Jaguars vs. Chiefs Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 5

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 5 matchup between the Jaguars and Chiefs on Monday Night Football.

Find a breakdown of every Week 5 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Patrick Mahomes: What a difference a week makes at this point of the season.

The vibes surrounding the Kansas City offense were low coming into last week, but getting Xavier Worthy back and facing a depleted Baltimore defense could have gotten this offense going.

Mahomes connected on a season-high 67.6% of his passes for 270 yards and 4 touchdowns.

He was pressured on a season-low 19.5% of his dropbacks.

The question will be how much of last week’s breakout was influenced by Worthy’s return and how much was influenced by the matchup.

They can take a considerable step forward by coming out and building off last week.

Mahomes is going to find himself in the QB1 conversation, given the state of the position for fantasy.

We are dealing with a host of injuries and byes.

The Jaguars have been a frisky defense to open the season.

They have allowed a 59.6% completion rate (6th) and 6.3 yards per pass attempt (8th).

They have allowed a 4.5% touchdown rate (15th).

The Jaguars have not been overly pushed by a front-end offense yet.

Last week was their most extensive test, and even though they got the timely takeaways they have lived on, Brock Purdy still threw for 8.1 Y/A and 309 yards.

There was production in a game where San Francisco lost two wide receivers.

The Chiefs may not be a front-end offense, either. We are trying to find out.

I also can’t help but go back to that comeback Jake Browning had in Week 2 compared to how Browning has played these past two weeks.

Trevor Lawrence: Through four weeks, Lawrence has not had a QB1 scoring week and has only one week higher than QB24 in weekly scoring.

Lawrence threw for 5.6 yards per pass attempt on Sunday.

He has been above 6.5 Y/A in a game this season, with three games below 6.0 Y/A.

His 5.9 yards per attempt ranks 28th.

He has completed 8.9% of his passes below expectations, second to last in the league.

That is while being the least-pressured quarterback in the NFL (22.7% of his dropbacks).

Lawrence is a back-end QB2 here.

The Chiefs are sixth in the league in pressure rate (43.8%)

When Lawrence has been pressured, he has completed 37% of his passes (10 of 27) for only 3.1 yards per pass attempt.

Since allowing a QB5 week to Justin Herbert in Week 1, the Chiefs have not allowed a top-20 week over the past three games.

Over the past three weeks, the Chiefs have allowed 5.3 Y/A (4th) and a league-low 1.1% touchdown rate.

Running Back

Travis Etienne: Etienne keeps running pure.

He rushed 19 times for 124 yards on Sunday, getting into the end zone on a 48-yard touchdown.

The underlying metrics continue to point towards a dip, but Etienne keeps shrugging off any regression to this point.

Etienne has rushed for more yards than expected on 34.4% of his runs (9th worst) but is fourth in rushing yards over expectations in total (89).

He is RB25 in expected points scored, but the RB10 in actual points scored.

No other running back is outproducing their expectations at a higher rate over the opening month.

Long runs and touchdowns have covered his tracks, but we are also seeing his workload increase.

Etienne handled 76.9% of the backfield touches on Sunday, his most significant share of the work this season.

Etienne may be punching above his weight class, but we have seen Liam Coen max out backfields before.

If Etienne is going to handle last week’s workload, he is an RB2 with upside.

The Chiefs have struggled against the run to start the year.

Kansas City is allowing 5.2 yards per carry to backfields (28th) with a 56.2% success rate against those runs (24th).

Kansas City RBs: This two-person backfield is starting to shape up as a larger committee.

In Week 4, Kareem Hunt led the backfield in snaps (44.3%) and touches (14), producing 47 yards.

Isiah Pacheco played 37.1% of the snaps, turning 9 touches into 48 yards, catching a touchdown for his first score of the year.

Brashard Smith saw an extended role, playing 25.7% of the snaps, turning 7 touches into 36 yards.

In the first half, Smith out touched Pacheco 4 to 3.

These backs essentially split receiving work, with Pacheco running a route on 39% of the dropbacks, Hunt 34.1%, and Smith 24.4%.

This was an unattractive backfield when it was split two ways.

We are adding another mouth to feed, making these backs even more touchdown dependent.

Jacksonville has stopped the run, allowing 3.5 YPC to running backs (6th).

They have not allowed a rushing touchdown to a backfield player yet.

Where they have had their hands full is allowing 12.7 receiving points per game to backs (28th).

Wide Receiver

Xavier Worthy: We had no idea what to expect from Worthy in terms of snap share or production entering last week, but he exited with a stellar performance.

