The Thursday-morning count of dead lineup slots has now gone five, seven, ten and twelve over four bye weeks. This week the Texans, Saints, Giants and 49ers are off, and the twelve break down as follows. Sean has Brock Purdy and Chris Olave on byes; Nick has Christian McCaffrey, who is also questionable, and the 49ers defense; Timothy has George Kittle; Jeff has his kicker, Dominic Zvada; Tim has the Saints defense; Owen has his kicker, Ka’imi Fairbairn. Michael has Davante Adams, on injured reserve, in his lineup for the fourth consecutive week. And two slots are simply empty: Owen won Michael Penix on waivers at 9:07 and had nobody at quarterback at 9:45, and John P. won the Buccaneers defense at 9:07, released the Texans defense to do it, and had nobody at defense at 9:45. Lineups lock by game; every one of these can still be fixed. The record of starters left in dead at kickoff this season is 1-5.

The week’s structural interest is in the series. Four of the seven games are between managers separated by a single game lifetime: Anthony–Timothy (8-7 Anthony), Owen–Kevin (10-9 Owen), Jonathan–John P. (10-9 John P.) and John E.–Tim, level at 6-6. The fifth, Josh–Michael, is 8-4 Josh and the sixth, Sean–mike, 10-6 Sean; only Nick–Jeff, 11-6, is lopsided, and it pairs the 3-4 team with the most points in its conference’s bottom half against the 5-2 team leading the Smith House.

The slate

Anthony (4-3) vs. Timothy (4-3). Anthony leads 8-7 and is the market’s No. 1 roster for the second straight week; Timothy has the second-most points in the league, 828.72, and lost by 0.92 on Monday with Dak Prescott’s 23.28 on his bench. Dak starts this week. Kittle is the bye problem; Saquon Barkley, Matthew Golden and Emeka Egbuka are questionable, Golden tonight. Anthony has Malik Nabers on the Giants’ bye — on the bench, correctly — and starts Justin Jefferson and Tetairoa McMillan, McMillan tonight, with RJ Harvey in the flex and Braelon Allen questionable. He also won Jaydon Blue on waivers.

Josh (2-5) vs. Michael (4-3). Josh leads 8-4 and scored 136.28 last week with every bye slot fixed. Michael has James Cook back and every other starter healthy and active except Adams, which makes this the closest thing to a full lineup he has run since Week 4. Josh has Chuba Hubbard tonight and Colston Loveland on Monday; Carnell Tate is questionable. Michael has nobody tonight or Monday.

Nick (3-4) vs. Jeff (5-2). Nick leads 11-6. McCaffrey and the 49ers defense are the bye problem, and he has Darren Waller tonight and D’Andre Swift on Monday. Jeff starts Sam Darnold again with Josh Allen on a second straight bye, Darnold on Monday night; Christian Watson plays tonight; Aaron Jones is questionable in the flex; Zvada is on a bye at kicker. Jeff has scored under 103 in two of his last three.

Sean (4-3) vs. mike (4-3). Sean leads 10-6 and has lost three in a row since 4-0, with 129.52 last week in the loss. Purdy and Olave are on byes; Josh Jacobs plays tonight, the Seahawks defense on Monday; Michael Wilson is questionable. mike lost waiver claims on the Jaguars defense and Hunter Henry on priority, won Elijah Mitchell, and then at 9:38 and 9:39 signed Chig Okonkwo at tight end and the Commanders defense — the sixth defense he has rostered this season, after the 49ers, Bills, Jaguars, Colts and Jets. George Pickens is questionable.

Owen (2-5) vs. Kevin (4-3). Owen leads 10-9; a Kevin win levels it. Owen’s empty quarterback slot and bye-week kicker are described above; he also won Devin Singletary, who is on a bye, and starts Omarion Hampton in the flex with Emanuel Wilson, won on waivers last Saturday, at running back and on Monday night. Kevin won Hunter Henry over claims from Timothy, Anthony and mike, and as of Thursday morning starts Jake Ferguson, who scored 0.0 on Monday, ahead of him. A.J. Brown is questionable; Coker and Lloyd play tonight.

Jonathan (5-2) vs. John P. (3-4). John P. leads 10-9; a Jonathan win levels it. Jonathan released C.J. Stroud on Thursday to win Dylan Sampson, who starts, questionable, beside Seth McGowan, and lost two claims on Chris Rodriguez and one on Kimani Vidal to a full roster before a second Vidal claim went through. Jayden Daniels returns from the bye; Amon-Ra St. Brown and Stefon Diggs are questionable; Tucker Kraft plays tonight, Smith-Njigba on Monday. John P.’s empty defense slot is described above; Jahmyr Gibbs and Rashee Rice are questionable, Bryce Young plays tonight, Jason Myers on Monday. A win is John P.’s 110th in the regular season.

John E. (2-5) vs. Tim (3-4). Level at 6-6 after twelve meetings. John E. released Geno Smith on Thursday, one week after Geno scored 21.48 in his lineup, and starts Trevor Lawrence, back from the Jaguars’ bye; he also won the Jaguars defense, which he lost a claim on in Week 5, and starts it. Zach Charbonnet, listed last week with a torn ACL and this week as questionable, is in his lineup with Luther Burden on Monday night. Tim has Lamar Jackson questionable again after two Out starts, Brock Bowers questionable, Rome Odunze on Monday and the Saints defense on a bye. A Tim win is his 75th.

Records and points through Week 7. All-time series include playoffs. Injury designations and lineups from Sleeper as of Thursday morning, October 29: O = Out, D = Doubtful, Q = Questionable, IR = injured reserve; bye = Texans, Saints, Giants or 49ers player in the starting lineup; empty = no player in the slot. Thursday night: Panthers at Packers. Monday night: Bears at Seahawks.