Fantasy Football Takeaways from Week 7 Sunday Games: Oronde Gadsden, Kyle Monangai and More

Another NFL Sunday is in the books. Let's go over some fantasy football takeaways from the day.

Be sure to check back for more week 7 roundup articles. The week 7 Thursday night takeaway story can be read here.

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New Pass Catcher Emerges for Chargers

Oronde Gadsden delivered his best game of the season on Sunday, a week after setting new career highs. He caught seven of his nine targets for 164 yards and a touchdown. 

He had 68 yards on seven receptions and eight targets in week 6. That came with Quentin Johnston out of the lineup though, so most expected Gadsden to revert back to a reserve pass-catching role when the team's top wideouts were healthy.

Gadsden ended up leading the team in receiving yards, although he wasn't the only one who produced.

Keenan Allen went for 119 yards and a touchdown on 11 receptions and 14 targets. Ladd McConkey finished with 67 yards on nine grabs and 15 targets, while Johnston had 30 yards and a score on two catches and six targets.

I just wrote about the team's best offensive fantasy options, and this game muddied the picture even more. Of course, throwing 55 times is going to help any pass catcher, so the numbers produced on Sunday aren't sustainable.

Gadsden is going to be a big-time waiver wire add, but it's tough to project long-term success for him with McConkey, Allen and Johnston around and delivering game after game. All four will have games where they produce, but other times, some might not score many fantasy points at all.

All four are pretty good starting fantasy options at this point, but I'd be most inclined to sell them high and rid myself of the weekly headache of trying to figure out who to start, and who not to. They are all valuable fantasy pieces, but if you are looking for more steady production, then selling any of them high right now makes plenty of sense.

Quarterbacks Shine

Eleven quarterbacks have scored over 20 fantasy points so far, and there's still two Monday night games to be played.

Bo Nix leads the way after helping the Broncos to a historic comeback against the Giants. He was 27-of-50 passing for 279 yards, two scores and no picks, while rushing for 48 yards and two scores on five carries.

Jaxson Dart was the other quarterback in that contest. He was 15-of-33 passing for 294 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Dart rushed for 11 yards and a score on five attempts.

Charger QB Justin Herbert was 37-of-55 passing for 420 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He rushed six times for 31 yards.

Matthew Stafford was 21-of-33 passing for 182 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. He gained a yard on two carries.

Patrick Mahomes threw for 283 yards, three touchdowns and no picks on 26-of-35 passing. He added 28 rushing yards on four scrambles.

Jalen Hurts was 19-of-23 passing for 326 yards, three scores and no picks. He lost 10 yards on four carries.

Dak Prescott stayed hot, throwing for 264 yards and three scores on 21-of-30 passing. He avoided a pick and added seven rushing yards on five attempts.

Drake Maye was 21-of-23 passing for 222 yards, two scores and no interceptions. He added 62 rushing yards on eight carries.

Daniel Jones threw for 288 yards, two touchdowns and no picks on 23-of-34 passing. He rushed for seven yards on five carries.

Joe Flacco and Aaron Rodgers each scored over 20 fantasy points on Thursday night - their performances can be read about in the link in the second paragraph of this story. 

Split Backfield in Chicago?

D'Andre Swift has been the lead back in Chicago all season, but rookie Kyle Monangai factored in and looked good on Sunday.

Swift played 37 of the team's 69 offensive snaps, while Monangai was at 31 snaps. Swift came into the week with an ailment, so the team could have been protecting him a bit. The Bears also won pretty handily, so maybe that's another reason why Monangai played more this week.

Anyways, Swift went for 124 yards and a score on 19 carries, while adding a 14-yard reception. Monangai had 81 rushing yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while adding two receptions for 13 yards across three targets.

I still like Swift as the lead back, but it wouldn't be crazy to see the offense start relying on Monangai a bit more, especially in games the Bears are winning - he could also deliver in favorable matchups.

I wouldn't be worried about Swift, as he looked good on Sunday, and has been really good of late. This is definitely a situation to monitor though.

Monangai is worth adding in deeper leagues, in case his upward trend continues. With Swift banged up, he's not a bad player to stash, and now that he's had a game with a big workload, stashing him in standard leagues makes some sense too.

Again, I don't see Swift losing his lead role or fantasy value anytime soon, but this is a situation to monitor, especially over the next couple weeks. We'll see if this game was the start of a new backfield plan, or just an outlier.

Excelling Wide Receivers

A lot of big-name wideouts delivered this week. Nobody has caught Ja'Marr Chase's nearly 40-point outburst from Thursday night yet though.

DeVonta Smith was stellar for the Eagles in their win over the Vikings. A.J. Brown also delivered. Smith went for 183 yards and a score on nine catches and 11 targets, while Brown had 121 yards and two scores on four receptions and six targets.

It was good to see the Eagles' passing game have some life on Sunday. The fantasy outlooks for Smith and Brown are looking up right now.

If you were looking to bail on those guys before, doing so now makes a lot of sense. I'd be most inclined to sell Smith high, because he's been the No. 2 wideouts over his career - these types of big performances are less likely than Brown, even though that hasn't been the case this season.

And speaking of Brown, after his pretty shaky start to the season, this performance will ease the minds of many fantasy owners. It's a great time to sell him high too, especially if you have other wideouts you can turn to.

Xavier Legette and Travis Hunter are a couple lower-level fantasy wideouts who delivered on Sunday.

Legette had 92 yards and a touchdown on nine catches and 11 targets. Hunter was at 101 yards and a score on eight grabs and 14 targets.

It was a breakout game for each wide receiver, and it will be interesting to see how many fantasy owners add each guy going into week 8. Both are No. 2 wideouts for their teams, and are not part of the best offenses around.

I personally like Hunter over Legette, but I think it's closer than you might think. Both will be solid deep-league starting assets going forward, but I'd need more evidence before feeling great about starting either guy in a standard league.

The last wideout I want to discuss today is Rashee Rice. In his first game back, all he did was go for 42 yards and two touchdowns on seven receptions and 10 targets.

He immediately went back to being the Chiefs' top target in the passing game. Rice should remain a high-end fantasy option the remainder of the season.

His presence is going to take away fantasy value from Xavier Worthy and Travis Kelce, and those two guys might also limit Rice's outlook at times. This is another tough situation to navigate from a fantasy perspective, but I'm more inclined to trust the Chiefs' pass catchers over the Chargers - for one because there's one less high-end option, and two, because Mahomes has been there and done that, while Herbert doesn't have the best history of success yet.