Is Patrick Mahomes playing tonight? Exploring Chiefs QB's fantasy outlook for Week 5 MNF

The 4-0 Kansas City Chiefs have somehow kept the momentum going through four weeks of football despite having a laundry list of injuries to deal with. You always have a shot to win the game when you have Patrick Mahomes under center but even the three-time Super Bowl champion's powers are being stretched with Rashee Rice, Isiah Pacheco and Hollywood Brown out injured.

We haven't seen the wizardry of Mahomes yet, which is understandable, given the state of the Chiefs offense, but with a mixed bag of a schedule up ahead, Week 5 against the New Orleans Saints is as good a time as any for Mahomes to take it up a notch.

Despite a long, long list of injuries to major players, the Chiefs don't have to worry about Mahomes suiting up on Monday Night Football. However, it will be interesting to see if we see Travis Kelce feature heavily later tonight, given Xavier Worthy has struggled to take on the playmaking burden through four weeks of football.

Kansas City Chiefs v Atlanta Falcons - Source: Getty

Patrick Mahomes' fantasy outlook for Week 5

Heading into Week 5 of Monday Night Football, Mahomes is currently QB16 in fantasy points per game but there are several factors to that stat.

Marquise 'Hollywood' Brown was a major addition in free agency and was expected to change the dynamic of this Chiefs offense especially after they drafted rookie speedster Xavier Worthy.

With both Brown and Rashee Rice out of the picture, Mahomes will have to rely a little more heavily on the rookie WR, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mecole Hardman and Skyy Moore.

Moore has not been in the best of forms so it will be interesting to see if Mahomes can get him going early on. The Chiefs also have the option to get the run game going as Kareem Hunt has looked more than capable since taking the majority of the workload over from Carson Steele.

That said, unfortunately, there's not a lot to like about Mahomes' fantasy outlook this week against New Orleans.

Patrick Mahomes' fantasy outlook for Week 5

Sportskeeda's Start/Sit Optimizer projects a marginally better return for Mahomes as opposed to Derek Carr but the Saints have a cleaner bill of health this week. Chris Olave is back after suffering a hamstring scare, while Rashid Shaheed has also impressed in nearly every week so far.