Transcription
In this video, we are going to break down 10 must-start players that you need to have in your fantasy lineups for week seven before they explode. You will definitely regret leaving these guys on your bench.
And let's start with Jordan Addison, who was coming out of his by-week, and he's only played in about two games this year. And I say about two games because the game before his bye-week, he didn't play in the first quarter. He was basically benched for some like conduct, detrimental to the team type stuff, not showing up to a practice, something along those lines. So, we've seen Addison in two games. He had to play overseas as well. So, it's a little bit like of a skewed and warped start to his season.
In his first ever game, four catches, 114 yards. He had a big 80-yard catch late in that game that kind of flipped the entire game, flipped his entire fantasy day as well. But that's the type of player that Jordan Addison is. He's this big-play guy. He was a big-play guy in college at UNCC and or USC. And since Justin Jefferson is on his team, usually takes away attention. It leads a lot of one-on-one opportunities for Jordan.
So, he has a solid game in week four. Then in week five, he comes out again after only playing about three quarters of this game, missing the first quarter. Four catches or five catches, 41 yards, and he gets the receiving touchdown in this game. So, he's had back-to-back, very solid flex, wide receiver, two type numbers for you if you've been holding out on him. Suspended the first three games of the season, plays two games solidly, then goes on bye. So, for the most part, it's kind of been the quiet about how Jordan Addison has been performing this year and it's been pretty good.
Okay, so now Jordan Addison gets to return out of his by-week, which is going to be important for this entire team. We'll see what the quarterback situation is. As of this recording, it's not sure if it's going to be Carson Wentz or JJ McCarthy who's going to be starting there. Whoever it is, they might have a little bit of an easier matchup this weekend against the Eagles because the Eagles, the last time they played 10 days ago, Quinnon Mitchell had a hamstring injury and was ruled out against the Giants. And this was definitely a factor as the Giants were able to move the ball in this defense. And a big reason why is your number one quarterback was out. And if you haven't watched football this year or any Eagles games, let me fill you in on something. The Eagles quarterback two spot, if you know this, if you're an Eagles fan, Adori Jackson, whoever's been there, has been terrible. So, they need Quinion Mitchell out there.
Now, as of this recording, I'm not sure if he'll be playing or not. Obviously, if he's not playing, even better for Jordan Addison in the entire passing attack. Although Mitchell would probably be on Justin Jefferson. So, either way, Addison should get a nice matchup here when they did not have Quinion Mitchell in the last game. This is what the Giants gave up. They or this is what the Eagles gave up to the Giants on Thursday night. A six-catch, 84-yard game to Wel Robinson. Lil Jordan Humphrey comes out of nowhere, who's been a tight end at times in the NFL, and he was on the Saints for four catches for 55 yards. Right. This was by far the best game as a passer Jackson Dart has had, averaging 7.8 yards per attempt on just 25 pass attempts. So, we're going to see what happens.
This Eagles defense has not been great. Obviously, they didn't have Quin Mitchell. They also didn't have Jaylen Carter in the middle of that defense with a heel injury. We'll see what their statuses are. But, at worst, at worst, it looks like it's going to be a nice matchup specifically for Jordan Addison on the outside. He'll probably end up facing a Dory Jackson or Keely Ringo, which is going to be a nice matchup. Both of those guys have graded in terms of PFF grades, which is a lot of talk in the town right now if you're in the Twitter bubble of the NFL and fantasy and all that, but they've been graded near the bottom of PFF grades at the quarterback spot.
Now, this game this weekend is expected to be a close one. It's a one-and-a-half-point spread. The Vikings are actually home underdogs coming out of a bye, which is which is usually rare for a quality team in terms of Minnesota. Home underdogs coming out of the bye-week. If you're a home underdog, naturally, if you look back over the last 10 years or so, home underdogs is a good spot for the passing attack. It means that you're going to be in a neutral or negative situation, meaning you have to throw to keep up and you're at home, which is a friendly environment. So, we might see 35, 40-plus pass attempts here. That helps Jordan. So, you want Jordan in your lineup this week. Aside from Justin Jefferson, really no target competition here. TJ Hawkinson has been pretty hot and cold and mostly cold for most of the year. No wide receiver three competition with Adam Thielen basically not being involved in the offense all that much. So, you want to start Jordan Addison this week.
