Week 7 is here, and we get another 10-game slate early in the season!

We have two teams getting the week off (the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys) while 10 teams are playing in games off the main slate this week, including another London game featuring the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars.

 

 

 

Moreover, we get another weird two-game slate for Monday Night Football. Let’s start looking at the Vegas odds and matchups to identify our top plays for the NFL DFS Week 7 D/ST Coach!

NFL DFS Week 7 D/ST Coach For FanDuel & DraftKings Fantasy

Week 6 was another decent week for the NFL DFS D/ST Coach. 

If you had told me the Indianapolis Colts, the play of the week, were only going to give up 17 points and 241 total yards to the Tennessee Titans, I would’ve thought “Great! What was the fantasy output?” I would’ve been wildly disappointed if you had told me three points. They couldn’t force a single sack and had just one takeaway. 

We faded the Atlanta Falcons last week as they were $3,500 and returned five fantasy points. That’s certainly better than the play of the week but they were also $400 more. But we had the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans listed in the top tier for Week 6 and both returned double-digit fantasy points. 

However, we hit a home run with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at just $2,600 on DraftKings as they went off for 17 fantasy points against the New Orleans Saints.

 

 

 

NFL Week 7 Defense/Special Teams

As we begin to look into Week 7, we do get another 10-game slate for the third week in a row. This one is a little more front-loaded with the earlier window. 

With that said, that gives us more chalk and duplicated lineups for the afternoon window so it’s a little less fun to play that slate. But mind you, the DraftKings Millionaire Maker is only $10 per entry this week. At half the cost of what it normally is, why not take some shots?

This main slate is a bit more difficult to navigate than the last two. Why? Well, the last two NFL DFS D/ST Coaches have had the luxury of targeting games with low implied totals. This slate doesn’t see a single game with an implied total in the 30’s. 

In fact, the lowest over/under on the main slate is just 41 points so we have to be careful in how we select our top plays for the NFL DFS Week 7 D/ST Coach.

 

 

 

NFL DFS D/ST Top Tier Picks For Week 7

Buffalo Bills - DraftKings: $3,500 | FanDuel: $5,000

The Bills are the most expensive option on the slate and they’re the home favorite in the game with the lowest total. 

As mentioned previously, the over/under is just 41 points and the Bills are nine-point favorites so that gives the Tennessee Titans an implied total of just 16 points. Look, the Colts couldn’t get many sacks or turnovers against the Titans last week, but I do think the Bills can.

Buffalo has a very strong secondary that runs a lot of zone coverage. Buffalo allows the eighth-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers and per Mike Clay of ESPN, only two receivers have totaled over 16 PPR fantasy points, one being Allen Lazard on a Hail Mary toss from Aaron Rodgers this past Monday.

If you can beat Buffalo, it’s on the ground which does play to the strengths of Tony Pollard who has been seeing really solid volume. However, I’m still not sold on Tennessee’s offensive line so if you can afford the Bills, this is a great spot.

Cincinnati Bengals – DraftKings: $3,300 | FanDuel: $4,900

Pricing is pretty soft on DraftKings for the Week 7 main slate. The Bengals are more of a mid-tier play over there while they’re pricey on FanDuel. Either way, this is a play that probably provides a good floor.

The Bengals are a bit of a pass funnel defense. But two things were in their favor Sunday night against the New York Giants. The first of which? Well, they were playing the Giants who did not have Devin Singletary or Malik Nabers. The second? They got BJ Hall and Sheldon Rankins back, which did help limit Tyrone Tracy and Eric Gray to just 63 total rushing yards.

Nick Chubb is set to return this week and there’s some speculation as to how much work he’ll receive after last year’s devastating injury. So, while the Browns may want to take the ball out of Deshaun Watson’s hands in favor of running the ball, they will have to air it out if they have to keep pace with the Bengals. 

Watson also hasn’t collected 200 passing yards in a single game this year. It’s hard to call it a smash spot for Cincy as they haven’t returned double-digit fantasy points in a single game this year, but they do have a good floor on DraftKings.

 

 

 

NFL DFS D/ST Mid-Tier Picks For Week 7

Indianapolis Colts – DraftKings: $3,200 | FanDuel: $4,300

I will reluctantly go back to the Colts this week, but don’t love it after last week’s dud. They are favored by about 3.5 points with an implied total of 43.5 points. But we should be mindful of the fact that the Dolphins are coming off their bye week, so they are well rested.

But aside from that the offense is struggling for Miami. Going into their bye week, the Dolphins were averaging just 10 points per game and the offensive line still isn’t very good. Tyler Huntley likely gets another start for the Dolphins in this matchup, but they could easily go with a run heavy approach in this game. 

The Colts have surrendered 120+ rushing yards in three straight games. If that’s the case, that certainly caps the upside for the Colts defense. I doubt I’ll get much exposure here as I’d rather pay up for Buffalo, or down to a cheaper D/ST.

