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Fantasy Football Week 7: Rankings, Stat Projections and Top Waiver-Wire Adds

Fantasy Football
October 19, 2015

Few things can ruin your entire week quite like facing your friends and coworkers on Monday morning trying to explain yourself after your fantasy team’s laughable performance the previous week. No matter how much you claim, “it’s fine, I only need 340 yards and three touchdowns from Rueben Randle tonight,” you’re crying on the inside.

The NFL—particularly fantasy football—is as cruel as it gets. With these weekly rankings, projections and waiver-wire tips, maybe you won’t need that miracle on Monday Night Football to salvage your matchup! With three of the four teams on bye being undefeated (Green Bay Packers, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos), we could all use a little help. There’s a good chance everyone is missing a strong asset or two.

An overarching theme for Week 6 was that it seemed to be a relatively healthy one. Studs such as LeSean McCoy, Alshon Jeffery and Marshawn Lynch made triumphant returns. Big names like Marcus Mariota got a little dinged up, though he should be fine.

All in all, it was a pretty clean week. Now you won’t have to frantically check the waiver wire for guys like Charcandrick West, who I may or may not have dropped entirely too much money on in an auction league.

Oh well, it’s the holiday season. Here is your Week 7 NFL schedule.

Quarterbacks

Boom: Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars

Captain Garbage Time did it again on Sunday, hurling three touchdowns to go along with three picks to cap off his 331-yard day. Bortles also tossed in 37 yards on the ground for good measure. Jacksonville lost badly to the pathetic Houston Texans 31-20, a score made sexier by Bortles‘ late-game heaves.

In this fantasy world we live in, owners crave two things: yards and touchdowns. You know what they don’t care about? Incompletions and picks.

Bortles had actually been fairly protective of the ball up until the three-pick game, but you can’t overlook the 13 touchdowns through six games, including seven in his past two contests. Bortles right now is a glorified Jay Cutler. He will make some bad mistakes, but at the end of the day, he’ll probably help you out in terms of fantasy points. Add in the fact that Jacksonville is sure to be trailing early and often, and Bortles makes for a solid quarterback play.

If you employ Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning or Andy Dalton, give him a go. A decent matchup with Buffalo next week should do him just fine.

Bust: Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens

Flacco is a borderline QB1 as it is, but this week I’d stay away.

He put up numbers fighting from behind on Sunday in a 25-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, amassing 343 yards, two touchdowns and a couple picks. He will now take his 1-5 to the nest. A Monday night matchup with the ferocious Cardinals defense looms, and it would be surprising if we didn’t see at least one or two more of these.

Running Backs

Boom: Mark Ingram, New Orleans Saints

The Saints’ running back is coming off a two-touchdown effort against the Falcons, who have given up a ton of points to fantasy backs thus far. While Ingram has been chugging right along, he hasn’t yet put together a huge game.

That could be just around the corner.

The Saints are in Indy next weekend to face a Colts squad that hasn’t been able to stop a nosebleed. Ingram’s 23 touches in Week 6 were very encouraging given the presence of Khiry Robinson and C.J. Spiller in the backfield with him. Drew Brees‘ insistence on involving him in the passing game eliminates the power of those handcuffs.

Get ready for a big game from Ingram this weekend.

Bust: Charcandrick West, Kansas City Chiefs

I’ll admit it. I drank the Kool-Aid.

To be fair, the Chiefs offense as a whole was stunned without Jamaal Charles, but things should get easier as they adapt. West wasn’t too effective—nine carries, 33 yards, one fumble, one 15-yard chop-block penalty—but he did out-touch Knile Davis 10 to six.

After a subpar performance, we should all take a “wait and see” approach. Let West do some damage before putting faith in him. A Week 7 matchup with Pittsburgh is not likely to be the one that gets the West Knile Virus on track.

Wide Receivers

Boom: DeAndre Hopkins, Houston Texans

All aboard the Nuk train. Hopkins was unstoppable once again on Sunday, ripping off 10 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns. The switch to Brian Hoyer at quarterback paid dividends, as he was on the same page with Nuk all day long.

If you’re lucky enough to have rostered Hopkins in standard or dynasty leagues this year, he is obviously never leaving your lineup. For DFS sharks, pay as much as you need to for Hopkins while he is this hot. This outstanding lineup optimizer tool from DraftCrunch.com nailed big games from him, Foster, Matt Forte and Colin Kaepernick on Sunday, and you can bet Nuk will be one of the most widely added receivers once again in Week 7 against Miami.

Hopkins has seen at least 11 targets in every game due to the wasteland of receivers around him, which tells you all you need to know about where this train is headed. Lock and load.

Bust: Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions

We saw vintage Megatron on Sunday, as the poor Bears endured six catches for 166 yards and a score from him. He finally showed the explosive skill set that we had all grown accustomed to over the years.