And now let's move over to the running back position where this next guy we're going to talk about is coming off of a terrible game, but he's a top 10 running back this week for sure. That guy we got to talk about is the second-round rookie running back for the Cleveland Browns who look in week six, this was not pretty at all. If you started him, boy oh boy was it terrible. 12 carries, 36 yards, no touchdowns, no passing game involvement at all for Junkkins as the Browns ended up getting blown out in this one by the Steelers 23 to 9. It wasn't even that close for most of the game. The Steelers got out to an early lead in the first quarter. They didn't look back and this resulted in this game if we scroll down which seems crazy. Dylan Gabriel throwing the ball 52 times. And the problem for Quinn Sean Junkkins who's mostly just a rusher. He's not known as a pass catcher. We knew that in college. We knew that coming out. Quinn John Junkkins no catches in this game. The guy who stepped in for him was both Jerome Ford catches Dylan Samson two catches. They took Judkins off the field as they played from behind by multiple scores and they put these other guys on the field. That's not good for Judkins. That's why multiple weeks ago we were telling you to trade him because this offense is not going to be good. They're going to be trailing and Judkins is going to come off the field often. Which is why you should still probably trade him except wait till after this week when he gets his value back up because now he's in the totally opposite situation than he was last week.
Remember those first three games of the season, one of which he really was kind of on a snap count when he was averaging 17 points per game, 95 rushing yards per game. He broke off the big 30, 40-yard run against the Packers in week three and didn't look back for the next three games or so. This is the type of junk you're about to get this week because the Browns, believe it or not, with Dylan Gabriel are home favorites. Two-and-a-half-point home favorites against the Dolphins. Yes, Dylan Gabriel is a favorite this week in the NFL, which just seems crazy, especially based on how poorly they played last week against the Steelers. But that's just how bad this Miami Dolphins defense is.
If we pull this up right here from Fox Sports, in terms of rushing yards allowed per game, they allow the most rushing yards per game. 168 rushing yards per game. Almost 400 total, 400 total yards per game is the third-worst mark. They're also allowing a rushing touchdown per game to opposing backfields. This is the perfect situation. You're a home underdog, which means it's less likely and fairly far unlikely to be trailing big in this game for Juckkins. And you're facing the worst rushing defense in the NFL. A rushing defense that recently played Rico Dole and gave up 23 carries, 206 rushing yards, nine yards per attempt to Rico Dole. And oh yeah, he also caught three balls for 28 yards. A rushing defense that we just saw to Kamani Vidal give up 18 carries, 124 yards. Oh yeah, Kamani Vidal also went out and caught three balls, right? So I know Rico Do's been awesome lately, but when Rico Do and Kamani Vidal are going off against your rushing defense the last two games, I think Quinton Junkkins, the most talented running back out of the other guys I just mentioned, is going to have himself a day. You need to be starting this dude because I wouldn't be shocked if he sees in this game 20, 22 touches overall, mostly on the ground, breaks 100 yards, has a rushing touchdown or two. That seems pretty crazy. That's the high-end outcome. I agree with that. But this is an awesome situation for Junins. You want to get him in your lineup.
And the same could be said for this next guy. Hey, before we get into the next player in this video, two seconds of your time to hit that subscribe button. We are less than 3,000 subscribers away from my goal of over 200,000. So, if you find my content helpful, if you watch it often, just double-check that you have that subscribe button hit. I appreciate you. Now, let's get back into it.
And that next guy is Stefon Diggs, who very similar to Quinchon Junkens is coming off of a game where last week he only got you like two to three fantasy points just like Judkins did. And in week six, it was a very terrible game for the end box score for Stefon Diggs. If you're just looking at three catches for 28 yards, he was coming off of back-to-back 100-yard performances. It looked like he was trending up. He had that revenge game against the Bills in prime time. Then he comes out and he lays an egg in a good matchup. Three catches for 28 yards. It's Kahan Booty who's getting five catches, 93 yards in multiple scores. It's a big touchdown for Demario Douglas in this game as well. But I should say Stefon Diggs in this game had two catches called back by penalty. You probably saw one of them because it was late in the game during a very close witching hour if you were watching the red zone for a 50-yard reception, but it got called back on a ticky-tack call. And I'm not just saying that because I had Stefon Diggs over receiving yards and this would have been it. But you just look at this. Judge for yourself here, right? This is the play right here. They're saying Stefon Diggs pushed off right here. He has a hand on the shoulder. He maybe pushes off like a half an inch and then just makes an amazing catch. A great throw from Drake May who looks like a top-five quarterback rest of season at least for fantasy. So yeah, the fact that that catch would have got me over on my Steph Diggs receiving yards prop. Maybe I'm a little bit salty, but you just watch it with your own eyes. In the NFL, every single wide receiver puts their hand on a defender's back and they do a slight little push. All right, I'm over it now. I swear. But anyways, just kind of saying that last week's box score little misleading. If that play holds up, which almost every other single week it does for every other single wide receiver, well, he's finishing that game with like 80 receiving yards and it doesn't look that bad.
