Fantasy Football Week 7 Quarterback Preview: Starts, sits, streamers, DFS plays and more

There are three quarterbacks that my weekly Fantasy Football projections have been slow to buy-in on: Drake Maye, Daniel Jones, and Sam Darnold. All three have played mostly awesome football, but for one reason or another, I have struggled to fully buy into them. For one, Drake Maye, I no longer have any reservations at all. He has fully convinced me that he is a very good QB already, and he will be inside my top 10 most weeks. This week, he checks in at QB8 in the early rankings, and even I think that seems a little low. But the funny thing about Week 7 is that even without Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, it is a very good week at QB. Because of that, Jones and Darnold are still ranked outside the top 12.

The problem in projecting both Jones and Darnold is the same: passing volume. Jones is averaging 30 pass attempts per game and has only topped that number twice. Darnold is averaging just 26.8 pass attempts per game. That is a huge problem if you don’t run a lot. Darnold not running is no surprise, but Jones has been all over the place, with three games with five attempts or more, and two games with just one. Now you may be wondering why I am saying that you have to throw a lot if Jones and Darnold haven’t, but have still been good. Well, that’s because Darnold leads the NFL at 9.6 yards per pass attempt (career 7.1) and Jones is averaging an elite 8.3 as well (career 6.6). As a rule, I don’t project QBs over eight yards per attempt unless I believe they are elite passers or they are facing a terrible defense. The defenses Jones and Darnold face this week have been two of the four best against QBs this year.. 

Let’s get to the rest of the preview:

Week 6 QB Preview

• 9.6 — Opposing QBs have scored 9.6 FPPG against the Texans, the best mark in the league.
• 168.76 — Patrick Mahomes has scored 13 more Fantasy points than any other player in Fantasy this season. And now he gets Rashee Rice back.
• 6 — Drake Maye is averaging six rush attempts per game. That ground production has boosted his scoring by more than four Fantasy points per game.
• 54.5 — The Cowboys and Commanders over/under is set at 54.5, which would be the highest of the young season. I am not sure it is high enough.
• 24.0 — The Bears have given up the fifth-most FPPG to QBs. Spencer Rattler could be in play.
• 36 — The Broncos held Justin Fields, Jalen Hurts, and Daniel Jones to a combined 36 rushing yards in three games. Jaxson Dart has at least 50 rushing yards in each of his first three starts.
• 6.0% — Mac Jones has a 6.0% off-target rate, second best to Sam Darnold amongst qualified passers.
• 3.23 — Justin Fields is once again averaging a league-high 3.23 seconds holding on to the ball. He seems to have regressed in this area.

My full set of Week 7 Fantasy football projections for every position is now available on SportsLine. You’ll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 5. Projected stats for all starting quarterbacks are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.