There is no getting around how difficult the first six weeks of this season have been. As I recently told a longtime reader of my work: there may be fantasy teams that have good records this year, but I do not know anyone (manager) who is having a great season (or a good time). I do not get the sense that the number of injuries has increased that much - if at all - this year. However, it is the combination of who is getting hurt with the bye weeks and the number of players who are underperforming that has turned seemingly every weekend over the last month into one more about survival and less about picking the best lineup.

To this end, I built the table to illustrate just how arduous a task setting a lineup has become. I organized each team's QB/RB/WR/TE depth chart based on how they were drafted in most leagues.

Key:
Yellow - Missed time due to injury at some point
Red Bold - Currently injured/could miss Week 7/out for the season
Gray - Underperforming relative to where the player was drafted (highly subjective)
Blue - Overtaken on the depth chart
Green - Traded
Orange - Suspended to begin the season

This may be the most difficult six-week stretch to begin a season that I can remember in 25 years of this hobby. I think the table above drives the point home. I also believe it is the primary reason why we see such a significant gap between the haves and have-nots at each position this year. Let's focus mostly on non-quarterbacks.

If you did not draft Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs or De'Von Achane, you can assume you are starting each week with a six-point deficit if you are facing one of them. If you did not have the foresight to draft or trade for Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Amon-Ra St. Brown or George Pickens (or roll the dice on Emeka Egbuka), you are once again likely six points behind the managers who did. The gap is less notable at tight end, although anyone who invested in the top three options at the position (Trey McBride, Brock Bowers and George Kittle) has not seen the payoff for doing so. Still, you are likely at least four points off the pace if you did not invest in Jake Ferguson, Dallas Goedert or Tyler Warren.

I named around 15 players in the paragraph above. There are 201 non-quarterbacks on the table above. Of those 201 players, 101 have missed time due to injury, are expected to sit this week, have fallen short of expectations, been traded, served a suspension or fallen on the depth chart.

What is the point of all this?

Look at your league standings. There is a very good chance there are two - maybe three - teams sitting at 6-0 or 5-1 and thinking this fantasy thing is easy so far. Honestly, if you are not one of those two or three, we do not need to be overly concerned about those teams. Among other things, regression is likely coming for them in terms of injuries, byes or the like. I am not suggesting they will fall back to the pack in two or three weeks, but Rico Dowdle and Bijan Robinson probably will not continue going over 200 total yards. Patrick Mahomes likely will not run for 10-plus touchdowns. Pickens and Ferguson will probably not score a touchdown every week.

The rest of the league is likely sitting at 1-5, 2-4 or 3-3, which is important to remember for this reason: about 75 percent of your league is in the same boat. While I cannot advise you to ignore where you are in the standings, I can ask you to think rationally. For example, I have a dynasty team with CMC, Taylor, Courtland Sutton, DK Metcalf, Jaylen Waddle, Davante Adams and Ferguson on it. That team is hovering around .500. How much can I really expect to improve that team?

A less ridiculous example is a team that I drafted CMC and acquired Puka Nacua late last week. That team is in ninth place. Why? Part of the reason for my poor record is that I started the season with a pair of losses was a result of Joe Burrow scoring less than 10 points in Week 1 and getting hurt in Week 2. My team is .500 since and that was before acquiring Nacua. Logic dictates that if I have two of the top four scorers in fantasy on my team and the rest of my team is even merely average (Daniel Jones was a good early add for me), I should be able to work my way back to .500 before the end of the fantasy season. That may not sound like much, but I have a strong feeling that a much larger-than-usual number of fantasy teams with losing records will be making the postseason this year. I assure you that a CMC-Nacua team in the playoffs will be a nightmare for any opponent and a title contender.

One last thing before I move on: managers in the latter predicament (not being one of the top two or three teams in the standings right now) will be getting Lamar Jackson, CeeDee Lamb or Bucky Irving back soon. If your team started off strong with them, the odds are their return will put you on the same playing field as the current "elites" in your league.

