Xavier Worthy
Start him
Fresh off a bye week with Rashee Rice out. He belongs in the FLEX slot ahead of Chris Godwin.
Week 6 has not kicked off, so nothing is decided. Marco is 2-3 and drew the second-lowest-scoring team in the league. There is one lineup decision to make before Sunday, one waiver claim worth real money, and a roster that is, for once, almost entirely healthy.
LordHaveMRSA
0.00
vargy
0.00
Week 6 has not started. First kickoff tonight, 8:15 PM ET - Seattle Seahawks at Denver Broncos. None of his starters play in it; two of vargy's do.
Chris Godwin
Bench him
19 catches, 179 yards, zero touchdowns in five games, and his quarterback is hurt.
Jaleel McLaughlin
Bid $11
Cleveland's backfield emptied out around him. The top waiver add in the league right now.
Where the matchup stands
| LordHaveMRSA | vargy | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 2-3 (8th of 12) | 2-3 (10th of 12) |
| Points for | 507.02 | 463.94 |
| Points against | 564.62 | n/a |
| Starters playing tonight | 0 | 2 (RJ Harvey, Jaylen Waddle) |
Week 6 opens tonight at 8:15 PM ET with the Seattle Seahawks at the Denver Broncos, and both scores read 0.00 because nothing has been played. That is the honest headline: this is a planning day, not a results day.
The matchup itself is the best news on this page. vargy comes in 2-3 with 463.94 points for the season - eleventh of twelve in scoring, and more than 43 points behind Marco's own 507.02. Marco has scored more points than vargy in a league where only one team has scored less.
The catch is the Thursday night head start. vargy starts two Denver Broncos tonight, running back RJ Harvey and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, while none of Marco's seven starters are in the game. Expect to go to bed behind and do not read anything into it.
Setting the Week 5 record straight
Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills) - 7.70 points, and the number lies
One catch for seven yards on two targets. It went for a touchdown, which is the only reason the box score does not read like a scratch. Two targets in an overtime game in which Buffalo threw the ball all night is not a fantasy role, it is a lottery ticket. Previous reports logged 7.70 and moved on; that score deserved to be called what it was.
Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams) - 37.70 points on twenty-four targets
Seventeen catches, 138 yards and a touchdown. Twenty-four targets is a volume number that barely happens in the modern NFL, and it came in a 37-34 overtime loss in Buffalo where the Rams had to throw on every snap. He is the single most valuable asset on this roster and nothing about his usage is in question.
Drake Maye (New England Patriots) - 39.46 points
Twenty-six of thirty-four for 374 yards, four passing touchdowns, no interceptions, plus 25 rushing yards and a rushing score in a 45-17 demolition of the Las Vegas Raiders. That is a career kind of day and it is the reason Marco won Week 5 by 26 points, 140.16 to 114.10, over the first-place team.
Cam Skattebo (New York Giants) - 7.10 points, and a lost fumble
Thirteen carries for 59 yards, two catches for twelve, and he put the ball on the ground and lost it in a 27-27 tie with Washington. He was not efficient, he was not involved in the passing game, and he gave a possession away. He stays in the lineup this week on matchup, not on merit.
Kyren Williams (Los Angeles Rams) - 19.60 points on 3.1 yards a carry
Sixteen carries for 49 yards is bad running. Six catches and a touchdown is what rescued it. Read this as a usage score, not a talent score - the volume is real and that is enough at running back.
The lineup - one decision, and it is not close
| Slot | Player | Status |
|---|---|---|
| QB | Drake Maye (New England Patriots) | Start - vs. New York Jets, Sun 1:00 PM ET |
| RB | Kyren Williams (Los Angeles Rams) | Start - vs. Arizona Cardinals, Sun 4:05 PM ET |
| RB | Cam Skattebo (New York Giants) | Start - vs. New Orleans Saints, Sun 1:00 PM ET |
| WR | Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams) | Start - vs. Arizona Cardinals, Sun 4:05 PM ET |
| WR | Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills) | Start, holding your nose - at Las Vegas Raiders, Sun 4:25 PM ET |
| TE | Trey McBride (Arizona Cardinals) | Start - at Los Angeles Rams, Sun 4:05 PM ET |
| FLEX | Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs) | CHANGE - in for Chris Godwin, vs. Los Angeles Chargers, Sun 4:25 PM ET |
Bench Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Nineteen receptions, 179 yards and zero touchdowns through five games. Four touches in Week 5 - three catches for 37 yards and one carry for three. He is being used as a short-area outlet and nothing more. Worse, Baker Mayfield has not resumed throwing with a thumb injury and did not practice Wednesday, so Tampa Bay hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers with a backup quarterback. There is no version of this that produces a useful score.
