The Week 7 matchup between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers features two teams looking to snap mini two-game losing streaks. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 7: Raiders-Chargers featuring Derek Carr, Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates
We break down the Week 7 matchup between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers.
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders can keep things interesting in the AFC West with a win over the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. Whether they prevail or not will hinge on the performance of quarterback Derek Carr. Carr had a difficult time carrying the offense against the Denver Broncos back in Week 5. The team as a whole managed to put up 10 points in the game. The Chargers aren’t as good defensively as the Broncos so hopefully that works to Carr’s favor on Sunday. He should be a high-volume passer this week.
Carr and his favorite wide receiver Amari Cooper will be in tough against the Chargers’ secondary even though the rest of the defense isn’t as good as Denver’s. They give up the seventh fewest passing yards in the NFL. That means Cooper will have to catch more than the four passes he’s caught in each of the last two games in order for the Raiders to have a legitimate chance to win. Cooper will go through his highs and lows given that he’s a rookie, but he’s still a physical specimen and could certainly find the end zone against San Diego.
San Diego Chargers
The Chargers couldn’t muster up enough to defeat the Green Bay Packers last week but fantasy owners of quarterback Philip Rivers probably don’t care. That’s because he threw for 503 passing yards trying to keep things close. He also tossed two touchdown passes in the game and didn’t thrown interception. The Oakland Raiders are giving up 299 passing yards per contest, so Sunday’s game should be quite the fiesta for Rivers, even if he doesn’t have Keenan Allen in the lineup thanks to a hip injury suffered last week.
Allen will either be absent from the lineup or play at less than 100 percent, which means tight end Antonio Gates becomes Rivers’ unquestioned No. 1 option. Gates caught nine passes for the second game in a row last week and although he didn’t find the end zone, those receptions led to 95 yards. He’s a premier pass catcher at his position and he should be able to dominate the Raiders on Sunday. With the volume he’s getting and the fact that the quarterback is clearly on his game right now, don’t be surprised if Gates finds his way back into the end zone on the strength of another busy afternoon.
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SB Nation presents: NFL Week 7 fantasy waiver wire targets