If you look at the box scores for Stefon Diggs, the first month of the season, he was a 31-year-old wide receiver coming off of a torn ACL. And they basically hinted that they were ramping him up. 56% of the snaps, 56%, 54%. He was basically a part-time player those first three games when he was finishing as the wide receiver 31, wide receiver 70, wide receiver 66. Then his snaps go up and what does he do? Finishes as a top-20 wide receiver, finishes as a top-five wide receiver, putting up over a 100 receiving yards and at least six catches in both of those games. So everything's trending up for him. His usage. He looks good out there, including last week, despite the final box score not looking as good. Now, you have the added context to see that it was a little bit better than that box score suggests.
Now, this week, he's going to get a nice matchup against the Tennessee Titans, where he's at plus 150 a slight underdog to score a touchdown in this game, believe it or not. So, he might actually find the end zone. Those are pretty good odds for the wide receivers. Plus 150, you don't really see it that low for a guy who's not known as like a Puka Nua or Justin Jefferson or an Amos St. Brown in terms of target volume. But, they're seven-point favorites this week, the Patriots. Meaning that against the Titans, the worst team probably or top bottom two team with the Jets and some other teams in the NFL. It seems like the Patriots are going to be putting up points as you would expect. They have one of the better team totals on the week, seven-point favorites. If they score three, maybe four times in this game, Stefon Diggs, the offense, that means they're moving the ball. That helps for your number one receiver Diggs. And maybe he even finds the end zone. Not to mention, the Titans did part ways with their head coach Brian Callahan, which I'm not really sure how much this matters for Stefon Diggs. But maybe it gives them a little bit of a bump on offense for Tennessee. Maybe the fact that they lose some coaches, change some put Mike put Mike McCoy in there who has some head coach experience. Maybe it gives him a little bit of boost on offense that at least keeps the game close enough for the Patriots in the fourth quarter to have to throw the ball. Maybe. Either way, I think Stefon Diggs needs to be in your lineups. I think he's definitely due for a bounce-back from 28 yards. And I would not be shocked if he just comes out this week and goes for another 70-plus yard game and maybe finds the end zone as well. I think he's a strong bounce-back candidate. Needs to be in your lineup.
Now, Stefon Diggs, if you want to see where he ranks in my top 50 overall rankings for this week and every other player in my top 50, you can check it out completely free, there's a link in the description below, or you can just type into your browser fantasyrankingsfree.com. That is fantasyrankingsfree.com. As always, that will take you to this landing page right here where you just enter your email and then I'll send you the top 50 overall rankings for this week and every other week as a little bit of a bonus for you joining there. Be sure if you don't see it in a couple of minutes to check your spam and promotional folders as well.
Now, if you want more than just my top 50 rankings and my top 150 flex rankings, every positional ranking going down to like my 70th and 100th overall wide receiver for this week and every single week of the year, well, that's exactly why I built my fantasy blueprint. That's just one of the tools that you get in there. You get tools for everything, trades, ability to ask me question, waiver wire, and a whole lot more. You can check it out linked down below right now at jointheblueprint.com. And you can join the 10,000 other people that are currently using the fantasy players, my fantasy blueprint that I use in all my leagues. This is the link down below, jointheblueprint.com, that you can learn more about it. You can read some of the testimonials as well. There are limited spots available. I should say limited spots available with Black Friday coming up. So, we usually sell out of all those. If you want to get in right now for the rest of this year and heading into next year, right now is your time at jointheblueprint.com.
