Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 7 Quarterbacks

Week 7 of the fantasy football season is here, and we’re back with another crop of start/sit options. We have a nice set of data about each team through six weeks and can make informed decisions on good plays and traps. With that in mind, we’ll pick quarterbacks who should exceed expectations in Week 7, along with three you should probably sit.

If I had written this column at the end of the third quarter on Monday night, Mariota would have been in the “sit” category. Then, for whatever reason, Mariota and the Titans put it all together in the fourth quarter and looked like a finely tuned offensive juggernaut in overcoming the Colts for a critical victory. Now, Mariota gets to face a winless Browns team that allows oodles of offense to opposing QBs. Mariota has regained my trust, and he should have yours, too.

Look, we all know the deal here. This is the revenge game to end all revenge games. It’s also a bit of desperation time for the Falcons, who have lost two straight, and it’s also a Patriots defense that just can’t stop anybody – except Jameis Winston. The drumbeat about getting Julio Jones more involved is getting louder, and I expect him to be fed early and often. With Mohamed Sanu back, Ryan has all his weapons. He will use them to great effect on Sunday night.

The Buccaneers do not have a good pass defense, allowing the second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks in all of football. Taylor is playing at home, where he has shown himself to be effective, scoring over 20 fantasy points in each of his two previous home games. Put those two factoids together, and you have a pretty good bet for a solid performance on Sunday.

The Buccaneers say that Winston will start this week despite a shoulder injury that knocked him out of last Sunday’s game early. Making matters worse, Winston is on the road against a defense that has throttled opposing quarterbacks all season. While the Bucs rank 31^st in passing DVOA, the Bills are third. Red flags everywhere here.

Props to Manning and the Giants for their upset of the Broncos in Denver last week, but they did it mostly with defense, including a critical pick-six, and the running game. Outside of Evan Engram, Manning did little in the passing game and that isn’t going to get any easier against Seattle’s top-10 pass defense.

End of an era? Big Ben just isn’t getting it done anymore, and maybe he wasn’t being so sarcastic a couple weeks ago when he mused about having lost his fastball. The Bengals defense are not a get-well unit for any quarterback, and with Le’Veon Bell percolating again, expect the Steelers to focus on the running game to move the ball.