Worthy was on the field for 70.7% of the dropbacks, catching 5 of 8 targets for 83 yards, rushing twice for 38 yards.

He did not shy away from any contact, and the Chiefs used him without fear of re-injuring his labrum.

We may not be out of the woods and be living down-to-down with Worthy, but his upside per play was on full display, and he instilled confidence in using him.

Worthy had gains of 37, 35, and 28 yards.

He was targeted on 27.6% of his routes, ranking him as WR9 for the week.

Given the current landscape, Worthy is a high-end WR2.

Worthy played 65.9% of his snaps out wide and 29.3% in the slot.

The Jaguars have allowed the fewest points in the league to slot receivers (4.5 per game), but they are 31st in points allowed to outside receivers (30.1 per game).

Brian Thomas: Thomas had another mild outing on Sunday, catching 5 of 7 targets for 49 yards.

The sad part is that it was his highest-scoring week (WR31) of the season.

Thomas left the game for a few plays as he is still clearly dealing with some wrist injury.

The team is still pushing the ball to Thomas, so we have that going for him.

Thomas has had at least 23% of the team’s targets in three of four weeks and has been targeted on 23.2% of his routes.

He still has WR2 usage, but the injury and performance of this passing game are obstacles that push Thomas toward the WR2/WR3 line.

The Chiefs have slowed down WR1 targets over the past three weeks, facing A.J. Brown (5-27-0), Malik Nabers (2-13-0), and Zay Flowers (7-74-0).

Kansas City WRs: With Worthy returning to action, there was an impact on the usage of the wideouts.

Tyquan Thornton felt the brunt of that.

Thornton had a touchdown for the third straight game, but he only ran a route on 36.6% of the dropbacks.

JuJu Smith-Schuster’s role remained the same, leading the team with an 82.9% participation rate.

He caught 4 of 6 targets for 36 yards and a touchdown.

Marquise Brown also took a hit, running a route on 61% of the dropbacks, catching 3 of 5 targets for 38 yards and a touchdown.

Brown had run a route on 87.2% of the dropbacks Week 1 through Week 3.

All of these guys found the end zone last week, but they are touchdown-or-bust options on this type of usage.

Travis Hunter: Hunter’s defensive snaps have gone up and down to open the season, but his use on offense has been steady.

Hunter has been on the field for 63.6%, 59.2%, 52.9%, and 55.9% of the offensive snaps.

He does not have enough usage to be more than an option in single-game DFS.

After one month, Hunter is starting to look like a roster clogger.

I would not let Hunter prevent me from making an add I wanted to make, but the one thing that is keeping me from suggesting he is an outright drop is that I believe Thomas’ wrist injury could still be something larger than is being let on.

Parker Washington: We will follow the status of Dyami Brown throughout the week, as it will impact Washington’s playing time.

Washington had a punt return for a touchdown on Sunday, but he did not catch any of his two targets on offense.

He ran the most routes on the team, but this is on par with what we laid out for him last week.

He is one of the least productive receivers of the past three years when he is on the field.

Washington’s 0.99 yards per route run ranks 85th out of 96 wide receivers who have run as many routes as he has since he entered the league.

He has been targeted on 14.1% of his career routes, which ranks 78th on that list.

Washington is only an option for single-game DFS.

Tight End

Travis Kelce: Kelce grabbed all five of his targets on Sunday for 48 yards.

Kelce gets a bump this week as a fantasy option due to the bye weeks, but he is off to the worst start of his career.

Kelce currently has career lows in yards per route run (1.37), air yards per target (4.9), team target share (16.1%), and target rate per route (16.5%).

He is a fringe starter at the position.

The Jaguars do offer some matchup appeal, allowing 7.4 yards per target to tight ends (22nd).

Brenton Strange: Strange caught 6 of 7 targets for 45 yards on Sunday.

Strange has not done anything overly exciting, but he is getting enough work and hanging around that higher-end TE2 company every week.

Strange has 16.7% of the team’s targets (TE15) and has been on the field for 77.3% of the dropbacks (TE14).

If you are in a full-PPR or TE-Premium format, he has had an added boost.

Strange would be able to push as a weekly TE1 option if Jacksonville can start using him near the end zone.

Through four weeks, Strange does not have a red zone target (18 team targets) while Hunter Long has 3.

Long has 2 of the 8 end zone targets, while Stange is still looking for his first.

More Week 5 Fantasy Breakdowns From The Worksheet: