Fantasy football start/sits for Week 7 at QB, RB, WR, TE

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 18: Jordan Love #10 of the Green Bay Packers celebrates after defeating the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field on October 18, 2026 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. | Getty Images Welcome to Week 7 of the fantasy football season! Last week gave us big games from some players we’ve grown accustomed to seeing big games from. Christian McCaffrey, Malik Nabers, Kenneth Walker, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba all did what they usually do. But some studs were just not their usual selves, especially running backs. Bijan Robinson for some reason had just 11 touches against the Bears, which is malpractice by any offensive play caller. Derrick Henry had the touches, with 18, but the Browns defense shut him down for just 60 yards and no touchdowns. Kyren Williams split work with Blake Corum in their surprising loss to the Cardinals, and ended up with just 13 touches for 67 yards and no touchdowns. After the game he was as upset as his fantasy backers, so maybe we can look at a squeaky wheel narrative for Mr. Williams this week? Bye Weeks The Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars. Los Angeles Chargers, and Washington Commanders will take a week off. We’ll be without big names like Josh Allen, James Cook, Trevor Lawrence, Parker Washington, Bayshul Tuten, and Jayden Daniels, but you will get a chance to not worry about Chargers’ players bringing your score down! Below, we’ll take a look at some starts and, you guessed it, sits! As usual, your mileage may vary as to who you MUST start, even if they’re in a bad matchup or haven’t played well. It’s always a tight-rope act when deciding who to start, so don’t feel compelled to sit a guy if you do not have a better option. Quarterbacks Start Jordan Love, Packers vs. Lions This is a no-brainer, as the Lions defense has been the worst in the league, especially at allowing fantasy points to quarterbacks. Love has cracked the Top 10 fantasy QBs for the first time this season in the last two weeks against the Cowboys and Bears. He has thrown exactly two touchdowns in all but one game, but he added a rushing touchdown in that one, giving him good consistency, but not a bunch of upside. The good news is that the Lions have helped all quarterbacks play better than usual. Jacoby Brissett, Tyler Shough, Geno Smith, and Josh Allen all had their best fantasy games of the year against the Lions. Bryce Young is the only QB not to have peaked against them, but he still threw for 329 yards and two touchdowns. You’re starting Love unless he falls in a pit of melted cheese on the way to the game. Kyler Murray, Vikings vs. Colts Murray played his best game before last week’s bye against the Saints. He didn’t blow the doors off the competition, but his connection with a now healthy Justin Jefferson was strong and he started running more (10-51). He also will get Jordan Addison back from his hamstring injury and the Colts will be without cornerback Sauce Gardner. Also, the Colts aren’t great against the pass, allowing the eighth-most yards per attempt and the eighth-most rushing yards to opposing quarterbacks. Sit Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs at Seahawks Mahomes is currently QB12 in fantasy. He’s played well, throwing two or more touchdown passes in all but one game, but this Chiefs offense is balanced and Mahomes doesn’t always need to throw the ball that often, which cuts down on his counting stats. He’s usually a start, especially during a week with four QBs on bye, but playing the Seahaawks in Seattle is going to be difficult. Seattle’s pass defense has given up the fewest yards per pass attempt and the fewest passing yards by a wide margin. Mahomes has been efficient, and getting a couple touchdown passes out of him isn’t out of the question, but I don’t believe that’s a given, and as no QB has topped 189 passing yards against the Seahawks, I’m skeptical of his upside. Tyler Shough, Steelers vs. Saints (Paris) Shough has been really good this season, with four Top 8 fantasy finishes in six games. He’s also had two duds against the Falcons and Vikings. The question this week is if he can play across the ocean in Paris against T.J. Watt and company? So far the Steelers have allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. The only QB to throw more than one touchdown against them was Joe Burrow. I like Shough and believe he has a chance to perform well for fantasy in tough matchups, but the travel and the matchup make this a hard start this week. Running backs Start Ollie Gordon, Dolphins vs. Jets Gordon has looked much better as the lead back in Miami than I expected. He’s shown explosive ability, and it shows up in the analytics, as he is Top 10 among all running back in explosive run rate. Of course, his team isn’t good and he doesn’t get a bell-cow-like snap percentage. But, this week he gets a good matchup, as the Jets rank 11th-worst in fantasy points allowed to running backs. The Dolphins are also coming off their bye, which I am hoping means they have evaluated their first five games and realized that Gordon should be on the field more. Jaylen Warren, Steelers Warren has shown he’s easily the best running back on the Steelers, but the team wants to give him rest by bringing in Rico Dowdle. The good news is that Warren saw 74% of the snaps last week against the Buccaneers. He still split work, with 14 rushing attempts and four targets to Dowdle’s seven attempts and four targets. This week they get a much better matchup though, as the Saints have allowed the most fantasy points to running backs this season. Sure, the Falcons scored five rushing touchdowns against them to skew those numbers, but the underlying metrics are bad, as they’ve allowed the highest rushing success rate in the league. Sit Chase Brown, Bengals at Ravens Brown has not been good this season, but he has remained the lead back. Samaje Perine outplayed him going into the Bengals’ Week 6 bye. Perine isn’t some up