And the next player who's a must-start this week is Jakori Kroski Merritt. A guy who once again, like some of the other players we're talking about, had a down week in week six. But if you look at it a little bit closer, it wasn't as bad. 17 carries is workhorse usage when the next closest running back, Jeremy McNichols, is only getting two. 61 rushing yards is not overly efficient. Just 3.6 yards per carry. So, we don't like that. And Jakori Koski Merit's not known as a pass catcher. So, just one catch for seven yards. So, I understand that he had another fumble for back-to-back weeks, but even despite having a fumble for the second straight game, they went right back to Jaka Kroski Merritt. He was in on the final drive of the game as well. I mean, they want this kid to succeed. He's coming off of this game where he played 67% of the snaps, RB1 usage, 71% of the rush attempts, led the backfield in routes run very quietly as well. Everything for him right now just looks like this backfield belongs to Jaka Kroski Merritt. It is awesome to see that.
If we pull this up right now, according to Adam Levit, a great follow over on Twitter, Jakori Kroski Merritt share of the Commanders RB carries by week. Let's pull this way up so you can see it a little bit better here. Week one, 50%. Week two, 33% on a Thursday night game. Then 34, then they slowly start to grow the last month of the season. 43, 70% of the backfield carries. And in week six, 17 carries was 89% of the backfield carries. That is absolutely elite usage for Jakori Kroski Merritt who sure he's coming off of a game where he doesn't find the end zone. He has a fumble. Fantasy points-wise, it's not a great day overall. But let's just not forget what he did the week before that when he was seeing 70% of the backfield carries for 14 carries, 111 yards, overly efficient for eight yards per carry, multiple touchdowns in that game. Also had two catches for 39 yards. Totaled 150 yards and multiple touchdowns. That's important to remember just so you get rid of your recency bias from a week ago because the usage is building in the background to being great right now. You can trust this guy. And oh, he gets the matchup that everybody dreams of now. A matchup against the Dallas Cowboys where despite being on the road in Dallas in Texas, he's going to be a favorite. The Commanders are favorites this week against the Dallas Cowboys. And what do you have to know about the Dallas Cowboys? They're one of the most generous overall defenses. It doesn't matter if it's the passing attack or the rushing attack, you're going to put up fantasy points against them because the Dallas Cowboys defense so far through six weeks this season, according to Brandon Lori over on Twitter, is allowing 31 real-life points per game. Dead last in the NFL. 2500 total yards, dead last in the NFL. 61 rushing first downs, 53 down conversions. All these are dead last in the NFL. 6.2 yards per play is bottom three. A 78% completion percentage is bottom five. They're currently allowing over 400 yards per game on on defense, which is number one in the NFL. 21 total touchdowns. This is an atrocious defense. Man, they could really use oh, I don't know, a Micah Parsons in the middle of that defense, right? So, the fact that they've allowed over 2500 or about 2500 total yards through the first games of the season. It's the second most in franchise history, meaning they're officially worse than the 2020 team that was just a fantasy gold mine to go up against. So, yeah, Jakori Kroski Merritt is a must-start top 10 running back this week. I don't care who else you have on your team unless you are very smart the flock league and you got Jonathan Taylor and Christian McAffrey and some other stud in your flex spot. Other than that, Jaka Kosky Merritt has to be in your lineup. He's that good of a player this week. Let me remind you what running backs recently have done against the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, remember Josh Jacobs in that tie in overtime? He had 86 rushing yards. He had two receiving touchdowns. He didn't stop there. He led his team in receiving with four catches for 71 yards. 150 yards, multiple touchdowns. 30-point fantasy day. Oh, Bree Hall. Despite the Jets absolutely sucking Bree Hall 113 rushing yards, he had 42 more receiving yards. Oh, over 150 yards in this game for Bree Hall. And in PPR formats, nearly 20 fantasy points. Let's not stop there. Just last week in a revenge game, Rico Do, who the Cowboys did not want to sign, they signed Javvante Williams. Instead, he said, "Buckle up." They didn't buckle up. 183 rushing yards, touchdown there. Led his team in receiving with 56 yards and a touchdown there. Three straight games against running backs who have put up over 150 yards and on average are scoring at least a touchdown against this Cowboys defense. Uh, start Jaka Kroski Mer. And I don't need to be telling you this. I don't. But I've already had enough questions about Rashi Rice. Start Rashi Rice. Okay, I get it. Like you might be worried that he hasn't played football in a while. Are they going to ramp him back up? Maybe they do ramp him back up. But let's remember this was a suspension, not an injury. He was a little bit banged up. He suffered like a toe injury in training camp. But by all accounts, he was looking great in training camp. By all accounts, he's been looking solid in practice. I think that maybe they play it safe if they're leading in the game and he doesn't play as much late, but I think that he's going to get a normal role heading into this game. And even if he's limited and only runs 20 routes instead of 30 routes, I think he could be very useful. Rashi Rice is a top 15 wide receiver for me the week he comes back, which is this week in week seven. And after this week, when all the questions about potentially him being limited or gone, he's going to be a week in and week out borderline top-five wide receiver. He's a top 15 overall player rest of season.
