NFL Week 7 Fantasy Football Recap: New Orleans Saints vs. Arizona Cardinals

DeAndre Hopkins‘ return: The Arizona Cardinals‘ former All-Pro receiver returned to the starting lineup and was the clear focal point of the offense.
Chris Olave’s Rookie of the Year quest continues: The first-round pick remained the New Orleans Saints offense's shining star, leading it in most receiving categories.
Surprise touchdowns: This game was full of touchdowns that helped few fantasy managers, including Rashid Shaheed, Keaontay Ingram and Greg Dortch.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.

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New Orleans Saints @ Arizona Cardinals

DeAndre Hopkins: 10 receptions, 103 yards
Chris Olave: 7 receptions, 106 yards

DeAndre Hopkins‘ return: The former All-Pro made his season debut after a six-game suspension and went right back to being Arizona's top wide receiver.

He rarely left the field and was by far Arizona's top target. He should be consistently in fantasy lineups moving forward.
Rondale Moore was the Cardinals' No. 2 wide receiver, as he has been the last few weeks. He remains a waiver wire target in leagues he’s available.
Greg Dortch surpassed A.J. Green as the third receiver on the depth chart. Dortch found success early in the season while Moore was out and pushed Moore to play most of his snaps on the outside Thursday night. His only target went for a touchdown.
Robbie Anderson started mixing in as the Cardinals’ fourth wide receiver in the second quarter despite joining the team three days ago.
We can expect Anderson to take playing time from Dortch as early as next week. This would push Moore back to the slot.
It will be difficult for Anderson to find consistent fantasy success this season unless he can both beat Dortch in three-receiver sets and Moore in two-receiver sets.
Green didn’t play at all tonight as the Cardinals' fifth wide receiver. There is a chance he will be released at some point. He can be released in the deeper leagues where he is currently on a roster.

Another week without James Conner: Eno Benjamin started his second-straight game while both Conner and Darrel Williams were out with injuries.

Benjamin put together a highlight-worthy 45-yard run but didn’t do much in the run game outside of that play and garbage time.
Keaontay Ingram was more involved in this game, which included career highs in rushes and receptions in addition to his first career touchdown and being a yard away from his second career touchdown.
Conner will likely return in Week 8. He was questionable Thursday night, and an extended week off will likely be enough time for him to return.
This backfield will be more complicated than ever going forward. Conner might not play as much as usual due to his injuries while Ingram might get more involved. This could move closer to a three-back committee.
Fantasy managers should hold onto Benjamin for one more week to see his role, but don’t be afraid to cut him if he’s barely used in Week 8.

Chris Olave‘s return: Olave, one of the Saints' top three wide receivers, was ready to return, and he was clearly the Saints' top wide receiver.

Olave led the team in targets and reached over 50 receiving yards for a fifth-straight game.
He is a must-start player every week regardless of who is at quarterback, which other receivers are healthy or the opponent.
Marquez Callaway and Tre’Quan Smith remained the second and third wide receivers in passing situations, despite both players barely being involved in the passing game.
Smith appeared to injure his arm in the last two minutes of the game. It’s a situation worth monitoring, but Smith missing time would likely just mean a few more targets spread out among other players.
The Saints use a heavy rotation at every skill position, which included Kevin White and Rashid Shaheed, who both caught 50-plus-yard passes.
Their big plays weren’t enough for either player to earn more playing time over the rest of the game, and both should be left on the waiver wire.

Trey McBride’s role is growing: The Cardinals’ second-round rookie has slowly but surely become more involved in the offense.

McBride reached career-highs in offensive snap percentage, and his role has generally been growing.
His role Thursday night was partially due to the game script, but he also reached a career-high in routes run. He's run either run more or the same number of routes in each week this season.
This did not lead to any targets.
His snaps count has almost completely come from an increase in two-tight-end sets. Zach Ertz’ role has remained the same.
It’s unlikely McBride becomes fantasy relevant this season unless the Cardinals offense improves or Ertz sufferers an injury.
Regardless, this is good to see for McBride’s potential fantasy value in future seasons.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.