Fantasy Football Week 7 Hot Takes: Joe Burrow Will Be the QB1 Moving Forward
Good morning, FAmily! We’re nearly half way through the season, but just when we thought we had everything figured out, the surprises kept coming. What looked to be a pretty pedestrian Week 7 slate from a sports betting standpoint turned out to be a massive day for seasonal and DFS fantasy managers, with monster games from Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Josh Jacobs, and Kenneth Walker, just to name a few. But, with the good also comes the bad, and fantasy football is no different. The injury bug spread through the league like food poisoning at an office potluck, taking down some big name stars in Breece Hall, Mike Williams, and DK Metcalf. Can’t we just have nice things? Is that too much to ask for?
Instead of sitting around and moping, let’s take our mind off of the things that didn’t go right this week and whip up some hot takes. These may not be the conventional opinions of the fantasy community, but there’s no fun in playing it safe. We want to be ahead of the curve, zig when others zag, take the road less travel…you get the gist. I hope you haven’t packed away the shorts because it’s about to get hot in here!
Kyle Pitts is Droppable
I was going to write about this last week, but the eternal optimist in me refused to accept the writing on the wall and gave it one more week. What a mistake that was. Kyle Pitts is droppable in every format. Even after falling behind in the first quarter to the Bengals, Falcons’ coach Arthur Smith flat out refused to pass the football, instead opting to roll with Tyler Allgeier and Caleb Huntley. They only attempted 13 passes the ENTIRE GAME. Alexa, play that Blink-182 song that says “it makes no sense at all.”
To make matters worse? Pitts’ snap count has steadily decreased since Week 2, and although some people will try to spin his target share into a positive, anything multiplied by zero is still zero. Pitts is the living, breathing embodiment of the meme with the Lamborghini parked in a carport next to a trailer. You want to bet on his talent, but unless you’re in a league where you get fantasy points for potential, that’s not going to work out. Close your eyes, count to ten, and click that drop button.
Kenneth Walker Will Finish the Season as an RB1
Kenneth Walker showed up fashionably late to the rookie running back breakout party, but the wait was well worth it for fantasy managers. The reigning Doak Walker Award winner looked absolutely electric in Week 7 against the Los Angeles Chargers defense, finishing with 168 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He’s now scored a touchdown in each of the last three weeks, and the upcoming schedule is oh so juicy! In Week 8, the Seahawks face the Giants who just gave up a huge game to Travis Etienne, followed by the Cardinals, Buccaneers, and Raiders. Walker already jumped all the way from overall RB41 in Week 6 to RB20 in Week 7, and his usage is launching him straight into the stratosphere. If you were lucky enough to stash him on your bench or pick him up off waivers, give yourself a pat on the back and reward yourself with some extra dessert. You’ve got yourself a potential league winner.
The Green Bay Packers Passing Game is Unsalvageable
Aaron Rodgers may want to get in touch with his spiritual guru after this week because the Packers have some serious soul-searching to do when it comes to their passing game. We knew that there would be changes without Davante Adams in the mix, but the utter meltdown that has occurred is reminiscent of the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you don’t look away now, your face might melt. Yes, Allen Lazard did suffer an injury that forced him out of the game, but the Packers had a cakewalk matchup against Washington’s secondary. Romeo Doubs was only targeted four times the entire game and was held without a catch, and the leading receiver actually ended up being running back Aaron Jones. If you’re a Packers fan, skip the scary movie marathon on Halloween and just turn on the Sunday night game against the Bills. It will be way more frightening than any work of fiction.
Joe Burrow Will Be the QB1 For the 2nd Half
Joe Burrow' finished Week 7 with 481 yards and three touchdowns. The three touchdown performance was the third time in four weeks we got this level of production out of Burrow. Last season Burrow finished his season with a bang, averaging over 300 yards passing and two-plus scores over the second half of the season. With a healthy group of receivers, a solid pass catching tight end and the newly found receiving skills by Joe Mixon we could see Burrow challenge to be the QB1.01 over the second half of the season. The Bengals schedule is Charmin Ultra Soft!
