.
Let’s start with this week’s featured matchup then run through all the potential shadow matchups and sort through my matrix featuring every matchup.
WR/CB Matchup of the Week: Mike Evans vs. Marshon Lattimore
For the second week in a row, Lattimore is the corner in our featured matchup.
Although he was the 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year, he entered his Week 4 matchup with Amari Cooper on the stinkiest of streaks.
- Week 1 (vs. Texans): 5-47-1 receiving on eight targets
- Week 2 (at Rams): 5-142-1 receiving on six targets
- Week 3 (at Seahawks): 10-152-0 receiving on 13 targets
In Week 4, though, he manned up against Cooper for almost every defensive snap, and Lattimore easily got the better of the Cowboys No. 1 receiver, holding him to just four receptions and 39 scoreless yards on seven targets.
In a game the Saints won by only two points, Lattimore was a true difference maker.
He might have to be even better this week in his matchup against Evans.
The Bucs have essentially two No. 1 receivers in Evans and Chris Godwin, so the Saints will really need Lattimore to lock down his man if they are to defend both receivers sufficiently.
Last year, Lattimore shadowed Evans in their two divisional matchups with mixed results.
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