Xavier Smith

Zero points in three played weeks this season, on one target the whole time, then two straight healthy scratches in weeks 4 and 5 of 2026. That is where the conversation starts and, honestly, where it ends. We had him at 36 points for the season before it began, and even that modest number is already out of reach at the pace he is running.

The path was never really there. Puka Nacua and Davante Adams took 55% of LA's targets between them last season, and Smith is listed sixth among LAR receivers behind both, plus Whittington and a rookie fourth. He ran a 21.6% snap share in 2025 and caught passes worth 4.4% of the team's targets. He turned 29 at opening day and stays undrafted-in-2023 depth on a McVay roster that keeps finding younger toys. His top week of 2025 was 11.2 points, and he finished above the position's weekly median in just 4 of his 16 games that season.

There is a cost to his profile beyond the role too: wideouts in his situation shed an average of 0.9 points a game from one season to the next. His 3.0 a game in 2025 already sat near the bottom of what a roster spot tolerates, and his yards per target fell from 21 in 2024 to 12.6. The year before that tells the same story, 6.2 points over 14 games in 2024, WR165 among 193 receivers. No injury designation since before week 1 of 2026, he is just not playing. Release him and put the spot on anyone with a plausible route to targets.