The fantasy football regular season for most leagues will be half completed after the Monday Night Football doubleheader. Week 7 was the latest data point, and it provided highs and lows for individual players and offenses.
Top 5 Fantasy Football Takeaways
Let’s dive into the biggest takeaways from Week 7.
Fantasy Football Week 7 Surprises
Chicago Has Figured Out Its Rushing Attack
Ben Johnson used Chicago’s Week 5 bye effectively, fixing the club’s running woes. The change didn’t come at D’Andre Swift‘s expense. Instead, Swift has thrived.
The veteran running back toted the rock 19 times for 124 yards (6.5 yards per carry) and a touchdown in Week 7. It was a fantastic follow-up performance to rumbling for 108 yards against the Commanders on 14 carries in Week 6. He’s handled 33 of Chicago’s backfield’s 53 rush attempts (62.3%) since their bye, parlaying the work on the ground into 232 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Swift’s work hasn’t stopped with his production on the ground. Instead, he’s also tallied four targets, three receptions, 81 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown in the previous two weeks. According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Swift ran 13 routes versus 10 for Kyle Monangai in Week 7.
Swift has played like a genuine No. 1 RB since Chicago’s bye week. Nevertheless, he has a lengthy track record of inefficient play, with a smattering of heaters mixed in to tease fantasy gamers. Thus, while Swift is an ascending fantasy asset, gamers would be best served viewing him as a rock-solid RB2 until he strings together a few more reliable performances.
Oronde Gadsden II is a Baller
According to the data suite at Fantasy Points, Oronde Gadsden had a 69.2% route participation rate, 19.5% air yards share, 21.1% target share, 0.30 targets per route run, eight targets, seven receptions and 68 receiving yards in Week 6. The rookie tight end’s best day in his young professional career didn’t last long, as he blew it out of the water in Week 7.
Gadsden ran 47 routes against the Colts, which were the third-most for the Chargers, trailing Ladd McConkey‘s 57 and Quentin Johnston‘s 56, but they were one ahead of Keenan Allen‘s 46. Gadsden made the most of his routes, earning nine targets and securing seven receptions for 164 yards and a touchdown.
The Chargers spent nearly the entire game in a negative game script against the Colts. Nevertheless, they’re deploying a pass-heavy offense, which can allow multiple pass-catching weapons to provide fantasy value in a given week. Johnston, Allen, McConkey and Gadsden can’t be expected to all provide fantasy value weekly. Still, Gadsden has played himself into weekly starter territory in leagues as shallow as 10 teams until further notice.
Fantasy Football Week 7 Disappointments
Everybody Eats Midwest isn’t a Fantasy Buffet
The Bills adopted the mantra “everybody eats” after trading Stefon Diggs before the 2024 season. Yet, the Packers have essentially played the same brand of football, with a talented lead running back, a tight end who’s a critical piece of the passing attack and a mix of wideouts who fill different roles. Neither offense has a target-hog alpha No. 1 wide receiver. Green Bay scored precisely 27 points in a 27-23 victory on Sunday.
Funny enough, they’ve scored exactly 27 points in four out of six games. They also had a 40-point effort and a 10-point dud mixed in. Still, despite the rock-solid to better scoring output, Josh Jacobs and Tucker Kraft are their only no-brainer fantasy starters.
Romeo Doubs ran a team-high 28 routes in Week 7 and paced the club in receptions (six) and receiving yards (72) on eight targets. Doubs has tallied eight, nine and eight targets in Green Bay’s previous three games. He’s also had at least 55 receiving yards in four out of six games. Therefore, Doubs is in the WR3/Flex mix, but his 72 receiving yards against the Cardinals were also a season high.
The organization spent a first-round pick on speedy wide receiver Matthew Golden. However, the Packers continued to rotate wide receivers. Golden’s 27 routes in Week 7 were tied for the second-most on the team with Kraft, but Malik Heath ran 12, Dontayvion Wicks ran nine and Savion Williams ran three. The Packers also use multiple tight ends, resulting in Luke Musgrave running 13 routes and John FitzPatrick running eight.
Golden has had five targets or fewer in all five games he’s played in this season. He managed to eclipse 50 receiving yards in three of those games, and he’s added yardage on the ground. Nevertheless, Golden hasn’t scored a touchdown, and the post-bye rookie bump hasn’t actually hit for him. Christian Watson is also nearing a return. Jayden Reed could return next month, too.
