Fire & Ice: Top starts, sits and sleepers in fantasy football for Week 7

• Baker Mayfield is burning hot: Mayfield has scored 23-plus fantasy points in three straight weeks and is about to make it four straight against the Baltimore Ravens‘ weak pass defense. Baltimore’s defense is allowing the second most fantasy points to the quarterback position in 2024.

• Drake Maye and Demario Douglas are sneaky high-upside fantasy plays this week: In Maye’s first start in the NFL he put up 19.5 fantasy points, while peppering Douglas with targets and supporting him to a 21 fantasy point day. The duo gets a juicy matchup against the Jaguars who have allowed the most fantasy points to both the quarterback and wide receiver position this season.

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Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Are you struggling to set your Week 7 fantasy lineups? Maybe I can help… Below you can find my top fire (boom) and ice (bust) players at each position for Week 7 I also include my sleeper of the week at each position in case you are in a deeper league or in need of a replacement for an ice player.

Don’t miss my Fire & Ice chart at the bottom of this page. There, I have listed out all of my fire, good, sleeper and ice plays for Week 7 of the 2024 fantasy football season.

Quarterbacks

Fire QB Start of the Week: Baker Mayfield (vs. BAL)

After six weeks of the season, Baker Mayfield leads the NFL with 15 passing touchdowns, three more than any other quarterback. He is averaging 22.5 fantasy points per game in 2024, the second most among QBs, behind only last year’s MVP Lamar Jackson. Mayfield has finished as a top-eight fantasy QB in five of six weeks this season, including three top-three finishes.

Mayfield has now scored at least 23 points in three consecutive weeks and there is no reason that streak will end in Week 7 in a great matchup. The Baltimore Ravens are allowing the most passing yards per game and second most fantasy points to the quarterback position this season. Jayden Daniels (21 points), Joe Burrow (33.8) and Dak Prescott (30) have all put up great fantasy performances against the Ravens since Week 3.

Sleeper QB of the Week: Drake Maye (vs. JAX in London)

It wasn’t a mistake-free NFL debut for Drake Maye last weekend against the Houston Texans, but he still had a good fantasy outing, putting up 19.5 fantasy points while throwing for 243 yards, three touchdowns and adding another 38 yards as a rusher. Maye having to face the Texans, who are a top-five passing defense this season, in his first NFL start was not an easy task, but he handled himself well.

Now, Maye gets to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars who are the worst passing defense in the NFL. Jacksonville has allowed the most passing yards, touchdowns and fantasy points to quarterbacks in 2024. The Jaguars have allowed a quarterback to put up 23-plus fantasy points against them in four straight weeks (Caleb Williams, Joe Flacco, C.J. Stroud and Josh Allen).

Ice QB Start of the Week: Kyler Murray (vs. LAC)

Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals offense just look out of synch as of late. It will be difficult for them to get back on track in Week 7 against a tough Los Angeles Chargers defense, especially if Marvin Harrison Jr. doesn’t clear concussion protocol in time for the game.

Murray has thrown for multiple touchdowns in just one game this season and has scored fewer than 15 fantasy points in four of six games. The Chargers have allowed just 13 fantasy points per game to QBs this season, the sixth fewest in the NFL.

Murray isn’t a must-sit in Week 7, but I have him ranked as my QB15, with QBs that can be found on waivers ranked ahead of him (for example: Drake Maye).

Running Backs

Fire RB Start of the Week: J.K. Dobbins (at ARI)

In the first game after Gus Edwards was placed on IR, J.K. Dobbins recorded a career-high 25 carries in Week 6 against the Denver Broncos. He saw his playing time take a big leap with Edwards sidelined, playing on 73% of snaps after averaging about 60% of snaps over the Chargers' first four games in 2024.

Dobbins has now scored at least 18 fantasy points in three of five games played this season with his only two poor performances coming against the Steelers and Chiefs, two of the best run defenses in the NFL. He will not be facing a tough run defense this weekend when he travels to Arizona — the Cardinals defense has allowed the second most rushing yards per game to the running back position this season. Dobbins is a top-10 RB start in Week 7.

Sleeper RB of the Week: Raheem Mostert (at IND)

Prior to the Miami Dolphins‘ Week 6 bye, Raheem Mostert got 21 touches in Week 5 after missing Weeks 2-4 with a chest injury. His backfield counterpart De’Von Achane is going through concussion protocol and could be available this weekend, but even if that is the case, I still believe Mostert will be heavily utilized.

This matchup between the Indianapolis Colts should feature heavy rushing attacks on both sides of the ball. Allowing the Dolphins to feed both Mostert and Achane. The Colts have allowed Tank Bigsby (25.9 points) and Tony Pollard (17.8) to each have good fantasy days against them over the last two weeks.

Ice RB Start of the Week: Jordan Mason (vs. KC)

After a hot start to the 2024 season, Jordan Mason’s fantasy value has come crashing down, finishing as the RB24 or worse in three of the last four weeks. Mason suffered a mild shoulder injury in Week 6, but it seems he is going to try and toughen it out and play through the injury. However, even if he isn’t on the San Francisco 49ers’ bench, he should be on your fantasy bench.