Now, Xavier Worthy, if you have him, you could still start him. He's a top 50, top 15 player in the wide receiver rankings for me this week in the fantasy blueprint. Again, check it out at jointheblueprint.com to join the 10,000 people who are currently smacking around their friends in fantasy football. But let's not forget how good this guy is. I mean, last year through the first three weeks was one of the best NFL wide receivers we've seen in a very long time. His efficiency yards per route run in this small sample was great. It led to 22 fantasy points per game according to the Roto Games split tool on 10 targets per game and 96 receiving yards per game. Now, since then, Xavier Worthy has become a better wide receiver than he was in his first three ever games last year as a rookie. But Worthy's still banged up. Worthy is going to be on the outside now. Rashi Rice is going to command the slot and be absolutely dominant. He's probably going to take a ton of opportunities, targets, red zone looks away from somebody like Travis Kelce. Oh, but it was just a small three-game sample, S. Okay, let's go back to the end of the 2023 season going into the postseason where Rashi Rice started to get unlocked late in the season. 25 fantasy points. This was in a row, by the way. 25 fantasy points, 14, 18, 24, 12 in a game where he gets pulled early. 17, 27 in the postseason, 13 and 10. Right. This was a guy who every single week was going out there catching six balls, eight balls, eight balls, six balls, nine, seven. He was a clear-cut as a rookie late in the year, number one option for Patrick Mahomes. That carried over into 2024. Then he gets injured, then he gets suspended. He's going to go back right away, in my opinion, to being the number one option on this offense that currently looks fantastic. And oh, by the way, he's coming back to an amazing matchup. The Raiders bottom 10 defense, arguably one of the worst secondaries in the NFL, depending on the stats that you're looking at. The Chiefs are 11, 12-point home favorites. What does this mean? They're projected to score 29 and a half points this week. It is the tied basically for the highest team total on the week. They're expected to score more than four touchdowns in this game, maybe even five touchdowns. I think the offense is going to move the ball well. I think Rashi Rice might come right back and see six, seven receptions, maybe even find the end zone. And if you just want some more proof, PFF has the Las Vegas Raiders defense and secondary, 31st in the NFL, only behind the Washington Commanders right now. So yes, I'll be okay betting on Rashi Rice, especially since we know that this backfield, although maybe they get it going this week in Kansas City, maybe as 11 and a half point home favorites against a bad Raiders defense. Maybe we finally see whose usage was going up last week, Isaiah Pacheco in your 12-team formats, he could be a flex option for you this week. But I would say that largely the ground game minus Patrick Mahomes scrambles has been inefficient. I expect his passing attack, especially in the first half, to put up numbers. And I also expect Matthew Golden to put up numbers.
