Daily fantasy (DFS) brings a breath of fresh air to the industry, with an emphasis on the excitement of drafting a new team every week. We all know that the late summer drafts and the thrill of analyzing the weekly matchups are the best part of playing fantasy football. The daily game merges those two together to form the newest wave rocking the fantasy world.
Here in the weekly daily fantasy roundup column, we'll break down everything you need to know to pick the best plays on the Week 7 slate. If any of the terminology goes over your head. Please refer to the "what you need to know" preview of the roundup.
Top quarterback plays
Marcus Mariota, QB, Tennessee Titans - The second-year quarterback has six passing touchdowns and 124 rushing yards over his last two games, not so coincidentally both Titans wins. The Colts give up 300 yards passing per game and this game is in Nashville.
Kirk Cousins, QB, Washington Redskins - The Lions give up league-highs in completion rate (73.7) and touchdown rate (8.3) to opposing quarterbacks. With so many injuries hitting their front-seven, the pass defense has begun to crumble. Cousins is on the road, where he's typically a more questionable play, but the spot is just too good here. This could be a sneaky high-scoring game.
Colin Kaepernick, QB, San Francisco 49ers - Even in a terrible spot playing the Bills on a cross country trip, Kaepernick put up 18 fantasy points. This week he gets the soft Tampa Bay defense at home. The Buccaneers pass defense checks in among the worst in the league in several efficiency metrics. The unit gives up the eighth-highest touchdown rate (5.7), the most yards per completion and ranks 23rd in Football Outsiders DVOA. That looks even worse in context when you realize that the Bucs played Case Keenum, rookie Paxton Lynch and Derek Anderson all in their home stadium in their last three games. Kaepernick might not be good, but he didn't play well in Week 6 and put up points. That's just how fantasy football works.
Top running back plays
DeMarco Murray, RB, Tennessee Titans - Over their last three games DeMarco Murray has played 90 percent of the Titans offensive snaps. That's a serious workhorse opportunity, and something we rarely see in football. The Colts allow 4.94 yards per carry and over 10 yards per catch to running backs in the passing game. Running backs registered nine total scores against the Colts this season. The Titans are at home and should be favored to win over a talent-deficient division rival.
Spencer Ware, RB, Kansas City Chiefs - Even before Jamaal Charles showed up with the questionable tag, Spencer Ware was going to be the lead back on Sunday. In Week 6 he well out-snapped Jamaal Charles and out-touched him 26 to 11. Ware should see workhorse-level touches in a home game against the Saints defense. New Orleans allows a league-high 10 touchdowns to running backs, and they've already had their bye week.
LeGarrette Blount, RB, New England Patriots - There's a revenge game narrative here, as Blount experienced an ugly ending in his relationship with the Steelers after he took the brunt of the team's ire when he and Le'Veon Bell were involved in a marijuana incident. Narratives aside, Blount's in a good spot to spend much of the second-half smashing while the Patriots hold a lead over the Landry Jones-led Steelers. Pittsburgh has the 17th-best run defense in Football Outsiders' DVOA and just gave up 200 yards to Jay Ajayi.
Top wide receiver plays
Julio Jones, WR, Atlanta Falcons - San Diego's trip to Atlanta should bring us one of the highest scoring games of the week. The Chargers are missing their top corner in Jason Verrett, which should bring a big Julio Jones game into the picture.
Amari Cooper, WR, Oakland Raiders- The talented young receiver is red-hot right now, with over 120 yards in each of his last two games. It isn't time to get off this gravy train yet. The Raiders should be chasing a Jaguars offense looking to get right for the first time this season against a defense that bleeds more offensive production than any other in the NFL. That will force Derek Carr into a position to air the ball out, which will put Cooper in line for another double-digit target game.
Pierre Garcon, WR, Washington Redskins- In Jordan Reed's absence, it was Garcon who saw the biggest volume bump, collecting 11 targets. Garcon leads the Washington receiver corps in snaps share, yards, targets and red zone looks over the last three weeks. He's a solid floor play with a hint of touchdown upside against Detroit.
