It wasn’t a great week for competitive football — only three of Sunday’s 13 games were decided by seven points or less, while two touchdowns or more decided eight games. Thankfully such concerns don’t make the games any less interesting from a fantasy football perspective. Hopefully, your fantasy team didn’t get blown out like the Cardinals, Colts, 49ers, and Broncos!
Here’s what we learned in Week 7.
Import your team to My Playbook for instant Lineup & Trade advice 
Amari Cooper is back
One of the most fantasy-relevant takeaways of the week occurred in the Thursday night game when the Raiders relentlessly fed Amari Cooper the ball to get him back on track. Cooper, who was a top-24 WR in standard leagues each of the last two seasons, had just 146 yards receiving through his first six games before piling up 210 yards and two scores on 19 targets in Week 7 alone. Cooper also had a couple bad drops, but his talent is undeniable, and the team’s dedication to peppering him with targets speaks well for his rest-of-season value.
That said, Michael Crabtree is still the Raiders’ go-to option in the red zone, as he proved once again by hauling in a game-winning catch on the game’s final play. Crabtree has outscored Cooper in standard leagues each of the last two seasons and is well on his way to doing it again, so if Cooper can attract WR1 value in a trade, he is a decent sell-high candidate.
The Raiders’ RB situation is in flux
The Raiders’ backfield pecking order was also altered on Thursday night. Oakland was expected to be an above-average rushing team, but that isn’t how it’s played out through the season’s first seven weeks. Marshawn Lynch has confirmed fears that he would fail to regain his past form, and his foolish decision to run onto the field and push a referee has resulted in a one-game suspension, opening the door for Jalen Richard or DeAndre Washington to seize this backfield.
Richard and Washington have split the backup job evenly for the last two seasons, and neither has stood out in their limited opportunities, but Lynch’s absence will allow them a chance to show what they can do. If either Richard or Washington has a big game in Week 8, it’s quite possible Beast Mode doesn’t get his old job back.
Latavius Murray is still a fantasy factor
Last week, we learned that Jerick McKinnon wasn’t a one-week wonder. This week, we learned that Latavius Murray can produce in this offense, too, and isn’t ready to cede his workload to McKinnon. McKinnon out-snapped Murray 35-to-31, but Murray had the far bigger fantasy day (18 carries for 113 yards and a TD).
McKinnon is still the preferred own for his explosive upside, but the Vikings’ offense is good enough to support two viable fantasy RBs. As long as the workload is split relatively evenly, McKinnon remains on the RB2 radar and Murray is a legitimate RB3/flex option.
Carson Palmer broke his arm, crushing the fantasy value of all Cardinals
When a top quarterback goes down, it often has wide-ranging consequences for the entire offense. Last week, Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone, derailing the Packers’ passing game; this week, Carson Palmer broke his arm, and the ramifications for Cardinals’ pass-catchers are similarly dire.
Arizona is currently second in the NFL in passing yards, but you can’t expect that to continue with Drew Stanton (and his career 14-to-20 interception-to-TD ratio) under center. Palmer is expected to miss eight weeks, so he can be dropped in fantasy leagues.
Larry Fitzgerald is simply too good to confidently bet against, but he now has father time and Stanton working against him, which makes him a volatile WR2 going forward. All other Arizona receivers are impossible to trust unless we see Stanton have some success. With Palmer out, the Cardinals will likely lean on Adrian Peterson, but he can expect to see stacked boxes, fewer scoring chances, and early deficits that force the team to abandon the run.
Brett Hundley did nothing to encourage owners of Green Bay receivers
Speaking of Green Bay, there was some talk during the week that Brett Hundley could do a reasonable job of keeping the Packers’ offense afloat in Aaron Rodgers’ absence — but the early returns aren’t good. Hundley rushed for a TD to salvage his fantasy day, but he completed less than half of his passes and threw for just 87 yards. Yuck.