The catch is that Matthew Stafford is not throwing for 405 yards and four touchdowns again anytime soon. That was a fluke. Sunday was Johnson’s first game over 85 yards all season, despite his 100-reception pace.

Don’t expect a similar outing against the Vikings in Week 7. Detroit employed a similar tactic in a Week 2 loss to Minnesota in trying to funnel the ball to Johnson, and it resulted in just 16 points. Megatron did post a good 10-83-1 stat line, but audibles are on the way. Stafford will spread it around more unless Johnson can get hot and rip off some big openings down the field.

Tight Ends

Boom: Gary Barnidge, Cleveland Browns

Are you kidding me with that projection?

Barnidge scored twice Sunday against the league’s best defense, and has now found the end zone five times in four weeks. Denver gave up three passing touchdowns through the first five games before Barnidge pulled down a pair of scores. He is fantasy football’s second-highest-scoring tight end at this point in the season behind only Gronkowski.

The 30-year-old late-bloomer has to be taken very seriously now. His chemistry with Josh McCown is clear as day, and the feisty Browns feature a bland running game that will give Barnidge his weekly heavy dose of targets.

If he’s still available in your league, pick him up right now. Also, find new friends who know anything about fantasy football.

Bust: Jordan Cameron

Ah, Cleveland’s pre-Barnidge breakout tight end.

Cameron scored his garbage-time touchdown in Week 6 against Tennessee, his first as a Dolphin. The Titans were unable to stop anyone, and Cameron was able to exorcise a demon because of it.

Miami got its running game on track in this game and was also finally able to dial up a pass rush. They looked exactly like many expected them to heading into the year, and there’s little reason to think it won’t be a similar result when they face Houston in Week 7.

I’m not buying Cameron as a reliable option. He has hauled in just eight of 25 targets over the past three games, so don’t be shocked if Ryan Tannehill starts looking in another direction.

Defenses

Yeah, I’d say that top projection is looking pretty good. The Rams may inevitably give up a few dozen touchdowns to Barnidge, but their ability to harass quarterbacks is top-notch. Sacks and turnovers are coming, and Rams’ defense owners have a good shot at a touchdown just like the Broncos got on Sunday.

Another great pick would be the Redskins. They have a sneaky good group and a tasty matchup with Jameis Winston’s Bucs.

You can’t go wrong with a lot of those top projections. There could be a bevy of blowouts next weekend, and one of those games could be Miami vs. Houston. The re-energized Fins defense will look to get after Hoyer and force some turnovers just as they did against Marcus Mariota in Week 6. Cameron Wake notched four first-half sacks, and the unit forced four turnovers as well.

Waiver-Wire Advice

Has James Starks Supplanted Eddie Lacy?

There weren’t a lot of huge performances from the league’s lesser-known talents in Week 6, but Starks’ two-touchdown day was noteworthy. Lacy has been a workhorse the past two years, but Starks got the start against San Diego and made the most of it. He ran all over the place for 112 yards on just 10 carries, notching both a rushing and a receiving touchdown.

Lacy? He got four carries for three yards and continues to look like a plodder. There are now some growing concerns that Lacy isn’t fully healthy, a notion that has been kicked around all season.

Starks has done enough to warrant a pickup. If you have an opening on your roster, Starks is worth holding onto while he enjoys his timeshare with Lacy.

Is Ben Watson for Real?

Watson dominated on Thursday night against Atlanta, going off for a career game of 10 catches and 127 yards and a touchdown.

Watson has now scored two weeks in a row, but that huge output came out of nowhere. He got a whopping 12 targets after receiving just 21 over the first five games. Sean Payton and his staff obviously saw a matchup they liked and squeezed everything out of it.

Because of that, I wouldn’t be too high on Watson. Should he churn out another 50 or 60 yards with a score against Indy in Week 7, I’ll give him a look.

What About the Quarterbacks?

Again, Week 6 was pretty rough on the waiver wire. Starks and Watson stuck out as the only two worthy pickup candidates, so we’ll take a look at the quarterbacks still out there.

In my Yahoo league, the top five scorers in Week 6 were Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Hoyer, Colin Kaepernick, E.J. Manuel and Jay Cutler. Obviously, Kaepernick stands out as the most compelling name in that group. Is he worth a pickup?

I’d say so. He looked to be on the verge of an implosion a few weeks ago, but he has posted back-to-back 20-point outings. I’d still steer clear of him, only because his schedule is insane. The 49ers’ next five games include two meetings with Seattle, one with the Rams, and the other two with Arizona and Atlanta. No, thank you.

Fitzpatrick is mediocre if you need an injury or bye-week fill-in. Cutler is the other one to look at now that he has his main target back in Alshon Jeffery. Don’t forget Cutler did post career highs with 28 touchdowns and a 66 percent completion percentage last year, and he’s posted a couple of good games here recently. You could do much worse.

All stats courtesy of Yahoo and ESPN. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Hussington to talk fantasy!

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