Not only will his snaps and touches likely to be limited, but the Kansas City Chiefs are allowing the fewest fantasy points to the running back position this season. The Chiefs have not allowed a RB to run for 50-plus yards against them this season. Besides the tough matchup, Mason has been very touchdown-or-bust for fantasy, averaging just 9.6 points in the three games he didn’t find the end zone in 2024. It is highly unlikely the 49ers will be comfortable putting Mason in goal-line situations with a fresh shoulder injury.

Wide Receivers

Fire WR Start of the Week: Zay Flowers (at TB)

Flowers has put up 243 receiving yards on 21 targets over the last two weeks, scoring 19 points in Week 5 and 22.4 points in Week 6. He has another friendly matchup in Week 7 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Drake London (33.4 points), Darnell Mooney (31.5), Bub Means (15.5) and KhaDarel Hodge (14.7) all had good fantasy days against Tampa Bay over the last two weeks.

This game between the Ravens and Buccaneers is expected to be one of the highest-scoring affairs of the week, with both teams’ defenses weak against the pass. Flowers will have a lot of opportunities to put up big numbers in this matchup.

Sleeper WR Start of the Week: Demario Douglas (at JAX in London)

Demario Douglas has scored double-digit fantasy points in three of the last four games, including last week when he scored 21.2 fantasy points in his first game with rookie QB Drake Maye. With a quarterback under center who was finally willing to chuck it down the field, Douglas recorded a career-high 92 receiving yards and scored his first career touchdown in Week 6. He should continue to build upon his rapport with Maye this weekend in a very favorable matchup against the Jaguars.

No team has allowed more fantasy points to wide receivers than the Jaguars this season. It has been especially bad over their last four games — they have let Keenan Allen, Alec Pierce, Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs and Khalil Shakir all put up 18-plus points against them since Week 3.

Ice WR Start of the Week: Michael Pittman Jr. (vs. MIA)

The Dolphins are allowing the third-fewest fantasy points per game to the wide receiver position in 2024 as teams just don’t have to pass much to beat out the pitiful Miami offense. Opponents are averaging the second-fewest passing attempts and WR groups are only averaging a combined 8.8 receptions per game against the Dolphins this season.

Pittman Jr. has had solid fantasy outing in three straight weeks, largely due to coming down with a touchdown in each of the last two weeks, however, the Dolphins have allowed just two touchdowns to WRs this season and have not allowed one since Week 3. Not only has Pittman recorded fewer than 40 receiving yards in all put one game this season but he is also toughing out a back injury — there will be little need to push him in this matchup.

Tight Ends

Fire TE Start of the Week: Mark Andrews (at TB)

After a disastrous stretch where he had zero receptions in back-to-back games in Weeks 3 and 4, Mark Andrews has had at least 50 receiving yards in each of the last two weeks. He also finally found the end zone for the first time this season last weekend. It is also promising that Andrews has seen four red zone targets over the last two weeks, after having zero red zone targets from Weeks 1-4.

This should be a higher-scoring matchup against the Buccaneers and it is a favorable matchup for tight ends. Tampa Bay let Dallas Goedert score 15.8 points against them in Week 4, Kyle Pitts scored 15.8 points against them in Week 5, and then Foster Moreau and Juwan Johnson combined for 15.2 points against them in Week 6.

Sleeper TE of the Week: David Njoku (vs. CIN)

David Njoku has missed the majority of the 2024 season due to an ankle injury but finally seems to be getting healthy. He played on 74% of the Cleveland Browns’ offensive snaps in Week 6 and led the team with seven targets and five receptions. Njoku and Amari Cooper (six) were the only Browns players to have more than three targets in the game last week.

Now that the Browns have shipped off Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills, there are nearly nine extra targets per game to be spread around the offense. Njoku should get peppered with targets in a matchup against a soft secondary, making him a high-floor, plus high-ceiling fantasy option this week.

Ice TE Start of the Week: Dalton Kincaid (vs. TEN)

Dalton Kincaid has been one of the biggest disappointments of the fantasy season, scoring fewer than 10 points in four of six games in 2024, while not hitting 14 points in any game this season.

He showed some signs of life in Week 6 while recording a season-high six receptions for 51 yards. However, I don’t expect him to grow upon that success this weekend in a tough matchup.

The Tennessee Titans have allowed just 5.2 fantasy points per game to the tight end position this season, the fewest in the NFL. They have allowed zero receiving touchdowns to a tight end this year, while Kincaid has scored just one touchdown all season long.

Fire & Ice Fantasy Football Plays

Here, I categorize every relevant fantasy player into five different buckets: (1) fire starts (best starts of the week); (2) thumbs up (good starts); (3) Risky players with upside (sleepers); (4) Ice starts (predicting bad performance from good player); (5) Stop (must sits).

Note: If a player/defense is not listed, I am not considering starting them in Week 7. I did not include Broncos/Saints players as they play on Thursday night.