and coming back that we’ll see take over as lead back, but I do expect he continues to split time with Brown moving forward. This week they get a tough matchup with a Ravens run defense that’s allowed the seventh-fewest fantasy points and ranks fifth best in stopping explosive runs. They’ve also allowed the fewest receiving yards per game to opposing backs, which is where Brown gets a good percentage of his fantasy value. In the end, Brown is still the starter for a team with a good to great offense at times. He’s worth a flex in most leagues, but I don’t expect big numbers anytime soon. Emanuel Wilson/Zach Charbonnet, Seahawks vs. Chiefs Charbonnet returns this week to face the Chiefs, which will push Wilson’s work down. But, we also don’t know how much work Charbonnet will get. He practiced in full all week, so I expect he’ll be ready to go, but there is a chance they ease him back. The problem for the Seahawks’ running game isn’t who will be running the ball, but who they are facing. Kansas City’s run defense has been one of the best in the league this season. They’ve allowed just 3.5 yards per carry to running backs so far, while giving up the sixth-fewest fantasy points to the position. Wilson isn’t startable, but Charbonnet has enough upside to throw in a flex spot if desperate. Wide receivers Start Omar Cooper Jr., Jets at Dolphins Cooper broke out in his first full game last week against the Patriots. The first-round rookie injured his ankle in Week 1, so it wasn’t until Week 5 that we got to really see him play. Cooper now has 28 routes under his belt and has seen eight targets, catching seven for 133 yards and a touchdown. And yes, he’s a rookie and Adonai Mitchell may return this week from his finger injury, but I see no reason the Jets don’t make their first-rounder the No. 2 receiver behind Garrett Wilson and see if he can continue his hot start. And against a bad Dolphins pass defense, he has a good chance. Germie Bernard, Stelers vs. Saints (Paris) Bernard has stepped up as a PPR stud in the wake of Michael Pittman and Roman Wilson’s injuries. Over the last two weeks he has accumulated 17 receptions for 167 yards and one touchdown. The Saints play a lot of zone, and Bernard has been great against zone so far this season. Aaron Rodgers should be able to find Bernard for plenty of short receptions underneath and I expect at some point we’re going to see the rookie break one of these off for a big gainer. But, even if he doesn’t put up an explosive play, he fits Aaron Rodgers old-man style well. Sit Josh Downs/Keenan Allen, Colts vs. Vikings The Vikings pass defense and consistent blitzing will likely turn Daniel Jones inside out. Minnesota has only allowed three passing touchdowns and are third best in passing yardage allowed. Downs is pretty hard to start at this point, but Allen has been paying off in PPR leagues. That might not be the case this week though. Xavier Worthy, Chiefs at Seahawks The Chiefs tried to get Worthy going last week, as Patrick Mahomes targeted him a team high seven times, of which he caught all seven for 73 yards. He was used mostly as an underneath target, with just 31 total air yards against the Chargers for the speedster. This week he gets a tougher matchup on the road in Seattle. He’ll likely see a lot of CB Josh Jobe, which is bad for Worthy. Overall, the Seahawks have given up the third-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers and if Worthy isn’t getting open deep, I don’t like his chances to consistently put up good numbers. Tight Ends Start Tyler Kraft, Packers vs. Lions You’re going to want to start your Packers players against the Lions this week, but the best matchup of the lot is at tight end. The Lions have been absolutely awful against the position, allowing 51 receptions for 545 yards and 9 touchdowns in just five games. On average, opposing tight ends are catching 10 passes for over 100 yards and almost two full touchdowns per game. Sure, you were probably going to start Kraft, but he’s only been a Top 12 fantasy TE once this season. He’s getting the work, but some key drops and bad luck have held him back. This week I expect his fortunes to turn around though. Tyler Higbee, Rams vs. Raiders Keeping with the Tyler theme, Higbee is going to likely be called on to help replace Davonte Adams, who ruptured his hamstring last week. I do worry about Colby Parkinson stealing some work from Higbee, but a matchup with the Raiders should be one where both tight ends have good upside, and Higbee will remain the starter. This season, the Raiders have allowed six touchdowns to tight ends in six games. Adams was the Rams primary end zone target and I expect Higbee gets more work in the red zone with their star WR out. Sit Travis Kelce, Chiefs at Seahawks Yes, Kelce has still got that special connection with Patrick Mahomes and they still can get it done despite the veteran tight end being older and slower than dirt. But, this week it’s going to be extra tough. The Seahawks’ defense is stout against tight ends, allowing the third-fewest fantasy points and the fewest yards to opposing tight ends. All world TE Tre McBride did score against them, but he was also bottled up. Despite catching 8-of-10 targets, he ended up with just 41 total yards. George Kittle didn’t fare any better, catching 5-of-6 targets for just 24 yards and no touchdowns. It might be tough to find a replacement you can trust, but I do not trust Kelce this week. Harold Fannin Jr., Browns vs. Titans Fannin Jr. is coming off two awful fantasy games, as he only caught one pass in each game and didn’t top nine yards in either. But, he had been playing well, as he finished as TE3 and TE11 for Week’s 3 and 4. And with a bad Titans team coming up, it seems like Fannin could be in for a bounce back. Unfortunately, the Titans have been one of the better teams against tight ends. They haven’t allowed a single tight end to go over 34 receiving yards and they’ve faced Kenyon Sadiq, Dallas Goedert, Isaiah Likely, Mark Andrews, and Dalton Schultz in their six matchups.

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