The fantasy football regular season is officially past the halfway point at the conclusion of Week 7. Unlike previous weeks, however, the injuries didn’t pile up in a big way this Sunday (to fantasy relevant skill players). Instead, for some players, their role on their respective offense became muddled in a big way.
The Cincinnati Bengals backfield is a mess. None of the running backs are worth rostering at this point in re-draft leagues. Just save yourself the headache. The same could be said with the Seattle Seahawks running backs. The vaunted Green Bay Packers skill position players were useless against a porous New Orleans Saints secondary. The loss of Aaron Rodgers severely depresses any upside of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, or Davante Adams.
Then there are players that had big expectations but have constantly failed to live up to the hype all season. A couple quarterbacks come to mind: Cam Newton and Matt Ryan. Both offenses were anemic in the red zone. Ryan eventually threw a touchdown on a spectacular catch by Julio Jones, albeit with 4:09 left in the game.
There was some good as well. Many of the top-tier running backs failed to disappoint. Six quarterbacks threw for 300 or more yards this week. Oh…and there was also Amari Cooper‘s fantasy explosion on Thursday night. Hopefully, Cooper’s performance helped more than just the teams sitting in last place in their leagues.
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Studs
Ezekiel Elliott (RB – DAL)
For all the stress Elliott is putting on the Cowboys and his fantasy owners from Monday to Saturday, he sure knows how to put worry to rest on Sundays. Zeke flat out embarrassed the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
Elliott took a screen pass 72 yards for a touchdown. He added 147 yards and two more touchdowns on the ground. Of course, the issue with Elliott has never been a lack of talent. His consistency on Sundays has been a blessing marred by his inconsistency off the field.
That’s not the case however with the 49ers. The inconsistency on defense is glaring. This was only the second time this season where an opposing running back has rushed for more than 100 yards. Unfortunately, in both, they allowed that running back to score two touchdowns on the ground. They’ve also been extremely susceptible to pass-catching running backs.
Julio Jones (WR – ATL)
For Jones, garbage time was production time. It also helped remove a monkey from his back. Up until the end of Sunday night’s game, Jones had not recorded a touchdown reception all season. In fact, his red zone touchdown reception was only his third in the past two seasons.
More importantly were the number of times Jones was targeted in the red zone against the New England Patriots. Jones received four targets in the red zone Sunday. Over the first five games he had a total of just two targets in the red zone. While Jones has only topped 100 receiving yards once all season, he’s still an integral part of the Falcons offense. Hopefully, Sunday is a preview of things to come. Next week he’ll take on a Jets secondary that just allowed three touchdowns of less than five yards to the Miami Dolphins.
Russell Wilson (QB – SEA)
Don’t look now, but Wilson has thrown multiple touchdowns in three of his last four games. Sunday’s win over the New York Giants marked the second time Wilson has thrown for over 300 yards as well.
Perhaps the most encouraging part of Sunday’s performance was that there was plenty of fantasy goodness left on the table. Wilson overthrew Baldwin in the third quarter on what was a guaranteed 63-yard touchdown. More than likely, fantasy owners invested a high draft pick acquiring Wilson before the season. It might have taken a while, but it looks like he’s establishing himself as a top-tier quarterback once again. Next weekend the Seahawks host the Houston Texans in what could be a surprisingly high scoring game.
Duds
Ty Montgomery (RB – GB)
If this is how Montgomery’s fantasy relevance goes out, it is with a whimper and not a bang. Not only did teammate Aaron Jones out-snap Montgomery 44-7 on Sunday, Jones also shredded the Saints’ defense for 138 yards compared to Montgomery’s robust six rushing yards.
It would be nice to believe that Montgomery could still regain a prominent role in the Packers’ backfield. Brett Hundley isn’t going to be asked to throw the ball 30 times in a game. For the immediate future, Montgomery is essentially forced to ride your bench. He’s too talented to be on the waiver wire, but his role is as foggy as Gillette Stadium was for Sunday night football.
Marcus Mariota (QB – TEN)
Mariota, in what appeared to be a safe matchup with the Cleveland Browns, disappointed immensely. Mariota and the Titans even were given eight extra minutes in overtime to make fantasy amends. Instead, the Titans signal caller threw for only 203 yards and no touchdowns.
What was particularly troubling about this performance was that the Browns were missing both Jason McCourty and Jabrill Peppers. The two best Titans receivers, Rishard Matthews and Eric Decker, combined for three catches for 40 yards. Combined might be a strong word considering Decker didn’t have a single reception. A win is a win in the NFL, but for fantasy purposes, it’s demoralizing to see an offense with this much potential struggle so much against the Browns.
A.J. Green (WR – CIN)
Just when things were looking up for Green, he put up a dud against a team he fared quite well against in recent years. Green caught only three passes for 41 yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers made a concentrated effort to keep Green from burning them on Sunday. He was only targeted five times all game, and Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton was under duress from the start of the game. This is becoming commonplace for Dalton and the Bengals passing attack. The Bengals offensive line is a turnstile.
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Matt Giraldi is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Matt, check out his archive or follow him @Mgiraldi.