Minnesota Vikings - DraftKings: $2,900 | FanDuel: $3,900

I’m sure this one surprises some of you, but this is strictly a GPP-only type of play. The Vikings are coming off their bye week and are hosting the Detroit Lions who are fresh off a dominant victory in Week 6 over the Dallas Cowboys.

This is another controlled environment which plays into the strengths of the Lions. But the Vikings have fresh legs and have an elite pass rush. And it’s not just that the Vikings have a quality pass rush, but they blitz quite often.

The big concern is that Detroit is good everywhere on offense. Run game? Check. Pass game? Check. Offensive line? It’s arguably the best in the league at full strength. However, Frank Ragnow, Dan Skipper, and Kevin Zeitler were not seen at practice for the Lions on Wednesday so those are players worth monitoring ahead of this game.

But through five games the Vikings have allowed just 67.2 rushing yards per game, 15.2 points per game, and they have 13 takeaways and 20 sacks. There’s a pretty high ceiling, but a low floor as well so this is not a play to use in cash games.

 

 

 

NFL Week 7 DFS D/ST Value Picks

Cleveland Browns – DraftKings: $2,500 | FanDuel: $3,500

We have a pair of cheap value plays for the NFL DFS Week 7 D/ST Coach. The Browns are once again the laughingstock of the NFL as they’re basically held hostage by Deshaun Watson and his awful contract.

The defense hasn’t lived up to the billing, but they also haven’t been awful. Would we play them if they were $3,000+ on DraftKings? Highly unlikely. But in their last five games they’ve found a way to return at least six fantasy points in each game and in three of those performances they returned double-digit fantasy points.

They are six-point underdogs at home, but the implied total is just 42 points, which is on the lower end of the spectrum for this slate. The New York Giants, who we’ll get to shortly, held the Bengals to just 17 points and 304 total yards of offense last week. 

In Joe Burrow’s last three games against the Cleveland Browns, he’s failed to reach 250 passing yards and he’s completed just 57.6% of his passes with a 4:2 TD:INT ratio. It doesn’t give us a ton of confidence, but it might do enough to justify the price tag.

New York Giants – DraftKings: $2,500 | FanDuel: $3,200

Here’s an absolute punt play if you need an additional value play on either DraftKings or FanDuel. The Giants defense isn’t awful, surprisingly. They’re only allowing 20.2 points per game, which is actually top 10 in the league and they do have an emerging young defensive back in Deonte Banks.

Banks has definitely had his high’s and low’s this year. He shadowed Terry McLaurin and DK Metcalf pretty well. But he was beaten pretty badly by Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb, so the jury is still out.

More bad news for the G-Men? The Eagles are coming off their bye week and they’ll be getting A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith back. Banks likely shadows Brown but either way it’s a tough matchup for Banks and the Giants have to account for Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, who has a revenge game.

But the Giants still have 25 sacks in their last five games, and they haven’t given up a ton of points. I’m not predicting that they’ll pop off for a huge game, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say they have a path to eight fantasy points on DraftKings.

 

 

 

NFL DFS D/ST Fades For Week 7

Washington Commanders - DraftKings: $3,400 | FanDuel: $4,600

We faded the Atlanta Falcons in a similar spot last week and it was a decent call. The Commanders defense just might be worse than Atlanta’s so given their price tag, we can lay off them here. Honestly, I think the Commanders tend to have a bottom five defense in the league.

They’re allowing 354 yards per game and 24.2 points per game. They have just four takeaways and 17 sacks in six games and seven of those sacks came against the Cleveland Browns.

The Commanders are eight-point favorites, but the over/under is at 51.5 points giving the Carolina Panthers an implied total of 21.75 points. The Carolina Panthers will once again start Andy Dalton in this matchup and with that being the case, Carolina has a fair chance to put up 20+ points on offense against one of the worst secondaries in the league.

 

 

 

NFL DFS Week 7 D/ST Play Of The Week

Los Angeles Rams - DraftKings: $3,000 | FanDuel: $4,100

The Rams might be my least favorite Play of the Week recommendation through seven weeks. But for the NFL DFS Week 7 D/ST Coach, there’s upside in this matchup. We obviously like that they’re favored by seven points and the over/under is currently at 43.5 points. That’s among the lower totals on the slate, but in comparison to the last couple weeks, it isn’t great.

But the Rams are coming off their bye week and they are at home against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders are averaging 293.3 yards per game and 18.2 points per game (both are 27th in the NFL).

The Raiders also just traded Davante Adams to the New York Jets earlier this week and both Zamir White and Jakobi Meyers were inactive in Week 6 so they’re worth monitoring heading into this matchup. The Rams don’t have a great secondary, but assuming Aidan O’Connell gets the start this week, I’m not sure he poses much of a threat. 

On 40 pass attempts last week he had just one attempt go for more than 20 yards. Brock Bowers is a weapon the Rams need to account for, but with fresh legs and home field advantage, the Rams do have a nice ceiling. Similar to the Minnesota Vikings, I don’t think we need to go here in cash games.

 

 

 

NFL DFS Week 7 Defense/Special Teams Projections