Start Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs) in the FLEX slot
Worthy scored 0.00 in Week 5 for the simple reason that Kansas City was on a bye. He returns with Rashee Rice out of the picture and Kansas City hosting the Los Angeles Chargers, and the consensus call on him this week is a straight start. A healthy quarterback throwing to a thinned-out receiver room beats a backup quarterback throwing to a short-area decoy.
Leave Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks) benched tonight
The temptation on a Thursday is to chase the only game on television. Resist it. Kupp has eleven catches for 129 yards on fifteen targets all season, because Jaxon Smith-Njigba is absorbing a league-leading 35.2 percent of Seattle's targets. Denver's slot coverage is genuinely soft and their cornerback room is banged up with Patrick Surtain out - that is the bull case, and it is still not enough to start a man fighting for scraps.
Six of the seven slots are settled. The seventh, the FLEX spot - the one lineup position that will take a running back, wide receiver or tight end - currently has Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) in it, and it should not.
Why Keon Coleman stays in despite the Week 5 stinker
Because there is nothing better. After moving Xavier Worthy into the FLEX slot, the remaining bench wide receivers are Tre Tucker (Las Vegas Raiders), DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills), Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks) and DeMario Douglas (New England Patriots). Tucker faces Buffalo and has been a 7-point player. Moore is questionable with a shoulder injury. Kupp is buried behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Douglas is the fourth option in his own offense.
Coleman at least plays in an offense that scores, and Buffalo at Las Vegas should be a track meet. Start him, but treat anything above eight points as a gift rather than a plan.
Injuries and byes
DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills) - questionable, shoulder AC-joint sprain
An AC-joint sprain is a shoulder injury where the ligaments joining the collarbone to the shoulder blade get stretched. It cost him Week 5 entirely - he posted 0.00 - and he is still carrying a questionable tag. He is on the bench, so this costs nothing, but he is also the reason not to count on bench depth at wide receiver.
Everyone else is clear
Not one of Marco's seven starters carries an injury designation, which has not been true in weeks. No bye-week holes either - Cincinnati, Detroit, Miami and Minnesota are the four teams off in Week 6, and Marco does not own a single player from any of them.
The opponent is the one with problems
vargy is carrying Adonai Mitchell (New York Jets) as doubtful with a finger injury, KC Concepcion (Cleveland Browns) as questionable with a concussion, and Zach Charbonnet (Seattle Seahawks) on the physically-unable-to-perform list with a knee injury - a torn anterior cruciate ligament. That is three dead bench spots on a team already scoring 464 points.
Waivers - where the $39 goes
| Player | Why | Bid |
|---|---|---|
| Jaleel McLaughlin (Cleveland Browns, running back) | Quinshon Judkins left the field in a walking boot, and Dylan Sampson and Raheim Sanders are both on injured reserve. McLaughlin is the next man up in an emptied-out backfield and the most-added player in the league over the last 72 hours. Marco's running back depth behind Kyren Williams and Cam Skattebo is Tyrone Tracy and nothing. | $11 |
| Najee Harris (New York Giants, running back) | A free agent, and the handcuff - the backup who inherits the job - to Cam Skattebo, who just fumbled and is averaging 4.5 yards a carry. Cheap insurance on a starter Marco cannot replace. | $3 |
| Keenan Allen (Indianapolis Colts, wide receiver) | Unowned and still a volume slot receiver. Only worth it if the Godwin spot needs a body in two weeks. | $1 or skip |
Marco has spent $61 of his $100 FAAB budget - the season-long pot of fake money used to bid on waiver pickups - and sits seventh in the waiver order. $39 has to last eight more weeks, so this is not the time to empty it. It is the time to spend some of it, because one claim this week is clearly better than the rest.
What not to do with the money
Do not bid on Corey Kiner (New England Patriots) or Brandin Cooks (San Francisco 49ers) just because they are trending. Kiner is third in a backfield and Cooks is a rotational piece on a team that does not need him. Neither one would ever start for this roster, and a dollar spent on a player who sits on the bench until December is a dollar not available when a genuine starter goes down in Week 9.
Also: this league has no kicker or defense slots, so ignore the kickers and team defenses clogging the trending-adds list.
What to watch before Sunday
Tonight, 8:15 PM ET: Seattle Seahawks at Denver Broncos. Marco has no stake in his starting lineup, but vargy's RJ Harvey and Jaylen Waddle both play, so this is the one night this week the scoreboard will be misleading.
Friday and Saturday: final practice reports. The two that matter are DJ Moore's shoulder in Buffalo and Baker Mayfield's thumb in Tampa Bay. If Mayfield somehow clears and starts, Chris Godwin becomes a defensible FLEX play again - but on four touches and zero touchdowns in five games, 'defensible' is still not 'good.'
Sunday morning: get the Xavier Worthy swap in before 1:00 PM ET. Kansas City does not play until 4:25, but lineups lock by slot and there is no reason to leave it to memory.