Cairo Santos · Chase McLaughlin · 2026 week 1

Cairo Santos or Chase McLaughlin?

Start Cairo Santos — barelyThis one is a coin flip — the projections are within 0.1 points. The matchup leans Cairo Santos (CAR allow the 19th-most K points), but you can defend either call.
PlayerWk 1Proj (PPR)MatchupForm L3Trade valueStatus
Cairo Santos START @ CAR 7.3 19th 9.7 – healthy
Chase McLaughlin @ CIN 7.2 22nd 8 – healthy

Ks vs CAR recently: Chase McLaughlin 10 pts (W16) · Jason Myers 10 pts (W17) · Chase McLaughlin 10 pts (W18).

Ks vs CIN recently: Riley Patterson 3 pts (W16) · Chad Ryland 2 pts (W17) · Andre Szmyt 9 pts (W18).

Who wins a straight-up trade?

Their trade values are effectively even — a one-for-one is a fair swap on the numbers.

Open in Start/Sit (any scoring) Open in the Trade Analyzer

More K decisions

Cairo Santos or Nick Folk?Cairo Santos or Tyler Bass?Chase McLaughlin or Wil Lutz?Chase McLaughlin or Nick Folk?Chase McLaughlin or Tyler Bass?
Game logs, matchup ranks and form are the 2025 season — 2026 hasn’t kicked off. Projections, schedule and trade values are current 2026 numbers, refreshed nightly.