And while we’re on the subject of winners…
Some well-respected, handsome, brilliant fake pigskin pundit once said, “Nobody wants to hear your fantasy football war stories.” And yes, that well-respected, handsome, brilliant fake pigskin pundit was me.
And I’m right. But I need to tell some war stories. (My NFL Week 7 Winners and Losers column, my rules.) You’re welcome.
My strategy going into my draft for my two-TE fantasy league was, RBs in rounds one and two, TEs in rounds three and four. On paper, it worked out brilliantly:
- Round 1: Bijan Robinson (RB, Atlanta Falcons)
- Round 2: Ashton Jeanty (RB, Las Vegas Raiders)
- Round 3: Brock Bowers (TE, Las Vegas Raiders)
- Round 4: George Kittle (TE, San Francisco 49ers)
The first two games of the season, I mauled. I crushed. I destroyed.
Then my tight end room went kerflooey.
Bowers and Kittle went down the same week, with Kittle landing on four-week IR and Bowers landing in injury limbo. (No IR for the Vegas sophomore, but as of this writing, he’s still down for the count.)
My team — which is called Ben’s Johnson — demolished in Week 3. Then in Week 4, both Jeanty and Robinson went nuts — 55.6 combined fantasy points — but it’s been garbage-time since. And now, with a roster that everybody in my league agreed was the cream of the crop, I’m 3-4, and holding on for my dear life.
So, yeah. Ugly. Not as ugly as the Miami Dolphins or the New York Jets. But ugly nonetheless.
And while we’re on the subject of ugly…
Here’s the best, the worst, and the really worst of NFL Week 7’s weekend.
NFL Week 7 Winners and Losers
(All stats via FantasyPros based on non-PPR scoring.)
Broncos QB Bo Nix: Winner
Reality Stats: 279 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 48 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs
Fantasy Points: 40 (QB1)
The Skinny: We might have to rethink the 2024 NFL Draft, where QBs were selected in the first round, in this order:
- Caleb Williams (Chicago Bears)
- Jayden Daniels (Washington Commanders)
- Drake Maye (New England Patriots)
- J.J. McCarthy (Minnesota Vikings)
- Bo Nix (Denver Broncos)
If we were redrafting, basing it on this season’s fantasy point averages wouldn’t be a bad way to roll:
- Maye: 21.1 (QB6)
- Nix: 20.2 (QB9)
- Daniels: 19.5 (QB11)
- Williams: 18.3 (QB14)
- McCarthy: 14.0 (QB27)
In yesterday’s epic Broncos 33-32 last-gasp thriller, the Giants couldn’t keep Nix out of the end zone — we’re talking 4 total tuddies — and the Oregon product was cool, and he was calm, and he was ballsy, and he looked every ounce the franchise quarterback Denver has lusted for since John Elway.
Granted, Nix isn’t Elway. But for much of yesterday’s fourth quarter, he played him on TV.
Saints QB Spencer Rattler: Loser
Reality Stats: 233 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 3 INTs
Fantasy Points: 13.5 (QB28)
The Skinny: We’re getting to the point that we have to ask ourselves, Is Rattler an NFL starting quarterback?
Fantasy-wise, you’d have to give that a big ol’ Nah: Dude’s only topped 15 fantasy points in two of his seven games here in 2025.
Reality-wise, you’d also have to give that a big ol’ Nah: His Saints are 1-6.
In New Orleans’ 26-14 loss to Chicago, the Bears abused the sophomore, sacking him 4 times and generally driving him to distraction. He did have his moments — his third quarter TD pass to WR Chris Olave was legit — but not nearly enough.
Is it time for New Orleans HC Kellen Moore to throw rookie signal caller Tyler Shough into the fire? Methinks yes.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa: Big Loser
Reality Stats: 100 passing yards, 3 INTs
Fantasy Points: 1.6 (QB31)
The Skinny: In the NFL, can you call a six-year run an experiment? If yes, it’s distinctly possible that the Tua Experiment is toast.
In Miami’s 31-6 beatdown at the hands of the Cleveland Browns (!), Tua was terrible on the field and in the box score, so much so that he was replaced by Quinn Ewers (!!), who proceeded to post a 21.6 QBR.
But that was considerably better than Tua’s 3.4. Experiment over.
Browns RB Quinshon Judkins: Winner
Reality Stats: 84 rushing yards, 3 TDs
Fantasy Points: 26.4 (RB3)
The Skinny: As noted, the Browns pasted 31 points on the Dolphins, kind of a shocker, because many — many, in this instance, meaning me — thought Cleveland would be lucky to score 31 points the rest of the season.
Welp, Judkins disagreed. The rookie’s running numbers weren’t awesome (25 rushes for 84 yards), but like Bo Nix, his opponent couldn’t keep him out of the Promised Land, allowing him to more than double his career TD total in one game.
He’s a clear RB1 and could be a league-winner. Then again, he was playing the Dolphins, so caveat emptor.
