Malik Benson

Benson has played all five weeks of 2026 and come away with two catches on eight targets, 12 receiving yards, minus-8 on his one carry and 0.5 points a game. Week 5 of 2026, 1.6 points, is his season high. There is no trend line here pointing up, and the team context offers none either: he is listed fourth among LV receivers behind Tre Tucker, Jalen Nailor and Jack Bech, and the target picture we charted before the season had Brock Bowers at 24% and Tucker at 19% of LV's 2025 targets, 42% between them. A rookie fighting for scraps behind that group was always going to need an injury or a camp takeover, and neither has arrived.

The one thing in his favor is the new staff. Klint Kubiak and Andrew Janocko are both running this offense for the first time in 2026, so nobody's role is inherited, and Benson was a sixth-round pick this spring rather than a leftover. But five weeks in, the depth chart has not budged. Our preseason number was 19 points over the 9 games we expected from him, a pace of 2.1 a game, and he is under half of that while playing every week, so the misses are not even the reason he is behind.

On a roster with real games left, he is dead weight you cannot start in week 6 of 2026 or any week after. His bye comes in week 13 of 2026, far past the point where this matters. We would let him go and spend the spot on a receiver who is actually seeing targets, and only a run of injuries ahead of him on the depth chart would change that.