As you can see above the Bengals will be running up against some of the leagues worst pass defenses and oh by the way, with Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd in the same wide receiver room he has plenty of weapons to keep up this pace of production? Let's touch on Tyler Boyd here for a moment shall we? He proved Sunday just how wrong that logic was, absolutely decimating the Falcons secondary with 155 yards and a touchdown, and most of that damage was done in the first half. Boyd has now scored double digit fantasy points in four of his seven games this season, and he should continue that trend over the next few weeks with upcoming matchups against the Browns, Panthers, Steelers, and Titans. Whatever Super Bowl hangover the Bengals had is clearly gone, and Boyd has been a big part of that. You simply cannot justify sitting him on an offense that is this explosive.
Tampa Bay Will Finish Last in the NFC South
If you’ve kept up with this series, you know I predicted that Tom Brady wouldn’t finish inside fantasy QB1 territory, but after the past two weeks, that take seems as bland as oatmeal, so I’m going to make it up to you. The Buccaneers are imploding and are now my picks to finish last in the NFC South. That may not seem that spicy when you look at the state of the division, but the Bucs were Super Bowl champions just two short years ago and now, not only is their offense unable to find a rhythm and score points, their defense just lost to former XFL quarterback PJ Walker and let Chuba Hubbard and D’Onta Foreman rush for over 180 combined yards. This division isn’t exactly loaded with competition, and only one game separates first from last place, but this week’s matchup was supposed to be a slam dunk, and we saw how that turned out. It’s going to be rough seas for Tampa Bay the remainder of the season.
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Chiefs signed fourth-round WR Jalen Royals to a four-year contract.
Royals doesn’t have an obvious and open spot in the receiving corps to build short-term fantasy value with Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, and Rashee Rice operating in the opening 11-personnel package. He may or may not play his way into WR4 duties depending on how the team feels about JuJu Smith-Schuster. Royals has plenty of talent and Brown is on a one-year deal, so there is a future where Royals is more than a bit player for the Chiefs. It likely won’t happen in his first season without injuries in front of him.
Matthew Judon said he “probably” won’t return to the Falcons in 2025.
The Falcons, of course, drafted both Jalon Walker and James Pearce in the first round. In an exclusive interview with CardPlayer.com — not to be confused with our PokerNews.com James Cook scoop a few days ago — Judon said that his sack total was down because “I dropped (into coverage) on 60 percent of the plays. It’s hard to get a pick and a sack on the same play.” Judon also told Kyle Odegard that “a couple” teams had expressed interest in him but he was in no rush to sign.
Jets released P Thomas Morstead.
Austin McNamara and Kai Kroeger will compete for the Jets punter job this year. The 39-year-old former Saint was the league’s oldest punter last season. If he wants to keep punting, he can absolutely join the tryout circuit or a competition elsewhere. But this is probably a sign that the Morstead’s 16-year career is close to an end at this point.
Lions offensive coordinator John Morton said it’s “going to be a breakout year” for Jameson Williams.
Morton said he’d never “been around someone that fast,” then quickly corrected himself to note that Jhamyr Gibbs is also that fast. Williams came on strong last year with a 58/1001/7 receiving line, but offensive coordinator praise could mean even more targets are coming. It would likely come at the expense of Amon-Ra St. Brown’s production if Williams were to truly break out, though there’s plenty for St. Brown to give and still be a top-flight fantasy wideout. It’s risky to read too much into statements like this in the offseason, but the new offensive coordinator telling you he thinks it’ll be a breakout year for Williams is certainly noteworthy.
Free agent CB Rasul Douglas is visiting the Seahawks on Tuesday.
It’s been a slow offseason for the veteran corner after a rough year with the Bills where he finished with just a 51.6 PFF coverage grade. The Dolphins have reportedly been in contact with Douglas, but this is the first known visit for him. He’d likely fit as a depth piece in Seattle, perhaps one that pushes Josh Jobe for a starting job outside in a best-case scenario.
Jets signed fourth-round WR Arian Smith to a four-year contract.
The good news for Smith is that he has a lot of depth chart runway. Garrett Wilson is the obvious No. 1, but neither Josh Reynolds nor Allen Lazard qualifies as a locked-in WR2 at this stage of their careers. Smith’s blazing speed has intrigued Aaron Glenn, who noted how fast he was in rookie minicamp over the weekend by simply noting “Arian has some juice.” The tough news is that as long as Justin Fields is the starter, it’s hard to believe he’ll be seeing many deep shots that aren’t schemed wide open. Still, Smith has some appeal in deeper leagues and could make an interesting dynasty stash.