Fantasy Football Saturday Mailbag for Week 7

Welcome to this weekly mailbag series! This article will take selected questions from The Footballers’ Discord server that you can join here. In it, you can find a dedicated channel for start/sit questions, public fantasy advice, and a general channel for all things fantasy football. There are also exclusive channels only available to Footclan members. Discord members are great at answering questions and you never know when your questions will appear here.

Ohh it’s a tough week. Week 7 and Week 13 have six teams on bye. Making things worse are all the injuries. This is one of those times where deeper teams and better managers can either make up ground in the playoff race or separate from the pack. If you’re feeling a little bit of Start ‘Em/Sit ‘Em pain, then good because so are all your leaguemates. Good luck this week.

Question #1 – Start/Sit

Michael Mayer or Luke Musgrave? – tito08

Answer: It’s pretty wild looking at the snap counts for these two players. Michael Mayer didn’t crack a 50% snap share until Week 4 but his snap share has risen since then all the way up to 81% last week. The higher snap share also came with season highs in targets (six), receptions (five), and yards (75). It looks like Las Vegas plans on making him much more involved on offense but I’d be cautious projecting this usage further. Mayer looked great last week but Brian Hoyer is getting the start this week, Davante Adams has not so subtly suggested he should get more targets, and Josh Jacobs plus Jakobi Meyers are going to usurp some as well. I’m a fan of Mayer, but I want to see him string a few games like last week together before trusting him in lineups.

Luke Musgrave, on the other hand, was immediately plugged into the Green Bay offense. With the exception of the Detroit game that he left early, he’s had well over a 50% snap share and at least three targets in every game this year. That work hasn’t been good for very much. He has yet to find the end zone. Worse, the yardage isn’t really there either. His season-high yardage total is 50 despite two games with six receptions.

I’m still rolling with Musgrave this week. The matchup against Denver is just too juicy to ignore, but I’d like to roster Mayer. If Musgrave can’t produce against one of the weakest defenses in the league and/or Mayer puts up good numbers again, I’d prefer to start Mayer for the rest of the season. I think we might just be one week too early to make a good decision.

Question #2 – Start/Sit

Rashee Rice or Diontae Johnson? – Neev

Answer: News flash. Pittsburgh activated Diontae Johnson off of IR. He’s also put in a full week of practices so he should be game ready. How much he plays and what role he has is another issue coming off of the hamstring injury. I like Diontae Johnson, but I’m inclined to gamble on Rashee Rice‘s continued ascent in the Kansas City offense.

So far Rice has maxed out on only 50% of offensive snaps, but he’s been remarkably consistent and reliable with the targets he has received giving him a decent floor. He’s also managed to find the endzone a couple of times. I think it’s only a matter of time before Kansas City prioritizes snaps for him over the rest of the Chiefs’ WR corps that have proven spectacularly ordinary. I like Rice’s floor and a breakout game seems due soon.

Question #3 – Rams RBs

Start Royce Freeman or Darrell Henderson? – PcJaegr

Answer: Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Injuries and bye weeks have made this week a tough go for a lot of fantasy managers. There’s no way you can really trust any of the RBs filling in for Kyren Williams. Here’s what I think will happen. Zach Evans will get the first crack at carries but will be on a short leash. Any missed blocking assignments, drops, or fumbles will put him on the sideline for long stretches of the game. Royce Freeman will come in to spell Evans and play in some high-leverage plays. Darrell Henderson will get a few touches this week but won’t be much of a factor.

By next week, Henderson and Freeman will see even touches. How many opportunities they get will be tied to the role Evans establishes. If Evans struggles, Henderson and Freeman may be useful. If Evan does well, we might not see much of Henderson and/or Freeman.

If this sounds like a lot of “if this, then that, but maybe this…,” you’re right. In this situation, I don’t mind rostering one of these RBs to see if I hit the lottery but I wouldn’t want to jam up a roster with multiple Ram RBs. I’d prefer rostering Evans, but wouldn’t feel great starting him this week and next week might still be iffy. If I had to (and I mean there are no other options and had to) choose between Freeman and Henderson, I’d start Freeman – and not like it. Not one bit.

Question #4 – Deebo Samuel

Should I risk starting Deebo MNF or just play either Najee Harris or D’Onta Foreman? I really need some Ws, I’m 4-8. – leonardodamencis

Answer: D’Onta Foreman is out of the question if you need a W. He’ll probably get some points, but Chicago’s offense that struggled with Justin Fields will now feature Tyson Bagent. Bagent has a Walgreens receipt long list of accolades and awards, but they were earned in DII. There’s a non-zero chance he is a capable NFL quarterback but this will be his first start and I don’t like anything the Chicago coaching staff is doing. We need a win, not eight to 12 half-PPR points.

We’re going to need to gamble, but I don’t think Deebo Samuel is the play here. He hasn’t practiced all week and even if he gets the go-ahead for MNF, he won’t be featured killing any hopes we have for a big game and a W.

That leaves Najee Harris. If these were absolutely my only three choices, I’d go with Harris. He only has one game with over 100 yards rushing and receiving and zero touchdowns. Worse, he’s not getting used as a receiver. The matchup against the Rams is a good one, but I’d probably look to the waiver wire for a WR that gives me a shot at a bigger game like Rashee Rice.

Question #5 – League Settings

Do I drop Jakobi Meyers or Tyler Lockett for an RB? I have Montgomery, Kyren, Breece, and Saquon. Kyren and Montgomery are out this week and Breece is on bye. I would be able to pick up Jerome Ford. Is it worth it to drop one of those wide receivers? So annoyed with the commissioner cause he won’t raise the bench spots? – skeeter

Answer: It turns out that this is from a dynasty league where there are only four bench spots and only one IR spot. I actually like leagues that make managers make tough decisions. Our Footballers writer’s league grew to 16 teams so we also have a very thin bench, which has proven challenging.

I actually like that the commissioner isn’t increasing the bench size. You want a league to be flexible with settings, but I’d much rather have a commissioner who doesn’t want to budge on settings than one who changes things up too frequently. I’ve found those frequent changes have a funny way of helping the commissioner. That said, look at it long-term. The commish may not want to change things now, but what if you suggested the change in the offseason to go into effect in 2025? You might have better luck with settings changes if they don’t happen right away. I’m in one league that started with standard scoring. We finally got enough people to support PPR settings, but the only way we got that support was by increasing the PPR by 0.25 each year. We’re halfway there at 0.5 PPR like the rest of the civilized world.

Ohh and the actual question. Drop Jakobi Meyers.