Now, he's somebody who I think has to be in your lineups because you're getting all the trends that you like to see. The Packers returned from their bye-week last week, and it was clear that they wanted Matthew Golden involved early and often on key plays. 86 receiving yards. He had two end zones, of which I think one of them could have been labeled a reception, but two end zones for 16 yards, meaning he had his first game of 100 total yards coming out of the bye-week, the first-round rookie. Maybe Christian Watson returns this week. Even if he does, by the time you're watching this, you should know. Even if he does return this week, I don't think he's going to be a full go right away. Coming off of that torn ACL, a serious knee injury. Coming out of the bye-week, it was still Romeo Dobs leading the team in routes and snaps at wide receiver, which usually happens. He saw 35% of the targets in that game, of which the Packers didn't pass the ball awfully all that much for the most part, leading 10-0 at halftime, not being threatened until the fourth quarter. And then Matthew Golden, 68% of the routes led to a 19% target share. Everything is trending up for him, especially when you compare it to weeks one and weeks two when he was barely seeing like 40% of the snaps and routes run. He's trending up in the right direction right now. He's earning a bigger role and he's making legitimate explosive plays in key situations like late in the fourth quarter on third downs in overtime on a fourth down or in the third quarter, fourth quarter, sorry, in the Cowboys game on a fourth down before the bye. They go to Matthew Golden over the middle of the field to make a diving catch. They're trusting him in key moments and he's coming up big for them. So yes, I'm okay to go out there and start Matthew Golden this week even if Romeo Dobs is going to be out there. And by the way, Dantavian Wixs got hurt in the last game. He might not even be out there, but Romeo Dobs will be out there running his normal routes and everything, but I think Golden is still in line to see five to seven targets, maybe more. One to two end zones as well. I like that in a matchup this week against an Arizona Cardinals defense that is banged up. That is looking pretty bad. Their secondary right now ranks 28th in the NFL, allowing 246 passing yards per game. That's the fifth most in the NFL. Good spot here for Matthew Golden to be a flex option for you or a wide receiver three.
Also a good week to just run back Kamani Vidal. He's a top 20 running back for me this week in the fantasy blueprint again at jointheblueprint.com. You can check out where all my players are ranked this week, but we saw it last week. You probably already know this if you watched the waiver wire video, but he came in, he was the guy ahead of Assan Haskins after breaking off a 30-yard run early in that game. He ends up becoming the RB1 for this team. 18 carries, 124 yards for Kamani Vidal. He also ends up adding three catches for 14 yards and a receiving touchdown. Had an awesome day of about 30 fantasy points. And the usage, the usage, obviously the production tells you one story. It's great. The usage also tells you another positive story for Vidal because he ended up playing 67% of the snaps despite over the first 15 snaps seeing less usage than Haskins. They flipped it to Vidal the final two and a half quarters. 72% of the rush attempts led the team. 54% of the routes run led the team. Everything looked absolutely awesome. Hassan Haskins mostly a plotter during his time in the NFL and like a goal line back. That's basically what we saw in this game. He did not look good on his first 15 snaps of the game or so. That's why they went to Kamani Vidal who broke off that explosive play. And now if you're looking at it, this week's matchup also aligns pretty well with Vidal's strengths because Vidal is going to be a home favorite in a matchup against the Colts. So already for running backs, that's very good. But he's going to be facing a team that you can run zone runs against. And that's very important because 59% of his rushes last week were against these zone concepts and that's where 59% of his yardage went for. Now he's going to face the Colts who struggle against these zone running schemes. So you get an athletic, versatile running back who excels in one type of run, these zone runs, against a defense that struggles to defend them. And as I said, he's also a home favorite, which just bodes well for this game, staying in a neutral to positive game script, which helps the running back. Even if they start to trail in this game, it also helps that Vidal is the best pass-catching running back on this team. The game also has a 48 and a half point total, so we're expected to see some points. The Colts are projected to score 25 points, one of the higher totals on the entire week. So, I think Kamani Vidal is a slam dunk start this week. I would definitely be trying to get to him in all of my lineups. He's a flex option, a top 20 running back. I believe as of this recording, he's my running back 18 on the week with a true three-down profile. This is somebody that you want in your lineups.
