Fantasy Football: NFL Week 6 QB Rankings

Happy Week 6!

Five weeks of football are in the books. Madness. Bye weeks are upon us, and injuries have unfortunately continued to take a toll on offenses around the league. Focusing on the long-term view is usually the right move in most walks of life, but it’s also important in fantasy football land to not be afraid to attack each week as its own mini one-game season.

What follows are my Week 6 QB rankings. Note that these are not season-long lists or projections; I’m purely ranking based on who I believe will score more fantasy points this week with a focus on 1) What the QB has achieved in recent weeks, 2) Injuries or workload changes that could impact their production, and 3) This week’s matchup. Each QB’s DFS salary refers to his cost on DraftKings’ main slate.

1. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QB PATRICK MAHOMES AT BUFFALO BILLS (KC -3.5)

Mahomes had roughly five plays in Week 5 that didn’t even count but still caused me to marvel at the ability of the best QB alive. Last week’s performance would’ve been markedly bigger if Mahomes’ 58-yard scoring strike to Tyreek Hill on the third offensive play of the game wasn’t nullified by a questionable holding penalty.

Nullified by a holding penalty but holy hell Patrick Mahomes pic.twitter.com/Hl3kkbpkkd

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) October 12, 2020

Even Mahomes’ “bad” games typically provide plenty of fantasy goodness. This is thanks in large part to an underrated rushing floor that has been on full display since the Chiefs’ Super Bowl run:

AFC Divisional Round: 7 carries-53 yards-0 TD
AFC Championship: 8-53-1
Super Bowl: 9-29-1
Week 1: 0-0-0
Week 2: 6-54-0
Week 3: 4-26-1
Week 4: 8-28-0
Week 5: 6-21-1

Just once in Mahomes’ last 11 games has he failed to score multiple TDs; fire up the Chiefs’ franchise QB as the top-overall option at the position ahead of a likely shootout with Josh Allen and company.

2. ARIZONA CARDINALS QB KYLER MURRAY AT DALLAS COWBOYS (DAL -3, 52)

Murray got his passing efficiency going in the right direction against the Jets in Week 5; his average of 10.3 yards per attempt marked his first game this season with a mark over eight. There are still some concerns about the ability for him to consistently enable anyone other than DeAndre Hopkins, but obviously we’re dealing with a passer with high-end upside.

The only problem with Murray has been his performance under pressure:

Overall: 90.9 (No. 19 among 34 qualified QBs)
Passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield: 125 (tied for No. 5)
Under pressure: 24.2 (No. 34)
Kept clean: 107.5 (No. 16)

Murray will need to improve his performance under duress, but luckily his status as the QB position’s No. 1 player in rush attempts (41), rush yards (296) and rush TDs (5) gives him a top-10 floor even on a bad day. Only Russell Wilson has scored more fantasy points than Murray among all QBs at the time of this writing.

Don’t expect any sort of negative performance next Monday night against the Cowboys’ 31st-ranked defense in QB rating allowed.