We’re a third of the way through, folks! Six of your league mates are six feet under, leaving 12 standing. We’ve weeded out all the truly bad teams, and now we begin to separate the contenders from the pretenders. Take a look around; a lot of the rosters in your Guillotine League should look like those in your standard 12-team home leagues. This is a unique self-evaluation point; compare your Guillotine roster to those of your standard leagues. If it’s looking stronger than those teams, you’re in a good spot and can likely hoard your FAAB. If your Guillotine roster is a little barren, maybe we loosen the purse strings a bit.

By now, the first big FAAB run of the week has happened. If you’re cash poor or got outbid for the big stars (Justin Jefferson was on bye, landing among the top 10 most chopped players), look no further! We’re here every week to help identify cheap, high-floor, one-week replacement options to help you keep your head. There are only a couple teams—Bears & Cowboys—on bye this week, but we’re also dealing with an absurd amount of injury fallout. Let’s navigate the current landscape.

Did you get chopped amidst the injury and bye-week fallout last week? Go join another Guillotine League and then come right back here!

Quarterbacks

Last Week:

Kirk Cousins vs. Seattle Seahawks (68.9% owned)

There are only going to be 12 starting quarterbacks in your Guillotine League this week, and Kirk Cousins is outside the top 12 most rostered passers on guillotineleagues.com. If he’s available, go scoop and start him for this matchup. Fantasy scoring-wise, he’s been inconsistent, but I believe this is a matchup-driven high floor. Jared Goff (Whole Foods Kirk Cousins), Brock Purdy (Wal-Mart Kirk Cousins), and Daniel Jones (Dollar Store Kirk Cousins) are the last three passers to face Seattle, and each posted at least 250 yards and 2 passing touchdowns. During that span, six of seven Seahawks defensive backs that have played meaningful snaps are allowing a passer rating of at least 135 (!) in their coverage.

Drake Maye at Jacksonville Jaguars (11% owned)

Drake Maye played so well last weekend that the Jets traded for Davante Adams and the Bills traded for Amari Cooper. At least, that’s the narrative I’m going to push. Maye did look solid in his first start, though; his 3 touchdown passes were more than Jacoby Brissett could muster in his first five games combined. He also added 38 rushing yards on a handful of scrambles, demonstrating an ability to provide that sweet, sweet rushing floor we covet from our Guillotine League quarterbacks. We also covet matchups with the Jaguars, who’ve been trapped in London with their pre-fired head coach. The Jags are allowing the most fantasy points per game and a fantasy boost of 5.1 points, the highest.

Running Backs

Last Week:

My bad, guys, let’s be better this week.

Javonte Williams at New Orleans Saints (74.2% owned)

Javonte Williams isn’t as widely available as someone I’d normally recommend (I’ll make up for that below); this is more of an encouragement for any Williams owners put off by his recent dud and overall lackluster season. For starters, over their last four games, New Orleans has allowed six different running backs to eclipse 10 fantasy points, all while missing over 11 tackles per game. All told, 32% of the Saints’ active roster showed up on the injury report on Monday, so cooterdoodle might be out there trying to tackle Williams Thursday night. Can’t be worse than this, right? Sean Payton smells blood in the water and will absolutely be coaching his ass off in his return to the Superdome, so I wouldn’t be mad if you started any viable Bronco. I just consider Williams the safest play for our format given his high touch volume relative to his teammates.

D’Ernest Johnson vs. New England Patriots (0.3% owned)

Let me be perfectly clear: you have to be down astronomically to even consider D’Ernest Johnson as a starter in your Guillotine League this week. However, I admittedly am at that point, so some of you must be, too. Hey, the best ability is availability, right? That’s the case for Johnson in real football, as Travis Etienne likely misses this game with a hamstring injury, and in fantasy football, given his widespread availability on our site. The case for Johnson is both opportunity and matchup. Tank Bigsby is not a pass catcher. He has one target all year, and Johnson surpassed that figure in limited work last week alone. Johnson also outsnapped Bigsby 35-17. Johnson could dink and dunk his way to a 10-point game against a Patriots defense allowing the fourth-most fantasy points to opposing running backs.

Wide Receivers

Last Week:

Let’s break 10 this week, shall we?

Rashod Bateman, at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (47.9% owned)

I know, Rashod Bateman has never screamed safe, consistent, nor high floor to me either. I’ll give him credit, though, as he’s strung together at least 11 fantasy points in three of four. He’s run a respectable 86% of available routes on the year and has dipped below a 14% target share just once. The concern in the Ravens’ offense is always a run-heavy attack, but this could be a high-scoring outing, especially with how leaky the Baltimore secondary has been lately. Tampa Bay is not far behind, allowing the fourth-most fantasy points per game to opposing wideouts. Across the last four weeks, both cornerbacks Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum are bottom-15 in yards allowed in their coverage.

DeMario Douglas, at Jacksonville Jaguars (33.5% owned)

DeMario Douglas’ target shares the last four weeks: 38%, 10%, 28%, and 30%. In Drake Maye’s first start last week, Douglas commanded a 33% first-read target share. Now that’s what I call the foundation for a safe and sturdy floor. Combine that with a positive matchup—have I mentioned that the Jags are bad?—and I’m feeling pretty confident in both Maye and Douglas this week (gulp). Jacksonville is allowing the second-most fantasy points per game with the highest fantasy boost to opposing wideouts. Over the last four weeks, cornerbacks Ronald Darby and Montaric Brown have allowed the fourth-most and 14th-most yards in their coverage, respectively.

Tight Ends

Last Week:

  • Dalton Schultz: 6.70 points—miss, but the process was there (season-high eight targets). Frankly, you could go with Schultz again this week.
  • Cade Otton: 9.50 points—hit, relatively

David Njoku, vs. Cincinnati Bengals (53.5% owned)

Remember that scene at the end of The Incredibles (2004) where Mrs. Incredible stretches herself into a parachute to keep Jack Jack safe while an airplane violently explodes above them? You are Jack Jack. David Njoku is Mrs. Incredible. The Browns are the airplane. Don’t look down. Amari Cooper is gone, and Njoku is going to get a ridiculous amount of targets. None of the rest of what’s going on matters. Everything is going to be alllllright.

Juwan Johnson, vs. Denver Broncos (11.7% owned)

Someone has to catch the football for the Saints on Thursday, right? Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, and Taysom Hill will almost certainly miss this game. Bub Means was fun last week, and the Broncos are missing Pat Surtain, but despite what you may think of me, I can’t in good conscience recommend a 5th-round rookie in his second meaningful game. So, why not turn to Johnson, who was Spencer Rattler’s other favorite target last week? Johnson would have had a 10-plus-point day were it not for a couple of penalties. It’s also Drew Brees’ Saints Hall of Fame induction night, and Johnson is one of three active Saints remaining who caught a pass from Brees, so there may be some voodoo magic at play.

Bonus Tight End Alert–Hunter Henry, at Jacksonville Jaguars (49.3% owned)

I’ve talked enough about how bad the Jaguars are and recommended one too many Patriots, but Hunter Henry is absolutely viable this week. Henry scored his first touchdown of the season last week, and Cole Kmet just went 5-70-2 on the Jags in London last week.