Chase McLaughlin · Trey Smack · 2026 week 1

Chase McLaughlin or Trey Smack?

Wondering who you should start this week — Chase McLaughlin or Trey Smack? The start/sit call and the numbers behind it are below, plus who wins a straight-up trade. Rebuilt nightly.

Start Trey Smack — barelyThis one is a coin flip — the projections are within 1 points. The matchup leans Trey Smack (MIN allow the 9th-most K points), but you can defend either call.

Player	Wk 1	Proj (PPR)	Matchup	Form L3	Trade value	Status
Chase McLaughlin	@ CIN	6.2	22nd	8	–	healthy
Trey Smack START	@ MIN	7.2	9th	–	–	healthy

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

Ks vs MIN recently: Ben Sauls 7 pts (W16) · Jake Bates 5 pts (W17) · Brandon McManus 3 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

Chase McLaughlin or Matt Gay?Chase McLaughlin or Wil Lutz?Chase McLaughlin or Nick Folk?Trey Smack or Ryan Fitzgerald?Trey Smack or Blake Grupe?Trey Smack or Chris Boswell?

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.