Fantasy Football Rankings Week 7: Sleepers, starts, sits — Kenyan Drake, Rondale Moore, and more (2024)

Jake’s fantasy football rankings for week 9 feature sleeper picks, starts and sits.

The bye weeks are even tougher for the Week 7 fantasy football rankings, with top quarterbacks and wide receivers unavailable. Running back is becoming even more of a mess too, so don’t forget to read the 101 piece for difficult start or sit questions, potential trade ideas and more strategy to help you make it through with a win.

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#CheckTheLink-age
Waivers | True SOS (APA — Wednesday update)
Fantasy Football 101 (starts, sits, trading, more)
All in Football (video pod)

2022 Week 7 Fantasy Football Sleepers

🚨 HEADS UP 🚨 These are sleepers. They will not mimic my rankings 100%. This is chasing upside and often carries more risk.

QUARTERBACK

POSSIBLY START: Jared Goff, DET — Goff is better indoors, mainly in the touchdown department. The Cowboys are a tough matchup, but with Dak Prescott back, we can hope Goff is forced to keep pace, which he has the weapons for, in addition to his feet being on turf. Matthew Stafford was able to throw for 308-1 in Week 5, and if Goff hits the 300 mark, he’ll likely have more than one touchdown and have you celebrating.

RUNNING BACK

POSSIBLY START: Kenyan Drake, BAL — Since it’s just Drake, then “We love the Drake!” Well, until he burns us again. But, if there is a team that can help Drake put up back-to-back stud weeks, it’s the Browns, allowing over 5.5 YPC, with eight rushing touchdowns already. Look at what Rhamondre Stevenson did only as a rusher, and even 19-76-1 would be an amazing spot-start for your fantasy team.

HAIL MARY START: James Robinson, JAX — While the Giants haven’t given up many rushing touchdowns, Drake’s Week 6 performance shows how susceptible they are to the run. Just burst up the middle, and you too could get a nice chunk play. Running backs are averaging 5.5 YPC against the Giants, and Robinson has the 10th-most Goal-to-Go attempts (six — tied with Saquon Barkley and others) with a nice 3.44 YAC rushing average, alongside Derrick Henry and Dalvin Cook. With the split, we’re hoping for a touchdown, but a few big plays could be enough.

WIDE RECEIVER

POSSIBLY START: Alec Pierce, IND — If you listened to either podcast, you had to know Alec Muthaduckin Pierce was going to be here. Pierce has three-straight scores between 10.0-12.4 points with a 22-15-210-1 line. In fact, Pierce’s first game in that series was his 6-4-80 line against these Titans — a team that’s among the worst at stopping the pass, and in particular, stopping wideouts. Before their bye, the Titans let Terry McLaurin put up 6-5-76, Curtis Samuel 8-6-62 and Dyami Brown 4-2-105-2 on two huge touchdowns. #DuckYea I’m starting Pierce.

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POSSIBLY START: Curtis Samuel, WSH — Speaking of Samuel, I mentioned in waivers how Taylor Heinicke could spark the offense and help Samuel rebound. Heinicke looks to his slot receiver a bit more than Carson Wentz, and assuming McLaurin will be locked up with Jaire Alexander leaves Samuel as Heinicke’s most likely target. This sets up for a nice volume play.

HAIL MARY START: Rondale Moore and Robbie Anderson, ARI — Even with DeAndre Hopkins back from his PED suspension…

TIGHT END

HAIL MARY START: Cade Otton, TB — Without Cameron Brate, Otton is a nice streamer in addition to the more-likely used (and other rookie) Greg Dulcich after having plenty of eyes on him during MNF. This isn’t as much of a matchup play, as it is an opportunity for Otton to be the No. 3 for Tom Brady with Russell Gage still struggling (only one relevant game) and Julio Jones unable to get on the field.

Fun with Rankings!

This came about just this Tuesday on All in Football, as we were naming numerous Moores (players), and it spun into a joke, and I said Roger Moore, and Lauren said he was better than Sean Connery as Bond. Then, someone suggested ranking the Bond movies. So I’m doing my Top 10 Bond movies, as there are too many meh outings (looking at several by you, Pierce Brosnan) to debate the 15+ ranked films.

