Puka Nacua
19.9 projected
The number one wide receiver on the board this week. 10.3 catches a game.
No football was played Friday or Saturday, so this one looks forward: you are down 21-0 before a single one of your starters has taken the field, and all seven of them play Sunday.
LordHaveMRSA
0.00
vargy
21.00
All 7 of your starters still to play Sunday. vargy has 5 left.
Cooper Kupp
10.0 pts - benched
Ten targets Thursday night. Every point of it sat on your bench.
Keon Coleman
WR40 this week
The soft spot in Sunday's lineup, and the one call worth changing.
1. Where the matchup stands
You trail vargy 21.00 to 0.00, and the hole is entirely self-inflicted rather than a sign of a bad week. Only one Week 6 game has been played: Thursday night, October 15, the Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks 17-14. vargy started two Broncos in that game and banked 21 points off them. You started nobody.
Do not read the zero as a disaster. You have all seven starters going Sunday and vargy has five, and your lineup projects to roughly 100 points. This is a live matchup, not a lost one - but you are now spotting him three touchdowns worth of scoring, which means you need your top guys to show up rather than merely survive.
Both teams sit at 2-3. He has scored 463.94 on the season; you have scored 507.20 and had 564.62 scored against you. You are the better team losing more games.
2. Thursday night - the only game since the last report
Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks) - 10.00 points, on your bench
Five catches for 50 yards on ten targets. Ten targets is a real workload - third on the team behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Seattle Seahawks), who went for 12 catches and 134 yards. Kupp was inefficient, catching only half of what came his way, and he did not score. But 10 points is 10 points, and because his game is finished and he was on your bench, those points are gone for good. They cannot be recovered by any move you make today.
Your starters in that game - none
Not one of Drake Maye (New England Patriots), Kyren Williams (Los Angeles Rams), Cam Skattebo (New York Giants), Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills), Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams), Trey McBride (Arizona Cardinals) or Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs) plays for Denver or Seattle. Your week genuinely starts Sunday at 1:00pm Eastern.
What vargy got - RJ Harvey and Jaylen Waddle (both Denver Broncos)
RJ Harvey (Denver Broncos) put up 14.60 on six carries for 25 yards and a touchdown, plus three catches for 31 yards. Jaylen Waddle (Denver Broncos) added 6.40 on four catches for 24 yards. Neither was a great game in isolation - Harvey needed the touchdown to get there, and Waddle's four catches for 24 yards is a dud by his standards. They just happened to be in the only game on the board.
3. Bench versus starters - the honest accounting
Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks) outscored every single one of your starting wide receivers on Thursday, 10.00 to 0.00. That comparison is unfair in the sense that none of them had played yet. It is entirely fair in the sense that the decision to bench him was made before kickoff and cannot be undone.
Was it defensible? Partly. Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams) is an automatic start and Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs) is the better bet in your flex spot - the lineup slot that takes a running back, wide receiver or tight end. But you started Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills), who projects for 6.8 points and ranks as the 40th-best wide receiver this week, over a man who drew ten targets in a prime-time game. That one was a mistake, and it cost you about three points of expectation and ten points of reality.
The season-long version of this is uglier. Your lineups have produced 507.20 points out of a possible 590.82 - the total you would have if you had started your best seven every week. That is 83.62 points left on the bench across five weeks, a little under 17 a week. You are 2-3 instead of 4-1 almost entirely because of lineup decisions, not because of the roster.
4. Sunday's lineup
| Slot | Player | Game and outlook |
|---|---|---|
| QB | Drake Maye (New England Patriots) | vs New York Jets, 1:00pm. Projected 20.4, the 4th-best quarterback this week. Caveat: the Jets have allowed the 4th-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks. Start anyway. |
| RB | Kyren Williams (Los Angeles Rams) | at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05pm. Projected 18.4, 5th-best running back. Out-snapped Blake Corum 60 to 22 last week. The Rams are near two-touchdown favorites, which could mean he rests in a blowout - start him regardless. |
| RB | Cam Skattebo (New York Giants) | vs New Orleans Saints, 1:00pm. Projected 12.4, 18th-best running back. New Orleans is bottom-five against the run. He has 11 of the Giants' 20 running-back carries inside the opponent's 20-yard line. |
| WR | Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams) | at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05pm. Projected 19.9, the single best wide receiver play on the board. 24 targets last week. Nothing to decide. |
| WR | Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills) | at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:25pm. Projected 6.8, 40th-best wide receiver. The weak link - see the swap below. |
| TE | Trey McBride (Arizona Cardinals) | vs Los Angeles Rams, 4:05pm. Projected 12.9, 2nd-best tight end. The Rams' pass defense is stiff but you are not benching him for anyone. |
| FLEX | Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs) | vs Los Angeles Chargers, 4:25pm. Projected 8.5, 29th-best wide receiver. A thin season so far, but Rashee Rice and Tyquan Thornton are both out, so the targets have to go somewhere. |
5. The one change worth making
Start Tre Tucker (Las Vegas Raiders) over Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills)
These two face each other Sunday at 4:25pm Eastern in Las Vegas, so it is a clean pick-one. Tucker projects 8.0 and ranks 31st among wide receivers; Coleman projects 6.8 and ranks 40th. Tucker has caught at least four passes in each of his last four games and averages 6.6 points, and Buffalo had allowed the 9th-most fantasy points to wide receivers coming into last week. Coleman averages 6.9 points and has been a touchdown-or-nothing player all year. Be clear-eyed: this is worth about a point of projection, not a week-winner. Take it anyway - you need floor, and Tucker's is higher.
