Fantasy Football Week 7 Wide Receiver Start/Sit: Demario Douglas, Amari Cooper, JuJu Smith-Schuster

Welcome back to FantasySP’s weekly fantasy football wide receiver start/sit breakdown! Last week’s results were … weird. My three Start picks all had pretty bad outings, ranging between 5.3 and 6.3 Half-PPR points. But my three bold Sit picks also all performed badly, with Jaxon Smith-Njigba leading the way at a mediocre 7.8 points and Chris Olave actually scoring negative points thanks to an early concussion. 

Apparently, I’m just a better hater than I am a believer. Hopefully, this week, we can get some positive results on both sides. Let’s get started!

For more help with your toughest Week 7 Start/Sit decisions, check out FantasySP’s NFL Start/Sit tool!

Fantasy Football Wide Receivers To Start Week 7

Demario Douglas, New England Patriots @ Jacksonville Jaguars (London Game)

It’s not a coincidence that Demario Douglas had easily his best game of the season in Drake Maye’s first NFL start. The third-overall pick threw for three touchdowns and 243 yards against a tough Texans defense in Week 6; Jacoby Brissett was averaging over 100 fewer yards (139) and had thrown just two touchdowns total in five games. Maye is going to make some rookie mistakes behind this Patriots O-line, but he is a huge upgrade for this offense from a fantasy perspective.

  

Maye taking over also comes at a perfect time, as the Patriots are headed to London to face a flailing Jaguars team. The Jaguars are the easiest matchup by far for wide receivers in terms of adjusted fantasy points allowed, giving up 14.5 more points per game to opposing receivers than their average. They are also the softest matchup if we look just at points given up to slot receivers, where Douglas runs 80% of his routes. This slot-heavy role does mean Douglas doesn’t run quite as many routes as we’d like, but he easily leads New England’s weapons with a 20% target per route run rate. The sophomore WR is rostered in just 50% of leagues, but you can start him in Week 7 with confidence.   

Jakobi Meyers, Las Vegas Raiders @ Los Angeles Rams

Let’s go from a current Patriot to a former Patriot, as Meyers is now officially the Raiders’ WR1 with Davante Adams out of town. The underrated veteran missed last week’s game with an ankle injury, but he had target rates of 41.7% and 24.3% in the two weeks he played with Adams sidelined. He also boasted elite route participation rates of over 90% in each of those games.

Heading into Week 7, Meyers is still questionable with that ankle injury. He didn’t practice on Thursday, but Raiders Head Coach Antonio Pierce seemed optimistic that the veteran has a real shot to play on Sunday. Assuming he does suit up, Meyers has an interesting matchup with the Rams’ secondary. The Rams are the fourth-best adjusted matchup for receivers lined up out wide, but the second-worst for slot receivers. For the season, Meyers has run just 60% of his routes from out wide, but that number jumped to 80% in his two weeks with Adams sidelined. Over those two weeks, he also posted an absolutely elite 31% target per route run rate. Even with Aidan O’Connell under center, that’s enough to make him a borderline must-play, especially in PPR formats. 

JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kansas City Chiefs @ San Francisco 49ers

Apparently, this is actually an All-Patriots Start section, which is crazy given the lack of receiving talent they’ve had in recent years. But somehow, JuJu, who was cut by New England prior to this season, is suddenly in a great spot in Kansas City. In Week 5 (the Chiefs’ most recent game and first game without Rashee Rice), JuJu caught seven of eight targets for 130 yards, combining with Travis Kelce to fill Rice’s underneath and YAC role in KC’s offense.

Smith-Schuster isn’t going to suddenly match Rice’s WR1 numbers. Not only is he simply a less talented player at this point in his career, the veteran didn’t have all of the same usage. JuJu’s 20% target share, 59% route participation rate, and 18% first-read target share were all solidly behind Rice’s season averages. But a 20% target share from Patrick Mahomes is still worth chasing. 

The 49ers are a below-average matchup for WRs overall, but they give up slightly above-average numbers to slot WRs. This is a slight boost to JuJu, who ran roughly a third of his routes without Rice from the slot, but the much more important fact is that Andy Reid and Mahomes could probably help me or you catch a handful of passes for 75+ yards. As long as JuJu is getting the designed underneath targets in this offense, he’s a weekly option, especially in PPR formats. 

Fantasy Football Wide Receivers To Sit Week 7

Amari Cooper, Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans

Long-term, I’m very excited about Amari’s prospects in Buffalo. As I mentioned in my breakdown of the trade’s fantasy football implications, he should establish himself as a reliable fantasy option while playing alongside Josh Allen. Yes, some of his advanced metrics so far this season are terrible, but I’m willing to believe that playing with the worst quarterback in the NFL (on and off the field) is the main culprit there.

However, Cooper is not in a good position to make a big debut. For one, he has just a few days to learn an entirely new playbook. We’ve seen even superstar players play limited roles in their first games following mid-season trades: Christian McCaffrey played just 29% of snaps in his 49ers debut. 

And, on however many reps he does get, Cooper will be facing a brutal matchup with the Titans’ secondary. Tennessee is the single worst matchup for fantasy receivers, allowing opposing WRs to score 13.9 points less than they would in an average matchup. They are also the only team in the league to give up less than 100 yards per game to opposing receivers at 98.6. If you own Cooper, this trade is great news, but keep him on your bench one more week.

Josh Downs, Indianapolis Colts vs. Miami Dolphins

Josh Downs has been on fire since his return in Week 3, with an absolutely elite 34% target per route run rate. At this point, he’s probably the Colts’ best receiver. Unfortunately for Downs, the Colts will reportedly be starting Anthony Richardson under center this week; it’s hard to overstate how big of a downgrade Richardson is compared to Joe Flacco for Downs’ fantasy hopes.

In his two starts for Indianapolis, Flacco has averaged 41 attempts per game on a 74.4% catchable pass rate. Across his three full games, Richardson averaged 24.3 attempts and a 64.4% catchable pass rate. If we do the math, that means Flacco has averaged almost twice as many catchable passes per game as Richardson, 30.5 to 16.4. That’s an absolutely massive difference for Downs’ outlook in particular, as he has just a 5.3 ADOT — he needs volume to provide fantasy production. 

To make matters worse, the Dolphins are the sixth-worst schedule-adjusted matchup for wide receivers and the fourth-worst for slot receivers in particular. Especially with Tua Tagovailoa out, teams haven’t had to pass to beat Miami. We know that the Colts (who are three-point favorites) are more than happy to limit Richardson’s volume if given the opportunity. Put it all together, and this is a very sketchy spot for one of the league’s most talented young receivers. 

Jerry Jeudy, Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals

With Cooper out of town, Jeudy’s fantasy value is undeniably on the upswing. After all, Cooper was commanding a 29.8% target share and a massive 54.2% air yards share on this Browns offense. Jeudy is next in line to claim that huge role. 

The issue is, even with that elite usage, Cooper wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire. Through the first six weeks, he had just one game inside the top-40 weekly receivers in fantasy scoring. Deshaun Watson is simply that bad. He ranks dead last among starting quarterbacks with a pitiful 5.13 yards per attempt. Even if Jeudy is Watson’s top target (which is doubtful given that David Njoku saw a 30% target share in his one healthy week), that’s zero guarantee of any useable fantasy production. The Bengals are a fine matchup, but Jeudy shouldn’t slot into your lineup even with Cooper out the door. 

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