The Shot Caller's Report strives to identify players that are borderline fantasy plays and clarify whether they should be started or benched. Rather than telling you to start Peyton Manning and bench Joey Harrington, the Report looks at those "stuck in the middle" guys and evaluates if they will help your team win.

Five weeks into the season, how is your fantasy team doing? If you drafted Tom Brady, Ronnie Brown, and Randy Moss you are probably undefeated, doing a little happy dance on Sundays, and dominating the message boards with your smack talk. On the other hand, selecting Drew Brees, Steven Jackson, and Lee Evans in August may have you watching football by yourself Sundays, hiding your shame. Most owners are stuck in the middle, hoping to take some of these middling players and make a move to the front of the pack.

Quarterbacks

Must Start:

Kurt Warner: So much for Matt Leinart being the quarterback of the future in the desert. It won’t happen this year at least. Before getting injured, his brutal play was killing owners and costing him playing time. Warner looked better than the youngster all season and has thrown four touchdowns to a single interception over the last three games, while splitting time. Against a struggling Carolina defense, Warner will show the Arizona faithful he still has some skills. But, after years of organizational mismanagement, are there still any Arizona faithful?

Brian Griese: Four touchdowns in two games is more than adequate for a guy thrown into a disintegrating offense. True, one of those games was against Detroit, but the other was in Green Bay. Griese looked good finishing off the Packers last week and he’s doing a better job of keeping the offense rolling than his predecessor. The Vikings are among the league’s worst at defending the pass, making Griese a very solid play.

Donovan McNabb: Taken as a top five quarterback in fantasy drafts, McNabb has been bad enough already this season to find the bench on teams with a solid backup. Ignoring the aberration against the Lions, McNabb has one touchdown and two turnovers in his other three games while being held under 200 yards twice, not exactly justifying his draft position. However, Week Six looks much more favorable to the embattled quarterback. Coming off a much needed bye, the Eagles get to tee off against the Jets, who can’t stop anyone.

Philip Rivers: The struggling San Diego offense is overshadowing a pretty solid start to the season by their quarterback. In the first five games, he has 1,156 yards, eight touchdowns, six interceptions, and three lost fumbles. The turnovers are scary for owners playing in leagues that penalize miscues, but Rivers has a lot of upside in a match up against the Raiders. The Chargers offense looked to be finally getting on track last week and will build momentum rolling over a very average Oakland defense.

Cleo Lemon: Here is our desperation pick at quarterback. I promise Lemon is available unless someone in your league is trying to corner the market on low quality backup quarterbacks. Why the optimism for a guy who couldn’t beat out Trent Green for the starting job? Coming in for the concussed Green, Lemon looked cool and collected. Even better, he efficiently led the team on three scoring drives. They may have only been field goals, but a week of preparing for the woeful Cleveland defense should convert some of those three point opportunities into six.

Grab A Clipboard:

Matt Schaub: He has been surprisingly successful for a Texans quarterback. David Carr helped set the bar pretty low of course. Even missing Andre Johnson, Schaub has been serviceable, if not spectacular. However, going up against a Jaguar defense that is giving up ten points a game with practice squad receivers and retread running backs is a recipe for fantasy disaster. Bye weeks suck, but not badly enough to start Schaub this week.

Joey Harrington: Yes, he is playing the notoriously bad Giants defense. He even has four touchdowns in the last three games. He didn’t get one last week though. I wonder why…Oh, yeah – he got pulled for Byron Leftwich. When you leave the game in favor of a guy who got the boot in Jacksonville, it is time to reevaluate your career decisions. It looks like Joey Harrington’s rebirth won’t happen in Atlanta either. Owners can’t afford to have their quarterback play only a quarter or two.

Jeff Garcia: In two games this year he has looked good, throwing a pair of touchdowns in each. His three other starts have produced a combined zero scores. He also has a season high of 243 passing yards in a game. And the Titans defense is pretty stingy. Unless the Buccaneers’ signing of Zack Crockett suddenly generates a running game to take pressure off the aerial attack, Garcia will struggle doing anything more than dumping balls off to his tight end.

Daunte Culpepper: Five touchdowns last week put Culpepper back on the fantasy radar. Combine that with San Diego’s lackluster defensive stats and an easy start emerges, right? Let’s take a closer look first. Culpepper’s five TD day came against Miami, three of them were on the ground, and he went 5 for 12 with 75 yards passing. While successful revenge games are always amusing, Culpepper’s play was hardly inspiring. Also, the San Diego defense did bad things to Denver’s offense last week. This time, ignore the statistically generated mirage and stay with reality. The Chargers defense is much better than Culpepper.

Jason Campbell: Last week he was a “Must Start” and this week he is riding the pine. What gives? He looked great against Detroit last week, but like most young players, he isn’t ready to face an NFL defense. He will continue to be a spot starter against JV secondaries, but isn’t explosive enough to be started facing a real challenge. It would help if he had some healthy receivers too.

Running Backs