Breshad Perriman, WR, Baltimore Ravens - The Ravens are trying to get Perriman going in the deep game. Joe Flacco averages 16.9 intended air yards when he targets Breshad Perriman, but averages just 11.9 air yards on his completions to Perriman. He did haul in a 40-yard bomb to start off the Week 6 tilt with the Giants, so the light is starting to come on. The New York Jets pass defense allows league-high marks in catch rate (72.4 percent) and yards per target (10.42) to the wide receiver position. Their 201.5 yards per game and 6.9 touchdown rate ceded to the position also rank in the bottom 10 among NFL defenses. This could be Perriman's full-on coming out party, but at worst, he'll hit a few big plays at a value asking rate.
Top tight end plays
Rob Gronkowski, TE, New England Patriots - You don't need a good statistical reason to deploy Gronkowski, but this is a good reason to chase his sky-high value. With the value that injuries opened up at running back, he makes sense to pair with several top-rate receivers.
Cameron Brate, TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers- The Bucs lost Vincent Jackson this week, and that should open up more targets for Brate. The rest of the Tampa Bay receivers can't truly expand their roles much. Brate is playing well and has a connection with Jameis Winston. The 49ers give up the eighth-most yards per game to opposing tight ends, and a 60.4 percent catch rate.
Jack Doyle, TE, Indianapolis Colts - There's a ton of value in playing tight end for the Colts, and Jack Doyle has shown that in spurts this season. He'll get to reap the full rewards on Sunday with Dwayne Allen set to miss this game. From 2014 to 2015, in games Allen missed, Coby Fleener averaged 82.43 yards and 0.86 touchdowns per game. The Titans are just a middle of the road defense at stopping tight ends, ranking 14th in Football Outsiders' DVOA against the position.
Vernon Davis, TE, Washington Redskins - In relief of Jordan Reed last week, it was clear Davis was the preferred replacement. The veteran tight end played 97 percent of the team snaps and hauled in a touchdown. Every starting tight end who has faced the Lions this season has recorded at least one touchdown. That is, of course, except Zach Ertz.
Defense plays
Minnesota Vikings DEF - We like the odds of Mike Zimmer's defense coming off the bye against a rookie quarterback. Carson Wentz started to show some warts when Washington's middling defense pressured him in Week 6.
Cincinnati Bengals DEF - Terrelle Pryor looks unlikely to play in, or at least be at full strength for this game. He's Cleveland's one true difference-maker and his absence would take the life out of this offense.
Baltimore Ravens DEF- If you're pivoting off some of the high-end plays, Baltimore is the way to go. The Ravens travel to New York to face a team slowly slipping into disarray. Their No. 1 ranked DVOA run defense should force Geno Smith to take to the air, and mistakes are sure to follow.
Stack(s) of the week
Andy Dalton/A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals - 41.7 percent of the drives against the Browns end in a score, which is the seventh-highest rate in the NFL. Their 7.5 passing touchdown rate allowed trails only the Lions. Joe Haden is set to miss this game, which means A.J. Green is in position to smack the Browns in the same way he laid the wood on the Dolphins two weeks ago on Thursday night. Playing Dalton is a way to access the upside of the potential return of Tyler Eifert, one of the NFL's top red zone threats, without actually deploying him in a risky move. The Browns have allowed more yards to the tight end than any other team in the league, and should make Eifert's first action of 2016 an easy-going afternoon stroll. With the value available at running back, you can pair Green and his quarterback with another high-end receiver like Odell Beckham or Julio Jones for a week.