My advice: keep making the trades you would normally make to improve your team. I completed a trade earlier today (Oct. 16) in which I have a losing record and acquired James Cook on his bye week. I did this for multiple reasons. I, like most other managers, will be feeling the Week 8 bye-week crunch. More importantly, I may not make the fantasy playoffs with Cook, but I likely had no chance of doing so if I continued to start David Montgomery and A.J. Brown each week. The real reason that the team is in the place it is right now is because I lost Lamar Jackson and CeeDee Lamb around the same time.

I am not trying to peddle false hope. I was in a similar spot about this time last year when I made the questionable (at the time) decision after Week 8 to trade Raheem Mostert, Jaylen Wright, A.J. Brown and Cooper Kupp for Chase Brown, Ty Chandler, an injured Nico Collins and Tee Higgins. I had a losing record at the time and was actually lucky to reach .500 by the end of Week 14. That team won it all. I get it … that story is more the exception than the rule, but it came from the belief that my team was underperforming at the time rather than just a lost cause.

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Virtually every league will have its fair share of managers like the one who posted on the league message board that he was "willing to trade anything for a good receiver. (He could not find room on his injury-ravaged roster for Keenan Allen, however.) Not every manager (he is tied for last place with the second-lowest points for) will believe he/she is on the brink of a league title like this manager. (He told me while rejecting a trade for Allen that he is looking to consolidate his assets and then sent me a low-ball offer for Nacua.) My reason for sharing this story is to remind readers "that guy" exists in just about every league. More managers than not are sitting on a player who he/she feel is dragging down their team. Don't waste your time on the guy I just described above and find the managers who are willing to live a bit more in reality.

By and large, fantasy managers rely somewhat heavily on recency bias - and some almost exclusively on what their favorite analyst(s) are saying about a player because they are not watching them, more than likely - so we can take advantage of that.

Let's get right into the "underperforming" players I would be targeting:

Quarterbacks

Caleb Williams - The degree to which Williams' rookie season has affected people's perception of him in Year 2 should be studied in labs. Imagine the audacity of a player who was given the freedom to freelance in college to struggle leading a pro offense as a rookie. It is not just that either. While he did not help himself in many cases last year, Williams did not get much help from his offensive line or his offensive coordinator (Shane Waldron) either.

The Bears upgraded virtually everything they could this offseason, yet the perception of Williams remains roughly the same. He is the only top-10 fantasy scorer (points per game) at quarterback who has already had his bye week. He is also poised to excel over the next month or so with his next four matchups coming against the Saints, Ravens, Bengals and Giants. It is already a small victory that he is a top-10 fantasy quarterback, but there is room for more upside as soon as HC Ben Johnson is ready to unleash Luther Burden.

Running Backs

James Cook - This is one of those examples where recency bias opens a trade window. Do not get it twisted; chances are you will not land Cook unless he is being swapped for another high-level back/receiver or part of a two-for-one deal where the current Cook manager is getting two players back. With that said, it makes sense why managers would be slightly freaked out by his lack of involvement in the passing game over the last two games. Of course, the real reason for panic is that his touchdowns have dried up over that same time.

Let's be real about what happened over the last two weeks: Cook ran into a good New England run defense in Week 5. He was the only Bills running back to see a target in that game. In Week 6, he ran efficiently against another good rush defense in Atlanta, but he happened to come off the field at the wrong time (Ray Davis scored a short pass from 16 yards out - one of his two offensive snaps on the night). There is a very good chance Cook would have been back on the field on the next play. Football works like that sometimes. If Cook logs that snap instead of Davis, we are talking about his fifth game of at least 18 PPR fantasy points in six tries. I would also not be overly concerned about the recent lack of activity in the passing game. Cook is an excellent receiver, and I expect HC Sean McDermott and OC Joe Brady will have a talk during the bye week regarding how one of the highest-paid running backs in the league is not being maximized.

