Fantasy Football Outlook: Tutu Atwell, Jaylen Waddle, Kyle Pitts, Deebo Samuel

Every week we’ll bring you The Primer, a deep dive into every fantasy-relevant player from every NFL game of the week. You can find the full weekly Primer here. Below we dive into a few notable players ahead of this weekend’s games.

Fantasy Football Outlook

Kyle Pitts: Since Week 2, Pitts has had a 20.5% target share, a 30.4% air-yard share, 1.27 YPRR, and a 23.5% first-read share (third-best). Last week was Pitts’ first game, surpassing 50 receiving yards. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come for a player who has not looked like he’s 100% if you turn on the tape. Pitts is third on the team in deep targets. If Ridder does attack this pass defense deep, he should be involved. Pitts is tied with Jonnu Smith and Robinson for second on the team in red zone targets. Washington has allowed the tenth-fewest fantasy points and only one receiving touchdown to tight ends. Week 6 Positional Value: Borderline TE1

Jaylen Waddle: Waddle has been relatively quiet this season as the WR40 in fantasy. His highest weekly fantasy finish was last week as WR20, with 35 receiving yards and a score. He did see a season-high ten targets last week. This looks like the possible Waddle blow-up game that we’ve been waiting for. Against zone coverage, Waddle has a 19.6% target share, a 19.3% air-yard share, 2.84 YPRR, and a 20.6% first-read share. Waddle’s role in this offense is as the zone beating underneath YAC threat. Among 92 qualifying receivers, Hill ranks fifth-best in YAC per reception, but he is still behind Waddle, who is third-best behind only D.J. Moore and Nico Collins. Carolina has the fourth-most missed tackles this season. Week 6 Positional Value: low-end WR1

Tutu Atwell: Atwell faded into the background last week, with Kupp and Nacua stealing the show. He had an 87% route run rate with a 13.5% target share and an 18.9% air-yard share. He led the trio with a 56% slot rate as the group rotated positions. I expect Sean McVay to continue to slightly lean Atwell’s direction for slot rate of the three to get him against off-coverage. Atwell will tangle with Jalen Thompson (76.5% catch rate and 83.5 passer rating) and Antonio Hamilton (66.7% catch rate and 77.8 passer rating) this week. Week 6 Positional Value: WR4

Deebo Samuel: Samuel has a 15.9% target share (third on the team), a 26.1% air-yard share, 1.45 YPRR (fourth on the team), and a 17.6% first-read share (third) against man coverage. Samuel has taken a backseat to Aiyuk and Kittle against man-heavy secondaries. Samuel has averaged 13.3 rushing yards in three meetings with man-coverage-heavy defenses this season. Considering the Browns are vulnerable to rushing, we could see Samuel get 4 to 5 carries this week in addition to the pass game work. He has two five-carry outings this season. Samuel will run about 64% of his routes against Denzel Ward (54.2% catch rate and 103.5 passer rating) and Martin Emerson (28.6% catch rate and 50.9 passer rating). Week 6 Positional Value: WR3 with WR2 upside if he gets some rushing work