Which backfield are you attracted to for Week 7 DFS lineups? Are some 'stay away until further notice?'
- Rams (Malcolm Brown, Darrell Henderson, no Todd Gurley in Week 6, Shootout potential at Atlanta)
- Saints (at Chicago, Alvin Kamara dinged up, Latavius Murray)
- Chargers (at Tennessee, full RBBC between Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler Week 6, both ineffective)
- Washington (vs. San Francisco, Adrian Peterson last man standing?)
- Giants (vs. Arizona, how will you address the situation if Saquon Barkley is back? What if Barkley is out and Gallman is back?)
Phil Alexander
- Rams - If Gurley misses again, I'd gladly buy up last week's busted chalk, Malcolm Brown, in a cakewalk matchup against the Falcons. Brown played on 68% of the snaps in Week 6 and he could be in for much more assuming Atlanta is unable to force a negative game script on the Rams. Darrell Henderson looked electric on a few runs last week and would be deserving of low exposure in GPPs.
- Saints - Alvin Kamara came into last week's game with an ankle injury and left with a knee injury. Even if he plays, he's impossible to trust on the road in Chicago. Josh Jacobs' success in London against the Bears rush defense in Week 5 was most likely an aberration. Latavius Murray ($5,100 on DraftKings) is priced at his ceiling in this matchup, even if Kamara scratches.
- Chargers - Melvin Gordon's return has been a crime against fantasy football. There's still GPP appeal in the Chargers' backfield moving forward but a game in Tennessee with a 38.5-point implied total is probably not the spot to chase it.
- Washington - Adrian Peterson was a bell-cow in his first game under interim head coach Bill Callahan, touching the ball 25 times. But he was also blessed with a run-heavy game script against the worst defense in the NFL. Expect the opposite this week in San Francisco. He belongs in 0% of your Week 7 lineups.
- Giants - If Saquon Barkley is back, I'm finding a way to squeeze him under the cap. Even Devonta Freeman (118 total yards and two touchdowns) was able to get on track against the Cardinals last week. Should Barkley miss again, Wayne Gallman is a fine play (assuming he clears the concussion protocol), though DraftKings did a nice job pricing him so he's far from a free square ($5,500).
Justin Bonnema
Rams – It seems everyone wants to target the Falcons with running backs but in reality, their defense is getting crushed by quarterbacks and wide receivers more so than rushing attacks. That said, talent has hit home against them, with Dalvin Cook and David Johnson both scoring 28 DraftKings points or better. But Brown isn’t anywhere near those guys in terms of talent. Henderson is raw and made some mistakes last week. Perhaps he’s a good tournament bet given his salary and the fact that he’s the likeliest passing-down back in a what could be a high-scoring game, but unless Gurley returns to full practice, I’ll target the Falcons’ defense with the Rams’ receivers and not their running backs.
Jason Wood
As Phil noted, Malcolm Brown is in play this week as a high-value overweight. He fizzled last week in spite of being a chalk play, which will assure recency bias keeps his ownership low this week. Meanwhile, he gets a Falcons matchup that couldn't be juicier.
I can see GPPs being won by someone who gets the Chargers backfield situation right, but for now I'm not brave enough to guess. If you're the kind of player who does high-volume multi-entry, sprinkle both Gordon and Ekeler into your exposures. But if you're a more traditional player, or playing cash, the Chargers are an easy fade for now.
All signs point to Saquon Barkley playing this week, and the Cardinals matchup is too good to pass up. With Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson coming back from suspension, the Giants are going to need to run the ball effectively to keep Daniel Jones from being overwhelmed.
James Brimacombe
Rams - In theory it makes sense to just insert whatever running back is up against the Falcons each week but I think the Rams situation is somewhat different here. With Gurley banged up, no trust in Henderson to even see touches, and Brown apparently just a guy I think you want to go heavy on the Rams passing game here.
Dan Hindery
If Barkley is back and there are no reports he will be eased back into action, he will be one of the top options on the slate. He is especially attractive when you take into account that Christian McCaffrey and Ezekiel Elliott aren’t options this week and Alvin Kamara doesn’t seem to be 100%. This is one of those situations though where judging the tenor of late-week reporting will be key. If we get a Sunday AM tweet from Adam Schefter saying Barkley is expected to step right back into his normal workload or something along those lines, I will play him with confidence.
I will potentially have some interest in the Rams backfield if Gurley is out but more as an upside play in some percentage of GPP lineups and not as a core piece of my lineups. Darrell Henderson is the more interesting option of the two. He is cheaper and he showed flashes of the type of big-play ability that had us excited about his prospects in the offseason.
The rest of these backfields are avoids for me. The San Francisco defense has been incredible. Over the past five games, they have been the stingiest defense against opposing running backs according to Austin Lee’s normalized strength of schedule numbers. I don’t see much upside for Adrian Peterson in this matchup and his floor is scary low. Unless Alvin Kamara is actually inactive, it is hard to like either him or Latavius Murray in this matchup against Chicago. I’m expecting Kamara to give it a go at less than 100% and have a solid but unspectacular game. I’m also avoiding the Chargers backfield for now. Not only does the committee approach limit the upside for both Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler, the Chargers offensive line has also been beat up and ineffective.