Derrick Henry - Henry is one of the more obvious buys in recent memory. Last week against the Rams was all the proof anyone should have needed that he still has "it," in case there was ever any real concern that age was catching up to him. He faced a good Cleveland run defense in Week 2. He was a bit of a victim of game script in Week 3 against the Lions. Lamar Jackson was injured about halfway through Week 4 versus the Chiefs. His managers could be losing their minds over five straight efforts well below last year's season average (19.9). The bye week only makes things worse.

While Henry could end up being more sensitive to game script than we have come to expect given the state of Baltimore's defense right now, he only has one matchup between now and Week 16 that figures to be daunting - a rematch against the Browns in Week 11. Otherwise, the Ravens face the Bengals twice and the Dolphins once during a stretch in which Baltimore will only see one defense that ranks inside the top 10 against fantasy running backs (Cleveland). I would be willing to bet that Baltimore has some of its key defenders back by the time more difficult fantasy playoff matchups against the Patriots and Packers pop up. Better defense should equal more commitment to the run, and we all know what happens when Henry has an opportunity to run more often. Very few defenses have an answer for him, even the best run defenses.

Others of note:

Breece Hall - Hall is a riskier bet than the first two, but the argument could be made that he has the most upside of the bunch. The current situation is what it is: Hall is a high-usage back on a bad offense. The upside is one of the backs who is rumored to be on the move - in the last year of his contract - actually gets traded. It is hard to think of the team in need of a running back at the moment that would not be able to increase Hall's fantasy potential.

Chase Brown - The fantasy season comes at you fast. Brown was routinely going in the middle of the second round at the end of the summer. Now, he could be had for a song. Making matters worse, he is losing a lot of work to Samaje Perine for some reason. I have my doubts that it will continue. Joe Flacco should stabilize the offense and lean more heavily on check-downs regardless of whether the defense improves.

However, this recommendation is as much about the schedule as anything else. The Jets (Week 8) may be decent against the run, but their lack of offensive firepower could lead to a heavy volume day for Brown. After that, the Bengals face only one more team that ranks in the top half of limiting fantasy production to running backs. The offensive line is and will remain a concern, but I would argue that it will naturally improve a bit up front as the season progresses because it will not be facing the same competition as it was in Weeks 1-6. If we can look ahead and assume Joe Burrow is back by or around Week 15, Cincinnati has a juicy playoff schedule for fantasy purposes: Ravens, Dolphins and Cardinals.

Wide Receivers

Stefon Diggs - Diggs has already shown us what is possible (Week 5), so he is more of a buy-high than he was three or four weeks ago. However, I am not of the belief that we have seen his best yet. Diggs ranks 78th among receivers in route participation (60.7 percent) and has run a route on at least two-thirds of the team's drop-backs in only one game. Maybe that mark does not increase until November, but it will happen sooner than later with the team sitting at 4-2 and in a first-place tie with the Bills atop the AFC East.

A likely increase in route percentage is not the only reason why managers should buy. (DeVonta Smith, Jakobi Meyers and A.J. Brown are examples of receivers over 90 percent who are disappointing us in fantasy.) Diggs fell back to earth in a big way in Week 6 (3-28-0 on three targets) in a matchup he should have been able to exploit (which his teammates did). Again, football works that way sometimes. It likely did not lower his price tag much, but this feels like the lowest his price will be for the rest of the season.

Jakobi Meyers - The decline of Geno Smith can be traced back to Brock Bowers' knee injury and, to a lesser extent, the Raiders' desire to move away from Meyers as the unquestioned top option at receiver. Meyers is running a route on 91.4 percent of drop-backs - a mark that ranks sixth among wideouts. His month-long slide has nothing to do with playing time; it has much more to do with him not being a bigger part of the game plan.