Panthers RB Rico Dowdle: Loser
Reality Stats: 79 rushing yards, 17 receiving yards
Fantasy Points: 9.6 (RB17)
The Skinny: In Weeks 5 and 6, Dowdle — who was subbing for injured RB Chuba Hubbard — combined for 59.0 fantasy points, and if you were slick enough to snatch him off the waiver wire, you were a happy camper.
But Hubbard’s back, and Dowdle, while he remains Carolina’s ostensible RB1, the former Cowboy fell back to Earth, and based on their touches (Dowdle: 18, Hubbard: 16), we’re looking at a backfield share for the remainder of the season. And backfield shares are most definitely bad.
Saints RB Alvin Kamara: Big Loser
Reality Stats: 28 rushing yards, 1 receiving yard
Fantasy Points: 2.9 (RB40)
The Skinny: We head back to Chicago, where the Bears D looked positively 1985-ish, holding New Orleans to 253 total yards, a mere one-ninth of which came from the once-mighty Kamara.
But it’s hard to establish a running game when your quarterback is Spencer Rattler rather than Drew Brees, so let’s give the guy a break.
Still, it was ugly.
Eagles WRs A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith: Winners
Reality Stats: 304 combined receiving yards, 3 combined touchdowns
Fantasy Points: Smith: 24.3 (WR1), Brown: 24.1 (WR2)
The Skinny: I don’t have the bandwidth to dig into the fantasy archives and find out whether two receivers from a single team have ever topped 24 points and finished 1-2 on the fantasy board, but for the sake of this discussion, we’ll pretend it’s a first.
Among the many cool aspects of this two-headed monster of a performance is that all but 25 of QB Jalen Hurts’ passing yards went to his go-to receivers. All of which is why the NFC is on high alert.
Chargers WRs Ladd McConkey and Quentin Johnston: Losers
Reality Stats: 97 combined receiving yards, 1 receiving TD
Fantasy Points: Johnson: 9.0 (WR21), McConkey: 6.7 (WR28)
The Skinny: When a quarterback tops 400 yards and his WR1 and WR2 rack up under one-quarter of them, something ain’t right.
And when said duo gets outscored by a dude who wasn’t on anybody’s fantasy radar until about eight days ago — that being TE Oronde Gadsden II (22.4 fantasy points) — something is even less right.
Facing the mighty Colts, Chargers QB Justin Herbert was forced to throw and throw and throw again — 55 attempts in all — but unfortunately for those fantasy managers who were relying on Johnston to find his early-season form — i.e., his 19.9 fantasy point outburst in Week 1 — well, he didn’t.
Vikings WR Justin Jefferson: Big Loser
Reality Stats: 79 receiving yards
Fantasy Points: 7.9 (WR23)
The Skinny: For many NFL wide receivers, a 79-yard outing would be one for the memory banks. For Justin Jefferson, it’s one for the garbage can.
To that end, here’s a depressing fact for those of you who nabbed Jefferson in the first round of your fantasy draft: In three of his six games, Jefferson hasn’t topped 8.1 fantasy points (really ugly), and for the season, he’s WR15, ranked four spots behind Bears WR Rome Odunze, who you definitely didn’t select in the first round of your fantasy draft.
And it’s only a matter of time before the man they call Jets will be catching balls from J.J. McCarthy. Yikes.
Colts TE Tyler Warren: Winner
Reality Stats: 93 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD
Fantasy Points: 12.9 (TE12)
The Skinny: It’s getting to the point where I can plug Warren into the winner slot and call it a day.
Currently this season’s TE2, the rookie out of Penn State is making my Chicago Bears look silly for drafting Michigan TE Colston Loveland at the ten-spot, while Indy grabbed Warren at 14.
I’m still bitter. Discussion over.
Falcons TE Kyle Pitts Sr.: Loser
Reality Stats: 62 receiving yards
Fantasy Points: 6.2 (TE15)
The Skinny: It could be argued that in terms of expectations vs. results, Pitts is the worst fantasy TE ever.
When he was drafted in 2021, the Florida standout was expected to be the second coming of Antonio Gates, a big, fast stud with a nose for the ball, and two noses for the end zone.
Unfortunately, he’s only topped 1,000 yards once in his career (2021, 1,026) and he’s managed just 11 total TDs. For context, since the 2000 season, ten TEs have racked up 11+ touchdowns in a single season.
Pitts’ performance on Sunday night was another in a long line of games that cheesed-off fantasy players all over this great nation.
Bears TE Colston Loveland: Big Loser
Reality Stats: 24 yards
Fantasy Points: 2.4 (TE27)
The Skinny: To quote me from like four paragraphs ago, “Currently this season’s TE2 [Tyler Warren] is making my Chicago Bears look silly for drafting Michigan TE Colston Loveland at the ten-spot, while Indy grabbed Warren at 14.”
Sadly, I have to stand by that until further notice.
Regardless of whether your PrizePicks picks were good, bad, or ugly, you had a ton of fun making your selections, and will continue to do so as the NFL season progresses.
And if you enjoyed our NFL Week 7 fantasy winners and losers, stick with Playbook all season for advice, predictions, takes, goodness, badness, and, you guessed it, ugliness.