Everything else stands
Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) is not the answer - he projects 7.0, ranks 46th, is averaging a miserable 3.9 points a game, and Pittsburgh has smothered slot receivers. Najee Harris (New York Giants) stays benched behind Cam Skattebo (New York Giants), who is out-carrying him comfortably. Geno Smith (New York Jets) stays benched behind Drake Maye (New England Patriots). DeMario Douglas (New England Patriots) is not startable.
6. Injuries and the Buffalo problem
DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills) - Questionable, sprained AC joint in his shoulder
He did not practice Wednesday or Thursday and was limited Friday, and he already missed Week 5. Treat him as unavailable; he is on your bench and he should stay there. The knock-on effect is the only reason to care - his absence is what props up Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills), and even with that boost Coleman only projects 6.8.
Nobody else on your roster carries a designation
Drake Maye, Kyren Williams, Cam Skattebo, Keon Coleman, Puka Nacua, Trey McBride, Xavier Worthy, Cooper Kupp, Tre Tucker, Chris Godwin, Najee Harris, Geno Smith and DeMario Douglas are all healthy on the official reports. This week's teams on bye are the Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings - you have nobody on any of them.
Week 7 is the one to plan for - Buffalo is on bye
Both Keon Coleman (Buffalo Bills) and DJ Moore (Buffalo Bills) vanish next week. That leaves you Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams), Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs), Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks), Tre Tucker (Las Vegas Raiders), Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and DeMario Douglas (New England Patriots) at wide receiver - enough bodies, but only one of them is actually good. Spend this weekend's waiver claim with Week 7 in mind, not just Sunday.
7. Waivers - $39 left, and nothing exciting
| Player | Why | Bid |
|---|---|---|
| Kimani Vidal (Los Angeles Chargers) | Best available. Played 28 snaps last week, more than Omarion Hampton's 20 and Keaton Mitchell's 23, and went 8 carries for 57 yards with a 42-yard touchdown. Projects only 5.4 this week in a three-man committee, so he is an asset bet, not a starter. Bonus: he is eating the work of Omarion Hampton, who is in vargy's lineup against you today. | $4-6 |
| Ryan Flournoy (Dallas Cowboys) | The only free agent who could plausibly crack your lineup this week. Projects 6.3, ranks 39th among wide receivers, and had 3 catches for 90 yards last week. If CeeDee Lamb (Dallas Cowboys) sits with his quad injury, Flournoy is a usable flex - and because Dallas plays at Green Bay at 8:20pm Sunday, you can watch the early games before deciding. | $3-5 |
| Rashid Shaheed (Seattle Seahawks) | Speculative only. Drew 8 targets Thursday for 5 catches and 66 yards and is unowned here despite being rostered in 29% of leagues elsewhere. The Seattle passing game runs through Jaxon Smith-Njigba, so his ceiling is capped, but he is a free body for the Buffalo bye in Week 7. | $1-2 |
You have spent $61 of your $100 FAAB budget - the season-long pot of fake money used to bid on waiver pickups - and sit 7th in the waiver order if a bid ties. This is a deep 12-team league and it shows: Woody Marks (Houston Texans), Germie Bernard (Pittsburgh Steelers), Kendrick Bourne (Arizona Cardinals), Khalil Shakir (Buffalo Bills), Efton Chism (New England Patriots) and MarShawn Lloyd (Green Bay Packers) - every name the national waiver columns are pushing this week - are already rostered. There is no difference-maker sitting there. Bid small.
8. One player you don't own who deserves a mention
Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Seattle Seahawks) - 12 catches, 134 yards, 16 targets
The best fantasy performance of Week 6 so far, and the clearest answer to the question of who the Seahawks actually throw to. He is rostered in this league, so there is no claim to make - but he is the reason Cooper Kupp (Seattle Seahawks) is a 10-target, 50-yard player rather than a 15-point-a-week player, and that matters for how you value Kupp the rest of the way. If his owner is 1-4 and frustrated, that is the trade call worth making this month.