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Week 5 fantasy football waiver wire pickups for Darius Slayton, Josh Downs, Christian Kirk in 2025. Read their waiver wire outlooks for fantasy football.
New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton, Indianapolis Colts wideout Josh Downs, and Houston Texans WR Christian Kirk are all receivers that could be solid waiver pickups for Week 5 in fantasy football.
All three could see increased roles in their offenses based on recent occurrences in their games in Week 4, and all possess talent that's flashed at times, but hasn't turned into anything consistent in recent seasons.
The situation a player is in is very important for fantasy football, though. Will these players be worth adding because of the environment around them? Let's dive in.
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Darius Slayton Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups
Rostered: 5% of Leagues
Baller Move: Add in 14+ Team Leagues
Slayton is set to potentially become the New York Giants WR1 after the injury to their previous WR1, Malik Nabers (knee), who tore his ACL in the team's Week 4 win against the Los Angeles Chargers. Nabers will miss the rest of the season.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Giants. They won their first game of the 2025 season, thanks largely to the team giving the starting nod to rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart (hamstring). Dart wasn't highly productive as a passer, but gave the team a shot in the arm as a rusher.
Jaxson Dart was robbed! Should've had THREE more TD passes in his Giants debut
Play 1: Bad drop by Wan'Dale
Play 2: False start GVR
Play 3: Defensive hold, otherwise Slayton gets to the spot for a TD catch (on a route Dart checked into after seeing the zero-pressure type look) pic.twitter.com/w1bh6Zqfhj— Dan Schneier (@DanSchneierNFL) September 30, 2025
Dart played very well in his first game. Anything is better than QB Russell Wilson, really -- he refuses to take any risks with the football, isn't very creative, often misses open receivers, and looks more like he's trying to pad his passer rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio than help a football team win.
While Slayton has been in the league for six seasons now, and how he is as a player is pretty well known at this point, he's at least set up to have the best quarterback play he's ever had. Dart clearly showed he played better in New York than did QB Daniel Jones.
The above video gives you a pretty good idea that Dart should have had an even bigger day. He was my QB1 of the 2025 class easily, and I had him graded far higher as a player than I did Cam Ward, who ended up going No. 1 overall.
So it makes sense to grab Slayton in deeper leagues. I don't hate adding him as a bench stash in leagues in 12 or fewer teams, I just worry about consistency.
Josh Downs Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups
Rostered: 54% of Leagues
Baller Move: Don't Add
Though Downs was seen by many fantasy managers as an excellent pick to make in drafts, he's been too far down on the priority list of pass-catchers for the Colts this season. And it's shown up in the stat sheet. He's currently being targeted as roughly a tie for the fourth-best option on the team.
Wide receivers Michael Pittman Jr. and Adonai Mitchell and tight end Tyler Warren present plenty of target competition for Downs. The third-year pro is a slot-only receiver, likely owing to his diminutive size, and though he played in 62 percent of his team's offensive snaps in Week 4, that was a season-high for him.
The reality is that Tyler Warren gives them ability to attack Base defense in a way they never have before.
Josh Downs (whether I like it or not) unfortunately has to come off the field.
Shane is calling more 12 and 13p through 4 games than he maybe ever has. https://t.co/Pt2BwtW4fN
— Colts Film Room (@ColtsFilmRoom) September 30, 2025
It's been the addition of rookie tight end Tyler Warren that's driven his dip in production. And Indianapolis now has three big-bodied pass-catchers in Warren, Pittman, and Mitchell that can help them score passing touchdowns. Downs isn't much of a red zone threat.
On a team that has an elite running back in Jonathan Taylor and an offensive line that can prop him up even further, it's hard to see Downs having a ton of upside moving forward. I don't think I'd be jumping to add him in any leagues. Even if multiple injuries occur to the team's other wide receivers, it's just tough for him right now.
Christian Kirk Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups
Rostered: 49% of Leagues
Baller Move: Add in 14+ Team Leagues
Kirk is a player I'm pretty conflicted on right now. He's still playing well, is a solid slot option for the Texans, and is likely the team's WR2, at least for the moment. But Houston's passing offense is absolutely putrid for multiple reasons, the biggest being the lack of good offensive coaching and the terrible offensive line play.
Jeffery Simmons sacked C.J. Stroud in 2.09 seconds, the fastest sack league wide over the last two seasons.
Simmons crossed the line of scrimmage 0.32 seconds after the snap, the fastest get-off time by a DT this season.#TENvsHOU | #TitanUppic.twitter.com/xVgPSgYHUC
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 28, 2025
The other angle to this, and something that it seems many fantasy managers are forgetting, is that rookie wide receiver Jayden Higgins has played well. He has a lot of nice route wins, and though he hasn't been involved on the offense heavily, it's likely that he earns more playing time as the season goes on.
Jayden Higgins NEEDS a larger role in the Texans offense
Creates separation with ease and gives 110% as a run blocker pic.twitter.com/ijEvpKGMPB
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) September 30, 2025
Kirk is likely still recovering from his hamstring injury. And though he might not be much of a factor this season, WR Jaylin Noel was selected with a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. As both Noel and Higgins improve their games and build trust with Stroud, things could get pretty rough in this low-volume passing game.
Kirk could function nicely as a PPR scam for a stretch of time, but there are so many things going wrong with this offense as a whole that it could be tough for him to ever make a mark with touchdowns and receiving yards. He'd need his scoring propped up heavily by PPR points from receptions.
Every C.J. Stroud dropback vs the Tennessee Titans in Week 4:
This game is easily the most comfortable and decisive Stroud has looked since probably early 2024. pic.twitter.com/tyRVpzYrXT
— Jacob (@TexansJacob) September 29, 2025
And Stroud didn't play too poorly in Week 4. In fact, it was his best game of the season -- against a bad defense and a team that had such a poor offense they were absolutely dominated in time of possession. Houston had the ball nearly two times as much as Tennessee did.
So yeah. Kirk could have a few nice games, but I'd be shocked if he had season-long upside.
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