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Week 6 fantasy football stockwatch
Through five weeks of the NFL season, we've gained a good idea of which players are sitting in prime roles and which ones are supporting actors. We've also started to discover who are the surprises -- good and bad. At this point, it's about determining degrees of value. That's why there's the Fantasy Stockwatch.

Marshall hasn't been quite the fantasy stud he was a year ago but he'll be asked to do a little bit more in the Jets offense with Eric Decker officially on injured reserve. Marshall's targets have gone up each game this season and should hover in the range of 12-15 per game without Decker available. Never fear, it looks like Marshall is back to being the WR1 you spent an early-round draft pick on.

Fantasy managers are frustrated with Jeffery. Jeffery seems frustrated with Brian Hoyer. Hoyer seems pretty fine with things as they are. That's not going to reassure any of the other parties. The Bears quarterback says that he has no plans to force the ball to Jeffery going forward. That would preclude any potential over-correction in the passing game that many of us hoped for. Jeffery is hovering dangerously close to bust territory.

Hopefully you took advantage of Artis-Payne's plus matchup against the Buccaneers last week. Because that might be the last one you get for a little while. Jonathan Stewart is healthy and ready to resume his role as the Panthers' lead running back. With Fozzy Whittaker ticketed to be Carolina's pass-catching back, there's not much room for Artis-Payne to see any significant number of snaps or touches.

After missing the past three games with an injured thumb, Jennings says he's back and ready to roll this week. It would be nice if he could return to a better matchup than the surprisingly stingy Ravens. But the upside is that Jennings will be Big Blue's workhorse running back. So long, Orleans Darkwa.

Washington's play on the field was already earning him more snaps and touches. With Latavius Murray still dealing with a turf toe injury, Washington should continue to get plenty of opportunities in Week 6. This offers a great chance for the rookie to make hay against a Chiefs run defense that is allowing nearly five yards per carry this season.

When Gates returned from injury, we wondered if Hunter Henry would go back to being an afterthought in the Chargers passing game. That doesn't appear to be the case. The veteran has taken a backseat to the rookie over the past two weeks. Gates should still be targeted occasionally -- especially near the goal line -- but the changing of the Chargers tight end guard might have come sooner than anticipated.

Last week, it looked like Eifert was set to make his season debut until a setback late in the week returned him to the shelf. This week, he hasn't practiced at all with no real indication of how close he is to playing. Plenty of fantasy owners have been holding on to Eifert waiting to get him in their lineups but if you're in a 10-team league or have a short bench, then it's probably okay to release him back to the waiver wire.

So far, the DeAndre Hopkins-Brock Osweiler pairing hasn't been nearly as productive as a lot of people expected. Hopefully this is the week that things start to turn around. The Texans meet up with the Colts and more importantly ... their terrible secondary. What's even more encouraging is that Indy's top corner, Vontae Davis, isn't expected to shadow Nuk this week. That should mean some more favorable one-on-one matchups for Hopkins. Now if Osweiler could get the ball to him consistently.

Wallace got off to a quick start this season but slowed down when Steve Smith became more involved in the passing game. Smith isn't expected to suit up for the Ravens in Week 6, which puts the spotlight back on Wallace for this week's game against the Giants. While Wallace has primarily lined up wide, he's also spent some time in the slot -- a position New York's secondary has struggled to cover this season.

Lockett hasn't come close to justifying the deep sleeper predictions that many analysts had for him this preseason. But this week head coach Pete Carroll says that Lockett is in line for a bigger role in the Seahawks passing game. At this point, it wouldn't take much to qualify as a "bigger role" but hey ... we'll take what we can get.