Green Bay shouldn’t be upset about a 4-1-1 start to their season, and their offense has scored points at a stellar rate. Sadly, again, Jacobs and Kraft are the only locked-in starters in fantasy leagues, with Doubs and Golden warranting bench spots, and Jordan Love profiling as a bye-week starter in 12-team leagues but not a genuine top-12 fantasy quarterback.
A Quarterback Who Didn’t Play in Week 7 Might Have Been the Week’s Biggest Loser
The quote “How do you get fired on your day off?” from the movie Friday came to mind after Jacoby Brissett had another quality performance against a top-tier team in place of Kyler Murray. Brissett passed for 320 yards and two touchdowns against the Colts in Week 6 and 279 and two against the Packers in Week 7, leading the club to 27 and 23 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, Murray’s season high for passing yards is 220, and he led them to 20, 27, 15, 20 and 21 points in his five starts. Brissett hasn’t played flawlessly, but he’s allowed the passing game to find its footing.
Cardinals QB passing stats per game in 2025:
Kyler Murray: 192 yards, 5.9 YPA, 0.9 TDs, 0.5 INT
Jacoby Brissett: 300 yards, 7.5 YPA, 2 TDs, 0.6 INT
— Dwain McFarland (@dwainmcfarland) October 20, 2025
The Cardinals are on a bye in Week 8. Will head coach Jonathan Gannon really allow his tenure to end by going down with Murray, or will he self-scout during the bye week and come to the logical conclusion that rolling with Brissett gives him the best opportunity to save his job? Managers with Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. should hope for Brissett retaining the starting job out of the bye.
McBride had 13 targets, 10 receptions, 74 receiving yards and two touchdowns against the Packers after recording 11 targets, eight receptions, 72 yards and one touchdown the previous week against the Colts. Harrison was knocked out of the Week 6 contest early with a concussion.
Still, Brissett completed both targets to him in Week 6 for 32 yards, and the second-year wideout had six targets, two receptions and 58 receiving yards in a healthy contest in Week 7. Harrison could emerge as a more intriguing fantasy option if he builds more rapport with Brissett. Even if the Cardinals go back to Murray, his leash might be short. He comes out of Week 7 as a massive loser.
The Carson Wentz Experience Should Probably Come to an End
J.J. McCarthy was a limited practice participant all week leading up to Week 7’s game against the Eagles before serving as the club’s emergency No. 3 quarterback. Carson Wentz was a full practice participant all week, working through a non-throwing shoulder injury.
The Vikings lost 28-22 to the Eagles in Minnesota, and Wentz didn’t have a sharp showing. He completed 26-of-42 passes for 313 yards but threw zero touchdowns, tossed two interceptions and took two sacks. He had a 46.3 quarterback rating and a 64.9 passer rating.
Minnesota is 2-2 in Wentz’s four starts, and he’s thrown one touchdown and two interceptions while taking five sacks in his two most recent starts. Wentz has firmly erased any misplaced thoughts about him replicating Sam Darnold‘s success from 2024 in Kevin O’Connell’s offense.
The Vikings are exercising caution with McCarthy’s ankle. However, if he starts this week by fully participating in practice, gamers should anticipate him reprising the starting gig. There’s no mystery to who Wentz is at this point in his career.
The return of McCarthy as the starter would add volatility to the fantasy value of Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson. For all of his faults, Wentz has fed Minnesota’s talented trio of pass-catching weapons, and O’Connell has trusted Wentz to guide a pass-heavy offense. This is how they fared in Week 7 against the Eagles:
- Jordan Addison: 12 targets, 9 receptions, 128 receiving yards
- Justin Jefferson: 10 targets, 5 receptions, 79 receiving yards
- T.J. Hockenson: 9 targets, 6 receptions, 43 receiving yards
Perhaps O’Connell will continue to lean into the pass with McCarthy, as he has throughout his tenure as Minnesota’s head coach. Unfortunately, according to RotoViz’s pace app, the Vikings had a 49% situation-neutral pass rate in McCarthy’s two starts.
Gamers who don’t need to embrace volatility and uncertainty should consider shopping Addison off his blow-up showing. Jefferson should be quarterback-proof, but Hockenson is a risky starting option if McCarthy starts until he’s cut loose as a passer.
Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.
