Team of the Week
QB: Bo Nix, DEN
Nix was largely quiet for three quarters as the Broncos were held to zero points—but he exploded in the fourth quarter of a historic comeback with four total touchdowns (two passing and two rushing) on his way to 39.96 fantasy points. The second-year quarterback showed his full upside with some precision throws down the field and touchdown runs of seven and 18 yards in the final six minutes, so hopefully you stuck with him through early Denver struggles.
RB: Christian McCaffrey, SF
The receiving production for McCaffrey has been outstanding to begin the season, but he put on what felt like a complete throwback performance on Sunday Night Football—rushing 24 times for 129 yards and two touchdowns while hauling in seven-of-eight targets for 72 yards. McCaffrey is now averaging 22.9 fantasy points per game following the 35.6-point outburst, and he’s not been below 18.7 points in a game through seven weeks.
RB: Jonathan Taylor, IND
Taylor is the only runner averaging more fantasy points per game than McCaffrey, as the second three-touchdown performance this month boosts him to 24.0 points per game. Indianapolis has continued to operate like a machine on offense, and Taylor has seemingly walked through defenses at times—including yesterday with a season-high 32.7 fantasy points.
WR: Ja’Marr Chase, CIN
The loss of Joe Burrow (toe) was obviously a huge blow to Chase’s fantasy value, but Joe Flacco has brought it back up with a combined 26 receptions (on 35 targets) for 255 yards and two touchdowns over the past two weeks. Focusing on Thursday night, we saw Chase go for career-highs in receptions (16) and targets (23) with 161 yards and a touchdown, so there will be no doubting him as a high-end WR1 moving forward.
WR: DeVonta Smith, PHI
Philadelphia remained volatile on offense heading into Week 7, but the passing attack got on track in a win over Minnesota—led by Smith catching nine-of-11 targets for a career-high 183 yards and a touchdown. It was a performance that showed the all-around talent of the former Heisman winner, and Smith should be a more confident play against the Giants in Week 8.
TE: Oronde Gadsden II, LAC
After catching seven passes for 68 yards last week in Miami and recently getting talked up by Jim Harbaugh, Gadsden completely exploded with a 7/164/1 line in a shootout loss to the Colts yesterday. It was the fourth-most receiving yards for a rookie tight end in NFL history, and Gadsden looks like the real deal for Los Angeles.
FLEX: Quinshon Judkins, CLE
A.J. Brown (26.1 fantasy points) could have been the choice here, but Judkins (26.4) narrowly got the edge in 0.5 PPR leagues—rushing 25 times for 84 yards and three touchdowns. The performance was a flip from last week when Judkins had just 12 carries, and the talent of the rookie was on display with a 46-yard touchdown to get things started for him in a 31-6 win.
D/ST: Cleveland Browns
On the other side of the rain-impacted Dolphins-Browns game, Miami had four turnovers and absorbed four sacks—headlined by a pick-six on one of three interceptions by Tua Tagovailoa. The 24.0 fantasy points surely slanted a bunch of matchups, and Cleveland is worth holding with a few good matchups down the stretch.
K: Will Reichard, MIN
The Vikings kept stalling in Eagles territory yesterday, and Reichard was the beneficiary as he hit four short field goals (plus a 59-yard kick in the first quarter) to lead the position with 18.0 fantasy points. Outside of a miss in London before the bye that was hit by the sky cam, Reichard has been perfect on field goals (13-of-13) and extra points (12-of-12) to begin the season.
Surprise of the Week: Jaxson Dart
The numbers for Dart (294 total yards and four total touchdowns) were boosted by a couple of busted coverages and fortunate bounces in a wild game—but the rookie still came through for fantasy owners in a difficult matchup with 28.42 fantasy points. Although he was bottled up on the ground (as expected versus Denver), Dart had a late rushing score—which was his third in four starts and a major part of his fantasy appeal moving forward.
Disappointment of the Week: Luke McCaffrey
McCaffrey isn’t a big name, but a bunch of fantasy owners were counting on him as a plug-and-play option with all the injuries for Washington at wide receiver—so it was frustrating for him to bring in neither of his targets in a great matchup versus a Dallas defense that had been surrendering plenty of fantasy points to wide receivers. He did leave briefly after a hard hit on a kick return, but McCaffrey was more of a factor there (eight returns) despite 22.4 yards per reception and three touchdowns as a role player in the previous five games.
Rookie of the Week: Oronde Gadsden II
Jaxson Dart and Quinshon Judkins were options here, but Gadsden putting up 25.9 fantasy points as a tight end earned him the honors. Again, the rookie was talked up by Jim Harbaugh based on the flashes shown, and Justin Herbert clearly has excellent chemistry with him—putting Gadsden on the redraft radar in all leagues with how much the Chargers have thrown the ball this year.
Week 7 MVP: Bo Nix
Nix has been tremendous when the Broncos have played faster, and the comeback for the ages on Sunday showed why we view him as an emerging superstar both from a real-life and fantasy perspective. Next up is another potential shootout versus Dallas, and Nix needs to be started in all lineups as a no-doubt QB1 option.