Blake Bortles/Allen Robinson, Jacksonville Jaguars - I called out this duo as a stack last week and that was painfully incorrect. However, this is the week these two finally get rolling like they were in 2015. For a full breakdown of why the Bortles and Robinson connection is set to positively regress off the wrong side of variance, check out this week's Next Gen Stats column. Robinson is producing well on short targets, hauling in 63 percent of those looks. However, Bortles is 0-9 when targeting Robinson on passes traveling 20-plus yards in the air. That's a figure bound for a slight regression back to a normalized rate. The cross-country traveling Raiders are the perfect unit to get right again. Oakland allows 319 passing yards per game, a league-high.
Best contrarian plays
Brandon Marshall, WR, New York Jets- I'm not sure how you can convince yourself that Geno Smith starting for the Jets is really a net negative for the 2016 version of Brandon Marshall with how Ryan Fitzpatrick has played this year, but it will certainly scare the public off of him. In Smith's lone major game action of 2015 in relief duty against the Raiders, he threw the ball to Brandon Marshall 18 times. He's already a target monster, as his 10 per game is tied for the fifth-most among wide receivers thus far. The Ravens helped Odell Beckham Jr. get going last week and could give up a big game to Brandon Marshall.
Doug Baldwin, WR, Seattle Seahawks - The Seahawks receiver put up just 31 yards in a favorable spot last week, so his ownership should be depressed. The public will likely fear this game with both defenses showing as formidable units and neither offense hitting their stride yet. However, Baldwin could be the key to helping this offense move the ball. As revealed in the Next Gen Stats matchups column, newly re-installed slot corner Tyrann Mathieu struggled to defend a slot receiver who ran a ton of sharp out-breaking routes in Jeremy Kerley back in Week 5. Baldwin also runs some of those same routes and takes 79 percent of his plays from the interior.
Best obvious play
Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers - The 49ers allow the third fewest yards per game to wide receivers. Yet, that might be skewed because they are constantly playing from behind and have been run on without mercy. More telling is that they allow a league-high 9.5 touchdown rate to wideouts. Mike Evans' 12.4 targets per game lead the NFL by more than a full target as Antonio Brown and T.Y. Hilton are tied for second with 10.7. The Bucs just lost their No. 2 receiver in Vincent Jackson to IR, which could only open up more opportunities for Evans.
Players to fade
T.Y. Hilton, WR, Indianapolis Colts - It's hard to fade a receiver seeing over 10 targets per game, but this is a game to pivot off Hilton. The Colts travel to Tennessee, and Hilton averages 60.9 yards over his last 11 road games and has scored just one touchdown. The Titans defense could also push the Colts around on Sunday. Tennessee has 18 sacks on the season and 12 in their last two games. They allow just a 2.9 touchdown rate, ranking 10th best in the NFL and have the seventh best interception rate. With Hilton being quite literally the only receiving threat teams need to account for on the Colts offense right now, he could utterly disappear in this game.
The near 100 percent exposure player
Jacquizz Rodgers, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Doug Martin suffered a setback and will not play in the Bucs Week 7 game against the 49ers. In Week 5 when Rodgers filled in for an injured Charles Sims (now on IR) he handled a whopping 35 touches against the Panthers. An already weak 49ers run defense has crumbled the last two weeks without NaVorro Bowman at middle linebacker. San Francisco did face the all-star combination of David Johnson and LeSean McCoy the last two weeks, but they've allowed an inexcusable 243 yards per game on the ground, which leads the NFL by a 62-yard margin during that span. This is a perfect three-way intersection of opportunity, matchup and value.
Cheat code of the week
Mike Gillislee, RB, Buffalo Bills- LeSean McCoy is looking doubtful to play in Week 7, which would bring his backup Mike Gillislee into focus as an extreme value play at the stone minimum. The Dolphins allow a 4.36 yards per carry to running backs (12th-highest in the NFL) and have been run on more than any other team outside of the 49ers and Raiders. The Bills are a run-first team and Gillislee could see as many as 18 to 20 touches as the team's feature back on Sunday if McCoy sits.
Matt Harmon is an associate fantasy writer/editor for NFL.com, and the creator of #ReceptionPerception, who you can follow on Twitter _@MattHarmonBYB_ or like on Facebook.