Casino Royale — Love me some poker, although, that was probably the most ridiculous part of the movie. The odds of all those hands happening! C’mon! Daniel Craig revitalized Bond with great action sets (parkour! parkour!) and started his run as (arguably) the best Bond.
Skyfall — Some action pieces that surpass Casino Royale — possibly best in the series — with an interesting MI6-based plot and arguably the best-looking film.
Goldfinger — Theme song win, Oddjob (more on him later), the Bond movie that setup so many recurring aspects… though, one scene should be stricken from the record.
From Russia with Love — Fun train fight (which Spectre recreated), gadgets, great bad guy and good plot, which can be hard to find in several Bond movies.
The Spy Who Loved Me — Nice plot twist with the romantic side of it, memorable ski jump scene — which you’ve… seen… even if never watched this movie — and a car-sub!
Dr. No — More of a mystery movie, but it started everything with the first encounter with SPECTRE.
No Time to Die — Okay, we’re all annoyed by the ending, but it truly felt like a race to the finish — well, unless you consider the length of the movie — as everything from Craig’s time comes together with an emotional, intense and action-filled “finale.”
Goldeneye — The game was better and launched the multiplayer genre into orbit — and yes, Oddjob is cheating — but the movie was still good, as Pierce Brosnan’s best foray in the Bond role. It rebooted Bond, and the helicopter action and Sean Bean’s villainous twist were great.
Thunderball — Best underwater action of them all, one of the best Sean Connery outings, and a jetpack!
You Only Live Twice — I mean, it’s the basis for so much of Austin Powers. That alone deserves a ranking, as is it being one of the more fun and even goofy Bond movies (though, with another cringy aspect).

Honorable Mention: On Her Majesty’s Service — The only George Lazenby Bond movie was solid with a more grounded approach, focusing on the story.

Worst Place: Die Another Day — Aptly named since watching this a second time would be like dying again. The CG was rough, the terrible invisible car, action was weak, and it was all downhill after an interesting torture scene to start the movie.

BUYS AND SELLS

Buys

Alvin Kamara, RB, NO — Great volume, nice schedule, positive regression for touchdowns should be coming
Jonathan Taylor, RB, IND — Don’t forget what I said last week, which was about Week 1 and Taylor’s upside
A.J. Dillon, RB, GB — Not starting him unless Aaron Jones hurt, but if that happens, you have an RB1
DJ Moore, WR, CAR — On the off chance he gets traded, because otherwise, droppable (and might have been)
Diontae Johnson, WR, PIT — Kenny Pickett should continue to improve, and the volume is there plus some nice matchups
Michael Gallup, WR, DAL — If he’s not on waivers, get him before Dak Prescott boosts his value

Sells

Ezekiel Elliott, RB, DAL— Savvy managers might not bite, but you can try coming off a big game
Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, NE — Damien Harris could return soon, and no matter how good Stevenson looks, they like a timeshare
Michael Pittman, WR, IND — Only if you can get fringe WR1 value, as Matt Ryan still makes Michael Pittman volatile
JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, KC — Capitalize on his first huge game, as there are tough matchups coming
Tyler Lockett, WR, SEA — Try to argue it was an off-week, as the Seahawks have quite a few tough passing-game matchups remaining

Week 7 Fantasy Football Projections

🚨 HEADS UP 🚨 These can differ from my rankings, and my ranks are the order I’d start players outside of added context, such as, “Need highest upside, even if risky.” Also, based on 4-point TDs for QB, 6-point rest, and Half-PPR

Week 7 Projections Download Link

***These are NOT updated Sunday morning, FYI***

Week 7 Fantasy Football Rankings

🚨 HEADS UP 🚨

Only Half-PPR since FantasyPros auto-calculation of Non and Full-PPR ranks can be off. But, there is so little difference from Non to Half and Full to Half that you don’t need to worry.
ECR = Expert Consensus Rank. Don’t focus on it too much, as not all experts update consistently/constantly.
Updated regularly, so check all the way up to lineups locking.

(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)

Jake Ciely is rankings: Fantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, candy, movies, video games, cereal... anything! Truly, Jake is a ranking prodigy. Oh, he's also the senior fantasy writer for The Athletic, an award-winning analyst and loves DuckTales. Make sure you #CheckTheLink and #BanKickers ... woo-oo! Follow Jake on Twitter @allinkid