Guillotine League Week 6 Waiver Wire Options & FAAB Breakdown

Welcome to the Week 6 guillotine column, where I go through the top players from the teams that got axed last week, focusing on the waiver wire and FAAB strategies.

Bye weeks keep rolling this week so you’ll be without the services of any Chiefs, Vikings, Dolphins, or Rams. It’s a great time to evaluate your team and see where you stand. If you've been mostly at the top without any new catastrophic injuries, you can still be on the conservative side but if you’re barely hanging on, the purse strings should be opened a bit more.

Remember that bye weeks are temporary so do your best to solve issues in the most inexpensive way possible rather than blow your whole FAAB on the biggest name out there, unless you truly need them.

Before I get into Week 6, here’s some pertinent information on guillotine leagues.

How it works:

• Set up and draft your team just like traditional fantasy football
• Each week the lowest-scoring team gets eliminated
• All of the players from the eliminated team become free agents
• A weekly FAAB bidding war starts among the remaining teams
• Survive the chop and be crowned champion

Because it's a survivor-style format, you can start leagues any week of the season for as long as you want!

Get in now!

Some pretty big names made the top 50 chopped list this week and hopefully, we can find some usable bargain players, too.

Here are the top 10 players chopped across all positions and the percentage of leagues where they were axed.

Quarterbacks

There were seven QBs among the top 50 players chopped in Week 5.

Three of the top six QBs for the rest of the season are among the most chopped from last week. With byes and injuries, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, and Jordan Love become more valuable. Hurts is coming off a bye and is the most appealing due to the off week being behind him. Allen and Love don’t have their byes until Week 12 and Week 10, respectively. If you have a serviceable QB with a mostly solid squad you can wait as they’ll likely come around again, but if you need QB help now a bid of 12-15% is appropriate.

Sam Darnold was chopped in 11.3% of leagues (the second highest among QBs) thanks to a brutal 4.26 fantasy point performance last week. He was averaging 19.57 points per contest before that game and is currently engineering an undefeated season for the Vikings. Darnold is off this week but gets the 18th, 23rd, 29th, and 32nd ranked defensive units in schedule-adjusted fantasy points (aFPA) to enemy QBs upon return. With the bye, the Minnesota signal caller will likely be had for a fairly cheap bid of 2-4%.

Standard Waiver QBs

• Daniel Jones (64% rostered) 1-2%

Running Backs

Within the Top 50 most chopped players, 15 of them were RBs in Week 5.

De'Von Achane is not the easiest to decide on as his situation is nuanced. The Dolphins are unrecognizable without Tua Tagovailoa but he is eligible to return in two weeks. In Tagovailoa’s absence, Achane has been the RB54 overall in PPR scoring and the RB56 on a per-game basis. The RB himself is dealing with a concussion and is off this week so hopefully will be back on the field in Week 7. There's also the fact that Raheem Mostert was sidelined for three games and is back. Keep all of that in mind when placing a bid on the sophomore, but stay it in the 2-3% range.

Aaron Jones is another injury concern but HC Kevin O’Connell stated the hip issue is not long-term and the RB is currently “week to week”. The Vikings are also watching from home this week and when they return, they get a Detroit defense that is yielding the third-fewest aFPA to enemy backfields in 2024 (16.7 PPR). However, from Weeks 8-10, Minnesota gets the Rams, Colts, and Jaguars, who sit 24th, 28th, and 30th respectively, in that same metric. Jones is a risky add but will likely be inexpensive if you can hang on. Throw 5-7% his way and maybe think about adding Ty Chandler to secure that RB spot.

Breece Hall was chopped in 12.2% of guillotine leagues and has likely caused grey hairs all around the fantasy football space. The Jets RB is 31st among RBs in rushing yards but 17th in attempts, with just 2.8 yards per carry in 2024. The coaching switch in New York may shake things up for Hall as Robert Saleh was more defensive-minded and teams tend to rally around coaching changes, but of course, there's no guarantee there. Hall is still 11th in RB touches on the season and is worth an add, but don’t bid more than 8%, even though someone in your league likely will.

Jordan Mason so highly chopped is a bit of a surprise, but he did have his second-worst output of the season at just 89 rushing yards. He is third in touches per game (22.4) among RBs on the season and will continue to see high volume as long as Christian McCaffrey is on the shelf. If he’s available in your league, Mason is worth 20% of your FAAB.

Standard Waiver RBs

• Tyrone Tracy (42.6% available) 1%
• Tank Bigsby (44.2% available) less than 1%
• Ty Chandler (46.8% available) less than 1%
• Jaylen Wright (76% available) less than 1%

Wide Receivers

Twenty-three WRs were among the 50 most chopped players after the Week 5 games finished, which is up from 21 last week.

Deebo Samuel was the most axed player across the guillotine format at 16.9%. After missing Week 3, he’s dropped two stinkers and hasn’t found the end zone since the first game of the season. The talent is there and we have to hope things will break his way soon. If you need the WR help, Samuel is worth an add as he doesn't have a bye until Week 9, but stay under 10% in your bidding.

Chris Olave’s value is on a downward trajectory as he’s being out-targeted by Rashid Shaheed and his QB will likely be out for multiple games. There are also matchups with the Broncos and Chargers coming up, and both units rank in the top 5 in WR aFPA. He may go for more, but Olave is worth 2-3% of your remaining FAAB.

Last week wasn’t great for Marvin Harrison Jr. but his utilization is still high and he should bounce back against a Packer defense that is surrendering 39.1 aFPA to opposing wideouts this season. The Cardinals aren’t off until Week 11 so spending 8-10% on the rookie feels appropriate.

The Steelers sit 25th in the NFL in pass attempts with just 137 through five games, which hasn’t exactly helped George Pickens produce. He’s coming off his lowest output of the season and was chopped in 13.2% of leagues. If you need WR help he could be worth a stab, but keep it low (1%).

Malik Nabers was out last week while going through the concussion protocol and subsequently was on 12.8% of teams that got the axe. Hopefully, he’s back this week and continues to see the 15-target average from his last three contests. The rookie is the WR1 in PPR scoring on a per-game basis and the overall WR4 despite missing a week. Nabers is the rare guy to open that wallet for this early so if he’s there for you, a 22-25% bid is worth his services.

Standard Waiver WRs

• Jalen Tolbert (47.3% available) 3-4%
• Ray-Ray McCloud (53.7% available) less than 1%
• JuJu Smith-Schuster (91.2% available) 1%

Tight Ends

There were five TEs among the 50 most chopped players last week. I’m surprised it wasn’t more, to be honest.

Dalton Kincaid is the TE12 both overall and per game in PPR scoring yet it feels like he’s 456th. He’s been close to popping off for big games but hasn't put it all together yet. Three out of the next four contests are against teams who defend the TE very well, as the Jets, Titans, and Dolphins are all among the top 7 in aFPA to the position with an average PPR yielding of just 4.6 per tilt. He’s still worth the add since the position is so sparse, so throw about 3% his way if you’re struggling there.

Dallas Goedert was chopped at an 11.1% rate during his bye week. He’s been a bright spot in a mostly dull TE landscape, averaging 13.5 PPR points per game as the TE2 in that category. With his rest week behind him, Goedert is a solid fantasy asset, worth about 6-8% of the remaining FAAB.

Standard Waiver TEs

• Cade Otton (52.2% available)

For even more guillotine information from the man who invented the format Paul Charchian, check out the podcast Chop: The Guillotine League Podcast.