BBVD -
Of course a 5 wt will handle a silver. The bigger questionsare:
1) are you ready to deal with silver size fish on a 5 wt? If you haven't dealt with many fish of that size before I would recommend that you practice with say a 7 wt until you are comfortable with dealing with such fish.

2)If you are using larger and weighted flies as suggested above are you comfortable in dealing with those bugs with a 5 wt? Large weigth flies or flies with lots of rabbit can be difficult with the smaller rods.

I have consistently done very well on silvers with smaller (4s and 6s) sea-run cutthroat flies in rivers. The best luck has been with sinking lines and spiders for flies. Best colors are typically chartreuse, black and orange. Other things like muddlers, small flash flies, or bait fish patterns have had their moments.

If you are fishing water with both silvers and chinooks it will be just a matter of time before you hook up with a chinook (again I have had excellent luck with small flies for chinook). Another reasons to be a little caution with the 5 wt.

Have fun in your new fishing adventures.

Curt