The Saints defense has improved in recent weeks, but this wasn’t exactly a matchup with the ’85 Bears. Until Hundley improves, Jordy Nelson is a dicey WR2, Davante Adams is a risky flex option, and Randall Cobb and Martellus Bennett are waiver wire fodder.
The Falcons’ offense is in a rut
Sunday night’s Super Bowl rematch did not have nearly as much drama as the title contest last year, although it did provide a decent impression of the Fog Bowl. Atlanta’s offense limped into the game having failed to score 20 points in back-to-back games, and things only got worse for the Falcons’ against New England’s league-worst defense. But fantasy owners shouldn’t overreact to Atlanta’s struggles.
Devonta Freeman is still a top-10 RB, and if you can still buy-low on Julio Jones based on his lack of TDs (he scored his first of the year on Sunday), do it. Tevin Coleman is harder to trust at the moment, but he’s still quietly putting up low-end RB2 value.
Matt Ryan has thrown for multiple touchdowns just once in six games and was likely over-drafted in most fantasy leagues, but he’s not the worst buy-low target for QB-needy teams. The Falcons’ secondary pass-catchers (Mohamed Sanu, Taylor Gabriel, and Austin Hooper), however, do not need to be owned until the offense regains its footing.
Four-way RB committees are becoming a thing
With precious few NFL teams still utilizing a true bell-cow RB, RBBC has become a fact of life for fantasy managers. But four-way RBBCs? That’s just cruel.
The Seahawks have been employing one for several weeks since Chris Carson went down, and there’s no end in sight. Right now, there is no attractive fantasy option among Eddie Lacy, Thomas Rawls, C.J. Prosise, and J.D. McKissic. The Patriots are also now featuring four running backs, with Rex Burkhead healthy enough to join the rotation of Dion Lewis, Mike Gillislee, and James White.
But unlike Seattle, New England’s elite offense has proven that its lead rushing- and passing-down backs can have value even if they’re stuck in a messy committee. So consider Lewis and White solid RB3/flex options moving forward.
The Jaguars are the best running team in football
Even without star rookie Leonard Fournette for their matchup with Indianapolis, the Jaguars continued to pile up yardage on the ground. Chris Ivory disappointed with just 2.8 yards per carry, and no longer looks like the obvious handcuff for Fournette owners, but T.J. Yeldon emerged from the inactive list to explode for 122 yards on just nine carries. Both Ivory and Yeldon scored. Jacksonville is averaging 21.5 more yards on the ground than any other team, and assuming Fournette heals over the bye week, he’s set up for a huge second half.
O.J. Howard flashed his talent
O.J. Howard was the first tight end off the board in April’s NFL Draft, and on Sunday he showed why hauling in all six of his targets for 98 yards and two touchdowns. It was the first time Howard caught more than two passes in a game, and it will be interesting to see if he is given more consistent targets going forward.
The Bucs have no shortage of mouths to feed between Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, Adam Humphries, Cameron Brate, and multiple pass-catching RBs, and the shootout nature of this game may have worked in Howard’s favor. But Howard was a first round pick, so it would hardly be surprising to see him take some of the targets that had been going to Humphries and Brate.
The Browns may never win a game again
The first football game I ever attended was the Browns’ miraculous double-overtime victory over the Jets in 1986. Behind Bernie Kosar’s 489 yards passing, Cleveland came back from 10 points down in the final 4:14, a seemingly insurmountable deficit in those days. The next week was John Elway and “The Drive,” and you could argue it’s been all downhill for Cleveland fans ever since.
On Sunday, the Browns almost got their first victory since Christmas Eve 2016 — but they lost 12-9 in overtime. To add injury to insult, they also lost Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas, whose record streak of 10,363 straight snaps came to an end when he apparently tore his triceps. Browns fans need the distraction of fantasy football more than anyone, and they are strongly advised not to own any players from the hometown team.
Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud | Google Play | TuneIn | RSS
Andrew Seifter is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his archive and follow him @andrew_seifter.