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Now, that tight end that you need to be starting this week is Darren Waller because I think he's turning into a difference-maker at the tight end position on a weekly basis. Okay, so through three games this year, he's the tight end three in fantasy points per game, 15.2 points per game, four touchdowns. Now, I will admit a lot of that has been because of the touchdowns, but I'm more concerned about the increase in usage for Darren Waller. Let's check it out. So far this year, he's been on snap counts, right? Week one just 27%, week two to 68 or 58%, week three, 70% of the snaps, he started to run more routes. He started to get more involved. As you can see from JJ Zachary, the late-round quarterback on Twitter's tweet right here. Aaron Waller had his worst target share of 10% on the season against the Rams in a difficult matchup, but he ran 81% of the routes. His routes have now gone from 36% to 68% to 81% of the routes in his three games. They said they slowly want to ramp him up. This is an older tight end who's been out of the game for a while. You don't want to risk an athletic tight end pulling his hamstring or something like that. Knock on wood that he doesn't. 81% of the routes that he just ran would have ranked top 10 amongst tight ends last week. His usage is very strong. He continues to be used in the red zone and I think he's going to catch more than two balls per game because he's basically a wide receiver, not a tight end. Check out this tweet right here by Adam Eiser on Twitter. He says Darren Waller is basically a wide receiver. Look at how much more often he is lined up out wide than other tight ends. You look at this. It's obviously a terrible chart right here. As you can see, it's so blurry and small for you guys, but let me just zoom in as much as I can. Oh, that's actually not that bad. This is the outwide usage for Darren Waller. He leads all tight ends this year, playing outside 44% of the time. The next closest tight end 25%, 22, 21. There are only five tight ends in the NFL playing as an outside wide receiver at least 20% of the time and only one of them is playing more than 30% and it's Darren Waller with 44% of the time. Let's not stop there. Look at the slot usage. Waller is playing as a slot wide receiver 37% of the time. So what does this mean? Let's just do some very quick math. Over 80% of the time Darren Waller is lining up as a slot wide receiver or an outside wide receiver. This dude is a wide receiver who's just being decorated and like faked out based on his like title as a tight end. And oh yeah, he's going to be a wide receiver on a team that outside of Jaylen Wadd with Tyreek there not and Tyreek Hill not there anymore, they need wide receiver help.
Now, I will admit the matchup against the Cleveland Browns on paper does not look all that great, but the Browns are mostly known as like an elite rushing defense. They only allow 80 rushing yards per game, one of the better ones in the NFL. And the Dolphins are underdogs in this one on the road, so they're going to probably have to throw a little bit more than usual. And let's not forget the last time the Browns struggled or the last time the Dolphins struggled to run the ball, Tua had to come alive, he had to step up and he did. Let me show you. Just a couple of weeks ago in week five, Devon Achane could only muster 10 carries for 16 yards. If you just need a reminder, this was a game against the Carolina Panthers, a Panthers run defense, by the way, that the last two to three weeks has has looked a lot better. So, the fact that in this game they only had as an entire offense 14 carries for 19 yards, it meant they had to step up as pass in the passing attack. And Tua did, completing 27 of 36 passes, 256 yards, three touchdowns in that game. Uh oh, by the way, that was the game where Darren Waller had his best game of the year two weeks ago. Five catches, 78 yards. I think you might see something similar this week. The Browns are able to stop the run, as they've done basically all season long. Tua has to drop back 35-plus times, and Darren Waller is very much involved as a wide receiver, not a tight end. So, I'm starting Darren Waller.
And I also think that you need need to be starting JK Dobbins, who it's kind of the trend in this video. A lot of guys struggled last week in their perfect bounce-back spots. Also, JK Dobbins struggled last week. He was in that disgusting game against the Jets where no fantasy assets. The fact that JK Dobbins had 14 carries for 40 yards. Him getting four fantasy points in that game, a terrible total. It was actually good for that game. He was like one of the highest scoring fantasy assets, that's not even like I'm not even joking around. One of the highest scoring fantasy assets in that entire game at four points. I mean, it was so awful. But his season-long profile is great. Believe it or not, he is the number one player this year in explosive rating. His overall carries and touches going for an explosive play of 10-plus yards. He ranks number two in just breakaway runs this year. His breakaway runs of seven, seven runs of 15-plus yards as just a rusher alone. He's been solid so far this year. If you look at this over here, his role so far this year, his 91 carries is 10th in the NFL seeing 15.2 carries per game. Despite there being a young exciting second-round high draft capital rookie behind him and RJ Harvey for the most part and really a wide part here is JK Dobbins has held him off. And now JK Dobbins gets to go to a situation where the matchup should be a little bit better this week because he's going to be going up against a Giants defense that ranks 22nd overall in run defense. And they currently allow the fifth most rushing yards per game or fifth most total yards per game at 371 yards per game, 15 total touchdowns. And on the ground, they're giving up over 125 rushing yards per game. Then you factor in that the Denver Broncos, they're at home this week against that bad Giants defense, and they're seven-point favorites. They're more than touchdown favorites, right? Six points for a touchdown plus the extra point. So touchdown favorites at home against the Giants. When you're a seven-point favorite at home this year, average running backs start to see about 16 to 17 rush attempts. Then you factor in whatever JK Dobbins, as he's been super explosive and efficient this year, can provide in the passing attack as well. I think Dobbins is going to see 17, 18 touches in this game and push towards a 100-yard total game. So that's why you want to start this guy because especially if he finds the end zone, you're starting to look at a spot where Dobbins can get back into the column as being a great play for you and getting you 15 to 20-plus points.
