Top 3 Fantasy Football Storylines of Week 7 (2025)

An exciting pass-happy offense will get a critical contributor back this week. What will things look like with this mystery player back in the fold? An NFC North team is coming out of its bye, and it’s unclear who its starting quarterback will be. Finally, the first coaching domino fell. These are the biggest fantasy football storylines as we head into Week 7.

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Fantasy Football Storylines

What Will Kansas City’s Offense & Receiver Rotation Look Like?

Rashee Rice has completed his six-game suspension for his multiple felonies for a high-speed car crash, and he’ll rejoin the mix this week. Rice’s 2024 season was also cut short due to a significant knee injury, and it’s been almost precisely one year since he underwent surgery. Rice was healthy enough to participate in the offseason and play in two preseason games. Still, there’s at least some chance he’ll have rust to shake off from the lengthy layoff and the knee surgery.

Nevertheless, gamers who’ve stashed Rice can immediately insert him into their lineups. Rice is the WR12 in half-PPR expert consensus rankings (ECR) for the rest of the season.

Rice rejoins what’s already a pass-happy offense. According to nfelo, the Chiefs have the highest pass rate over expectation (+8.9% PROE) this year. Rice was a top-level performer to open his professional career. According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Rice had a blistering 0.25 targets per route run, 129 receptions, 1,488 receiving yards, 2.35 yards per route run (YPRR), 10 touchdowns, a 5.0-yard average depth of target (aDOT), 50.5% slot rate and 49.5% wide rate through 24 contests.

Rice should reprise his role as the team’s short and intermediate yards-after-the-catch (YAC) weapon, splitting time inside and outside. Xavier Worthy is an ideal stylistic complement to Rice. Per the data suite at Fantasy Points, excluding Worthy’s injury-abbreviated season debut, Worthy had a 71% route participation rate, 14.2-yard aDOT, 39.5% air yards share, 19.4% target share, 0.24 targets per route run, 22.4% first-read rate, 13 receptions, 145 receiving yards, 1.65 YPRR, one receiving touchdown and 15.2 expected half-PPR points per game in his other three contests.

Worthy also had a 58% wide rate and 40.9% slot rate in his non-Week 1 games. Worthy could see a slight downtick in first-read rate, but his role as a field-stretcher should remain unchanged. He’ll open things up for Rice underneath. Conversely, if Rice is gashing teams on YAC, Rice could open things up for Worthy deep as well.

Travis Kelce is almost certainly the biggest loser in fantasy value from Rice’s return. Kelce has a 5.1-yard aDOT this season, 16.9% target share, 0.20 targets per route run, 21.6% first-read rate, 28 receptions, 321 receiving yards, 1.78 YPRR, two touchdowns and 10 expected half-PPR points per game this year.

Kelce will likely see a significant decline in targets, but he can help offset a downturn in target volume if Kansas City’s scoring surges and Kelce gets in on the fun. According to the data suite at Fantasy Points, Kansas City’s 64.7% pass rate inside the 10-yard line is the third-highest mark this season.

In the previous three weeks, JuJu Smith-Schuster was third on the club in route participation rate (58.1%). He’s a poor version of Rice. I expect Smith-Schuster to slide behind Marquise Brown and Tyquan Thornton, since Brown and Thornton are entirely different archetypes of wideouts from the returning Rice.

In the last three weeks, Brown had a 52.4% route participation rate, 11.1-yard aDOT and 25% air yards share. Thornton had a 37.9% route participation rate, 25.0-yard aDOT and 19.9% air yards share. They’ll probably cannibalize playing time and deep-shot opportunities from one another. Either could catch a long touchdown any given week, but guessing when that will happen is likely a fool’s errand, and their floors are zero points in a top-heavy passing attack.

Patrick Mahomes is the QB1 in points per game (24.8), and he should be viewed as a top-five fantasy quarterback the rest of the season. Mahomes could even conceivably retain his spot as the fantasy football QB1.

Who Will the Vikings Start at Quarterback?

The Vikings are coming out of their Week 6 bye, and J.J. McCarthy practiced on Monday for the first time since he sprained his ankle in September. McCarthy also reportedly worked out with several Vikings wideouts last week.

Kevin O’Connell was happy with McCarthy’s work last week. He won’t put a percentage on how healthy McCarthy is, which leaves a question lingering about whether McCarthy or Carson Wentz will start this week. Wentz banged up his non-throwing shoulder abroad in Week 5, but it’s reportedly in a “good place.”

O’Connell is declining to reveal his starting quarterback until after seeing how the week plays out. According to RotoViz’s pace app, the Vikings had a 49% situation-neutral pass rate and ran 52 plays per 60 minutes on 77 plays in a neutral game script in McCarthy’s two starts. From Week 3 through Week 5, they had a 67% situation-neutral pass rate and ran 68 plays per 60 minutes on 98 plays in a neutral game script.

Justin Jefferson is a fantasy starter with either McCarthy or Wentz starting. However, Jordan Addison‘s and T.J. Hockenson‘s fantasy utility for Week 7 is contingent on Wentz starting. If McCarthy starts this week, gamers would be wise to use Week 7 to gauge if O’Connell will open up the offense or continue to run a low number of plays and lean on the running game before re-assessing their fantasy value.

Will the Titans Have Tangible Changes After Firing Brian Callahan?

The Titans fired Brian Callahan on Monday, making him the first head coach to be fired this season. Mike McCoy is expected to be named the interim head coach. Sadly, the Titans have been a dumpster fire this year.

Tony Pollard is the RB32 in half-PPR points per game (9.6), Elic Ayomanor is tied for the WR58 in half-PPR points per game (6.7) and Calvin Ridley is the WR66 (6.2). They’re a fantasy football wasteland, and Ridley left Week 6’s contest with a hamstring injury.

Will McCoy make sweeping changes and breathe life into the team? The former might prove true, but I’m doubtful of the latter. Still, Ayomanor is a viable end-of-the-bench player. According to the data suite at Fantasy Points, Ayomanor leads the Titans in route participation rate (72.9%) and is second in air yards share (29.1%) and target share (15.8%).

Ayomanor could see a slight uptick in usage if Ridley’s hamstring sidelines him. Fellow rookie Chimere Dike could also see more playing time if the team prioritizes playing their youngsters. Dike has just a 36.4% route participation rate. Dike isn’t even a deep-league stash, but gamers can keep him on their watchlist in those formats.

The backfield could be the most valuable source of fantasy goodness, depending on how usage shakes out. According to PFF, Tyjae Spears led the backfield in snaps (36), routes (28) and targets (five) and toted the rock five times. Pollard played 26 snaps, ran 14 routes, had two targets and led the backfield in rush attempts (10).

Spears is widely available and an intriguing waiver wire claim and bench stash in leagues as shallow as 12-team formats. Pollard is merely an emergency RB2 or Flex in 12-team leagues or deeper through bye weeks. However, he could get a lease on fantasy life if the rebuilding Titans trade him to a running back-needy team, making him a hold.

Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.