Top daily fantasy football quarterback plays for Week 7

Welcome to Week 7 of the Daily Fantasy season. Pricing has stabilized as trends have emerged but there are still bargains to be found and even some higher-priced options that will go under-owned and can make a difference in your lineups. This article looks at some of the projected lesser-owned plays at quarterback who could provide huge boosts to your tournament lineups, as well as some trap plays to avoid.

I’m pretty sure this is my first Andy Dalton recommendation of the season. There won’t be many more, I’m sure. But the Bengals draw the lowly Browns at home this week, and with the increasing possibility that Tyler Eifert will be in the lineup, Dalton’s chances for a big game increase. Joe Haden is looking iffy again, so A.J. Green should be able to road free in the secondary. And if Eifert is a go, the Browns are dreadful at covering tight ends. While the Bengals will certainly want to run the ball with Jeremy Hill, it’s well within the range of expectation that Dalton throws for 300 yards and at least three touchdowns at what should be reasonably low ownership. It’s Andy Dalton, after all.

Talk about riding the hot hand. Mariota is downright Brady-esque right now for the Titans, throwing for three touchdowns in each of his past two games and running for another. He had 28.8 FanDuel points last week against Cleveland (Dalton!), after dropping a 30 on Miami the week before. You know who has a pass defense that’s as wretched as Miami and Cleveland? Why, that would be the Indianapolis Colts, whom Mariota gets to carve up at home this week. Mariota is the 10^th-highest priced quarterback on FanDuel (9^th if you toss out Big Ben), but he could easily be a Top-3 performer.

Underwhelming is probably a good word to describe Bortles through his first five games of 2016. He hasn’t thrown for more than two touchdowns in any game and hasn’t topped 300 yards since Week 2. After putting up video game numbers in 2015, maybe regression to the mean was inevitable. But this is the week where the 2015 Bortles could make an appearance. The Raiders are the get-well team for quarterbacks this season, and the Jags get to face them at home. Not many saw it, because the game was in the UK, but when facing a similarly bad pass defense (Colts) in Week 4, Bortles put up 25.88 FanDuel points. Bortles is going to fly very low under the radar this week in a game with shootout potential. Don’t sleep on him.

Cousins is in the same boat as Bortles: Not living up to last season’s numbers and facing a team that can make all the bad things go away. Cousins is somewhat limited by the fact that Jordan Reed has been ruled out, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop throwing altogether. The Lions can certainly be had through the air and DeSean Jackson is looking like a go, so there are weapons for Cousins to utilize. Like Bortles, Cousins is fairly inexpensive and should carry a low ownership.

You may not like what Kaepernick stands for (or doesn’t stand for, more appropriately), but this is not a political exercise. This is about maximizing value and scoring points. At $6,500, Kaepernick does not need to score a ton of points to pay off his salary, but with Carlos Hyde ruled out, the offense is going to go through Kap like it did in his Super Bowl season, meaning he should be able to produce points both as a passer and a runner. He gives you roster flexibility with a chance to 4X his salary if he can run one in. He’s worth a look here.

The Saints are on the road this week. That’s really all you need to know. There really should by dynamic pricing for Brees when he’s playing in the Superdome and when he’s not, based on his home/road splits. Right now, he’s priced like he’s playing a home game. He isn’t, and the Chiefs defense is hardly a pushover at home. No thanks.

Even if Palmer were 100-percent healthy it would be tough to recommend him in this spot against the Seahawks’ defense. Palmer has been a shell of his 2015 self this season, and now he does have a hamstring injury that should only serve to keep his production modest. There are way too many juicy options just above and below his price range to bother hoping for some sort of contrarian peformance here.