Much as the case with Hall above, the reason to consider adding Meyers via trade is the likelihood he will be leaving Las Vegas over the next 2-3 weeks. The Raiders likely eyed Jack Bech in the draft this spring as his eventual replacement. They also seem likely to conclude soon that a playoff run is not in their future this year. There are a handful of teams where Meyers makes sense, including but not limited to the Giants, Steelers, Falcons and maybe even the 49ers with all of their injury issues. He would likely take over as the top receiver in New York. In Pittsburgh, he would benefit from working opposite an alpha receiver (DK Metcalf) for only the second time in his career. The other two potential landing spots are less desirable on the surface, although I would argue it would be hard for either team to make him less of a priority than Las Vegas has over the last month.

Others of note:

Matthew Golden - Golden's price may have come up a bit after totaling 102 yards in Week 5, but I know he can be had at a decent price because I claimed him off waivers in a high-stakes league a couple of weeks ago. (No one else even bid on him.) The rookie is slightly ahead of Diggs in terms of route participation (64.5 percent). Given Green Bay's history of rotating receivers and the eventual return of Christian Watson (ACL), it is entirely possible that Golden's route participation does not change very much.

The reason to consider him as a potential viable WR3 option moving forward - at least for the next month or so - is that he appears to be the Packers' top choice to replace Jayden Reed with his heavy slot usage recently. Golden may not be the route-runner or physical presence that Reed is, but Golden definitely possesses more speed and quickness. To that end, there have been a handful of instances this season when Jordan Love and Golden just missed on a huge touchdown play. Those missed connections are the only thing keeping him from becoming a top-36 receiver in fantasy (as opposed to his current WR58 slot (WR61 in points per game).

Luther Burden III - We have already seen the mini-breakout. With that said, he has run a total of 47 routes in five games. A 25.3 percent route rate is not going to allow any receiver to be useful in fantasy, even if he is targeted on 26 percent of those routes. However, two things cannot escape my mind when I think about Burden:

1) He was likely drafted to handle the slot role in a Ben Johnson offense. The same play-caller that featured Jarvis Landry and Amon-Ra St. Brown during their best seasons;

2) This tweet. Burden currently has 150 yards, 65 of which came on the memorable flea-flicker touchdown in Week 3.

No one is saying he is the next anyone. He has more competition for targets than St. Brown ever had. What is clear - whether he finds himself a regular role this year or next - is that he has some serious juice. It is unlikely anyone currently sitting on waivers - in well over half of leagues, depending on the platform - possesses his upside.

Tight End

Harold Fannin Jr. - I'm not sure there is a tight end that I would say is a massive buy, but AJ Barner and Fannin strike me as the most underappreciated tight ends in fantasy at the moment. Sticking with the familiar theme of players benefiting from a trade - whether they are on the move or benefiting from someone who is - Fannin is essentially sharing snaps with David Njoku, who is in the final year of his contract. Fannin's usage from the start of the season has made it very clear that the Browns believe he is the future at the position. Cleveland has also made it clear with its actions that it is not playing for 2025, so holding Njoku until his contract expires makes little sense.

The reason to get excited about Fannin is how hyper-targeted the tight end position has been in Cleveland this season. Browns quarterbacks have attempted 144 throws through six games - 76 of which have gone to the tight end position. Fannin ranks second on the team with 38 targets, while Njoku has 36. While it is never as simple as removing one player from the mix and giving the other player all of his targets, it seems logical to believe that Fannin would absorb roughly 75 percent of the targets that Njoku leaves behind if he is traded. That assumption would put him just under 11 per game.

Even if we assume Fannin only absorbs 50 percent of Njoku's vacated targets, he would rank just ahead of Jake Ferguson (51) for the season with 54 (nine per game). Why do I feel confident about little changing in terms of the distribution? Jerry Jeudy has been one of the more inefficient receivers this season, Cedric Tillman (hamstring) remains on IR and Isaiah Bond has caught only four of his 12 targets from Dillon Gabriel. I am not predicting a Ferguson-like rise from Fannin in 2025, but it is hard to ignore the fact that Fannin is the only Browns pass-catcher who seems to be thriving with Gabriel.