The Week 7 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs features two teams likely starting replacements at key positions on Sunday. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 7: Steelers-Chiefs featuring Martavis Bryant, Le’Veon Bell and Jeremy Maclin
We break down the Week 7 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Pittsburgh Steelers
It appears an injury to quarterback Michael Vick may be a blessing in disguise for the Steelers. It might bring back Ben Roethlisberger in time to start against the Chiefs. If not, former college standout Landry Jones will start. The latter quarterback formed an instant connection with receiver Martavis Bryant last week. Bryant caught six passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns in his season debut. It looks like he hasn’t missed a beat after being suspended for the first four games of the season. That’s bad news for the Kansas City Chiefs and good news for Bryant’s fantasy owners.
When Bryant isn’t catching bombs from Jones, running back Le’Veon Bell should have plenty of room to dominate on the ground, albeit against a good run defense. Bell finished with just 88 yards on 24 carries last week. That’s not a typical result. Hopefully with the passing game playing better under Jones, Bell finds his legs and gets back over the 100-yard mark for the third time in four games. If he does fantasy owners will be jumping for joy. If not, Bell will probably still ends up with a decent stat line thanks to his pass catching ability.
Kansas City Chiefs
All the fuss about Charcandrick West last week probably cost fantasy owners dearly. In fact, investing in any offensive players on the Chiefs roster last week probably cost a lot of people. Tight end Travis Kelce caught 5 passes for 88 yards against the Minnesota Vikings and was arguably the most productive player on the team. He will certainly be busy against the Steelers as quarterback Alex Smith will be forced to throw the ball more than usual. The unproven running game makes that reality obvious.
Smith can’t just depend on Kelce though. Jeremy Maclin has to find his game again. He’s been solid since finally busting out in Week 3, but last week Maclin struggled. He caught just three passes for 48 yards, his lowest yardage total of the season. Luckily Pittsburgh’s defense is nothing special these days, so Maclin should see way more than the four targets he had last week, assuming he plays after continuing to work through the effects of a concussion. But if so, he’s a top candidate for a bounce-back game on Sunday.
* * *
