For the first time in their head-to-head history, Justin Herbert will not be the top scorer for Alex. Instead, it’ll likely be Josh Allen who has paced his team in four of the first five weeks this season. Only Stefon Diggs’ 38.50-point effort in Week 2 has prevented Allen from leading Alex in scoring all five weeks.

Cory is coming off a narrow victory over Andrew Perez in Week 5; he had a margin of victory under half a point and was saved by a Green Bay special teams fumble. It was the 26th game in AFL history decided by less than a point and one of two such games last week.

Despite a poor outing for Cory last week, his team is more than capable of a big bounce back, similar to the rebound Alex had in Week 4 after a Week 3 performance that was even worse than Cory’s last outing.

This should be a great matchup. The NFL’s bye week schedule begins this week, but only one player rostered in this matchup is on bye this week and that’s Derek Carr, who wouldn’t have been playing this week anyway since the aforementioned Josh Allen is going to start every week for Alex, maybe even during his bye week.

Alex has a chance to earn back-to-back Tom Brady and Peyton Manning Awards this week after achieving the double in Week 5. Including last week, this feat has happened 30 times in AFL history, and twice already this season. If Alex pulls it off, he’ll be the third manager to win both in back-to-back weeks. Eric Meyer did it in 2016 and Alex Kincaid did it just last season.

Cory is playing in his 25th career Game of the Week. He’s 13-11 in his appearances. Including last week’s victory, Alex is 3-5 in his eight career game of the week matchups.

Current Coaching Risks

Alex currently has the Bills slated into his starting defense spot. They play the Chiefs this week and FleaFlicker suggests he should instead take advantage of the Colts’ matchup with the Jaguars.

Cory decided to cut Matt Gay this week, and FleaFlicker likes that move. But he added Chase McLaughlin when the best healthy kicker available according to platform projections was Greg Zuerlein.

The head-to-head history between these two managers has been very back-and-forth, but it’s rarely close. Their first matchup last season in Week 7 was the first time a game between Sean and Will was decided by single digits. Sean got the better of Will in that game 144.24-141.10, but Will got revenge in the final game of the regular season. This will be their only regular season matchup of 2022.

Derrick Henry has been leading the way for Will each of the past three games, averaging 25.77 points in that stretch, but Will has no wins to show for those performances and hasn’t won since his Week 1 victory against Eric, which the latter got revenge for in Week 5.

Somebody is going to have to pick up the slack this week for Will if he wants to win, though. Henry is on bye. If there’s a silver lining for Will, Sean is going through a bit of bye week hell as Dameon Pierce, Davante Adams, and Daniel Carlson are all on bye. Pierce led Sean’s team in scoring in Week 4 and Adams led the way in Week 5.

There’s a chance Sean will be without Adams for multiple weeks as a suspension could be on the horizon for his post-game conduct on Monday night, but that’s a story to be resolved later.

Both managers have injuries to watch this week. For Sean, Saquon Barkley has been limited by a shoulder injury and Tyler Higbee has been out of practice with an ankle issue. On Will’s side, James Conner (ribs) and Pat Freiermuth (concussion) are also missing practice reps and appear to be on the doubtful side of questionable for this week.

Current Coaching Risks

Sean has a slew of coaching risks based on his current lineup. He has Khalil Herbert slotted into his FLEX, but with all his bye weeks, FleaFlicker strongly suggests Drake London should be in his lineup. Sean also has Darrell Henderson in a FLEX spot instead of Kittle, who has a higher projection. And finally, Sean added and is starting Graham Gano while Daniel Carlson is on bye, but FleaFlicker offers the same advice it gave Cory and says he should have picked up Greg Zuerlein instead.

Will hasn’t updated his roster yet this week, so this will change, but he currently has Derrick Henry in his starting running back spot despite the Titans being on bye. Moving Devin Singletary to RB would free up one FLEX spot which FleaFlicker says he should use on Darnell Mooney. The platform also suggests he replace James Conner with Brandon Aiyuk in the FLEX based on current projections.

With five head-to-head matchups in the past two seasons, these two have become very familiar with each other. Stephen went 3-2 in that stretch including a victory over Evan in the 2020 AFL Championship game.

Stephen had at least one 30-point performer in four of those five matchups between 2020 and 2021, but his team is looking a bit weaker this season and Evan hopes to take advantage of that this week. Neither team has any players on bye this week, so it’ll be fun to see both teams at full strength for their only meeting of the 2022 regular season.

Both managers will be watching the injury situations for their wide receiver corps. Neither Cooper Kupp nor Mike Williams practiced Wednesday for Evan; Kupp is dealing with a foot injury and Williams missed practice due to an illness.

On Stephen’s side, Tee Higgins continues to work through an ankle injury that kept him out of practice Wednesday while Chris Godwin is has injuries to both his hip and knee.