All right, let's also talk about Kenneth Walker. Be like the riskiest guy that I'll put in this video because he's coming off of his worst game and slow lowest snap count of the entire season. Nobody in the Seahawks backfield did good last week. 10 carries for 34 yards for Kenneth Walker. No touchdowns on the ground is not good. One catch for three yards. So, you're getting 11 total touches for not even 40 total yards last week. You got a Kenneth Walker who you probably spent a fourth, maybe a fifth-round fantasy pick on. So far this season, he's been not great for you, especially in this game. He was awful. And then you look into it and he only played 35% of the snaps. But if you look under the hood, it's only a matter of time until this Seahawks team and Mike McDonald has to give more touches to Kenneth Walker. Number three in juke rate, number five in broken tackles, number five in explosive play rating. The dude has been fantastic this year when he's touching the ball. The only problem is they're giving Zack Charbanet a ton of touches, and Zack Charbanet has been terrible. Before I show you how terrible Zack Charbanet has been, Kenneth Walker is PFF's highest graded rusher this season. Okay, so he's the best rusher according to PFF. Whatever you think about PFF, fine. He's their highest graded rusher. He's also number two in explosive rush percentage. Zack Charbanet is bottom five in explosive rush percentage. These stats are courtesy of Guru Fantasy World on Twitter. Um, yeah, look, here's the deal. Zack Charbanet compared to Kenneth Walker, night and day. Walker's been extremely good this year. Charbanet, one of the worst running backs in the NFL per. Oh no, S, you're just being crazy. Okay, well Zack Charban ranks dead last in the NFL amongst qualified rushers with 2.6 yards per carry even though he's led the backfield the last two weeks. That can't keep up when you're playing that bad. Zack Charbanet might not be creating big plays, but he positions third worst explosive play rate at 1.7%. He also has the league's highest rate of zero runs or negative runs. This dude is literally getting tackled behind the line of scrimmage almost as much as he's getting positive yards this year. Let's keep going. Bottom five running backs in rush yards over expectation through the final over the last six weeks. Some guys on here you would expect like Alvin Kamara hasn't been efficient. Chase Brown, Christian McCaffrey hasn't been efficient all year as a rusher. As a passer, he's been great. Trevon Henderson has been honestly pretty terrible this year overall. And Zack Charbanet is on this list as a bottom three player in terms of efficiency over the first six weeks of the season. No matter how you cut it up, Kenneth Walker this year when he has the ball in his hands has been a top 10 running back per touch. Zack Charbanet has been a bottom three running back per touch. You can't keep getting away with the Seattle Seahawks offense. Give the guy who's better the ball more.
Now, the Seahawks play this week, as you could see right here, against the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football, a game that starts at 10:00 Eastern time. I I feel bad for my Eastern time folks out there, but they're going to be three-point home favorites. The Texans come off the bye. The Texans, for the most part, have been a tougher team to run on this year, but you can run on them. Here's the thing. As three-point home favorites in a prime time game, nationally televised Monday Night Football, this is a situation where you got to have your best foot forward. Give the guy who's really good the ball more. Now, that's assuming rational coaching, right? So, at worst, Zack Charban is probably seeing 14 to 15 touches in this game. But if they finally give less touches to Zack Charbanet, Walker probably starts to see 16 to 20. And at that point, especially with the byes being here and a bunch of other running backs just injured right now, I'm completely fine, right? Like your Bucky Irving's injured. Obviously, James Conner's been injured for a while right now. Just a ton of other running backs are banged up, not playing this week. Same thing for wide receivers when it comes to the flex position. Acha Buuka going down last week. Bua Nua, Kenneth Walker this week for me is a strong RB2 or flex option. So, these are the guys that you need to be starting. 10 guys you must start this week before they explode. This is our first time doing this type of a video. So, if you made it to this point in the video, let me know if you like this concept and we'll continue doing these videos moving forward. However, if you want to see these seven players that you need to trade away before week 10 begins and try and get them off your team for as much value as you can, you can check out this video right here. These are the guys you want to trade for and cash in on their value while you still.