Russell Wilson expects to be healthy for Stephen this Sunday, but it appears he’s ready to bench Mr. Extremely Limited in favor of Trevor Lawrence. Of more interest will be Jonathan Taylor, who missed practice on Wednesday, but the Colts think has a chance to start this weekend. That would be a huge lift for Stephen.

Current Coaching Risks

Stephen is currently starting Trevor Lawrence at quarterback, but FleaFlicker is holding onto its faith in Russell Wilson as a better option despite his questionable injury designation. The platform also suggests he should have Jonathan Taylor in his lineup instead of Tee Higgins (both players are questionable for Sunday) and the Dolphins defense instead of the Cowboys.

Evan has no coaching risks based on his current lineup and current FleaFlicker projections.

The four-game lead Brandon holds in the all-time series against Andrew all games from their four most recent meetings. Brandon had one of the worst seasons ever and won just three games; two of them came against Andrew.

Andrew hasn’t had a single player lead his team in scoring in multiple weeks yet this season, so while he has some balance, he doesn’t appear to have a ringer who he can count on week in and week out to give him a lift.

Brandon, meanwhile, has two of those in Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. The biggest concern for Brandon is his receiver corps. He’s started four receivers in each of the past two weeks and they’ve combined for just 40.69 points; that’s barely more than 5 points per player per start!

With four rostered receivers currently questionable for this week, Brandon may have to do some serious roster management this week. Meanwhile Andrew will be watching for confirmation that Aaron Rodgers’ Wednesday DNP is no big deal and will checking on Hayden Hurst’s status with his groin injury as Sunday approached.

Current Coaching Risks

Brandon currently has Chase Edmonds, who had just one carry for one yard last week, in his starting lineup. FleaFlicker says Mike Boone would be a better option for him.

Andrew has an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver based on FleaFlicker projections. The platform does say that he should be starting Tyler Lockett instead of Gabe Davis at FLEX.

This matchup has been very streaky through our league’s history. William won back-to-back matchups in 2014 and 2015. Anthony got him back with consecutive wins in 2016 and 2017. Then William went on a 4-game winning streak from 2017 through 2019 before Anthony won three in a row.

William won their second matchup last season in Week 13 by a comfortable score of 132.18 to 86.52.

For the first time since 2019, we’ll only get one edition of the “Battle Bowl” this regular season so the brothers will look to make the most of it.

Both managers are dealing with bye weeks, but Anthony certainly seems to have the worse situation of the two. The only player of consequence William is missing, besides D’Andre Swift who is injured anyway, is T.J. Hockenson. In some ways, William might be thankful to be saved from the headache of starting him and wondering whether he’ll get more than 30 points or less than 0 points; both outcomes have happened in the past two weeks.

On the other sideline, Anthony has several noteworthy players on bye, including Amon-Ra St. Brown, who is the AFL’s WR12 despite scoring just 3.15 points combined in the past two weeks. Brandin Cooks is also on bye; he’s been in Ant’s starting lineup every week this season, though he probably shouldn’t to be fair considering he’s our league’s WR44.

Of more consequence if going to be the absence of Josh Jacobs during the Raiders bye week. Jacobs is the RB4 in our league following consecutive 30-point outings.

Ant is hoping for lightning to strike twice. He seems poised to start Taysom Hill in the FLEX if his rib injury doesn’t prevent him from playing this week.

Current Coaching Risks

Anthony is currently planning to rule the dice on Taysom Hill if the Saints hybrid player is active this week. Even if he plays, it seems FleaFlicker things his 16th round keeper, Cam Akers, should finally crack Ant’s lineup this week.

William once again is being advised to start Harrison Butker over Younghoe Koo if the Chiefs kicker is active this week. This has become almost a running gag at this point.

The second matchup between these two in 2021 was the first time in series history either team failed to score 100 points, and both fell under in a 98.18-75.54 snoozer.

Usually, we see 30- and even 40-point performers when these two match up, but neither team has been very good so far this season so it doesn’t seem like that early trend of track meets is going to reemerge this year.

Like Andrew Perez, Alex hasn’t had any player lead his league in scoring in multiple weeks this season. But then, neither has Eric. Both managers have logged just one Top 6 scoring week all season.

Eric will have to manage bye weeks for Jamaal Williams, Robert Woods, and Darren Waller this year, though it seems likely Waller would not have been active this weekend if the Raiders had a game. Alex will be at full strength this week with no bye weeks, though he will have to manage injuries to Kyle Pitts and Jahan Dotson, the latter of whom has already been ruled out for Week 6.

Current Coaching Risks

Eric added Evan Engram this week and is slotting him into his starting tight end spot. FleaFlicker suggests he should have added Robert Tonyan, who had the highest projection among healthy waiver wire options at the time.

Alex added the Saints defense on Wednesday, but FleaFlicker thinks the best available option is the Commanders.