Week 7 fantasy football rankings

Back in July, I wrote a post that began from the premise that there was a “Big Four” of running backs who were leading off most fantasy drafts, including the Rams’ Todd Gurley, the Steelers’ Le’Veon Bell, the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott and the Cardinals’ David Johnson, with Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown routinely going fifth. After six weeks of the regular season, there’s a still a Big Four at RB, but only Gurley remains from the original group.

He is now joined by the Giants’ Saquon Barkley — whom I touted in July as the best candidate to go sixth (maybe not the best call, but also far from the worst) — the Chargers’ Melvin Gordon and the Saints’ Alvin Kamara as the reigning super-studs in fantasy, although that last player has a little bit of proving to do this week. When last seen in Week 5, before New Orleans had its bye, Kamara was more or less shunted aside in favor of teammate Mark Ingram.

The guess here is that development, a dismaying one indeed for Kamara owners, was based on the fact that Ingram was coming off a four-game suspension and thus had the freshest of legs, and Saints Coach Sean Payton wanted to take advantage of them after using Kamara heavily in the first four weeks. It now remains to be seen how the workload is split, especially at times when New Orleans holds sizable leads, starting with a tough-looking road game at Baltimore.

Kamara showed last year that he can excel even while sharing the touches, but he hasn’t been quite as efficient this season (of course, it would have been impossible to keep averaging 6.1 yards per carry), and if Ingram makes enough inroads to knock him out of the Big Four, Gurley, Barkley and Gordon may go it alone as quite the power trio. Other plausible scenarios have Kareem Hunt, who’s been gaining steam in Kansas City, taking Kamara’s place in the Big Four, or Elliott reclaiming his spot. Johnson’s path back to elite status looks decidedly shakier, but his owners can always console themselves with the fact that, unlike Bell, their guy is actually playing football.

Note that The Washington Post defaults to PPR scoring, and that the rankings will update throughout the week, so please check back frequently. Here are this week’s top movers and players of note.

On a bye this week: Packers, Raiders, Seahawks, Steelers.

Quarterbacks: The Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes keeps missing some easy throws, but he’s making some incredibly difficult ones, as well, and he’s helped greatly by a very talented receiving corps and aggressive play-calling. . . . Given how lethal he’s been at home this season and how, you know, nonlethal the Giants’ pass defense has generally been, the Falcons’ Matt Ryan could easily merit the No. 1 spot this week. . . . The Jets have shown more of a knack for getting turnovers than for actually stopping opposing passing games, which bodes well for the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins. . . . The Bengals’ Andy Dalton moves into the top five with a tasty matchup against the Chiefs, while other QBs have less appetizing tasks. . . . The Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston is ready to keep throwing, not that his defense, which just got coordinator Mike Smith fired, will allow him to do otherwise. . . . The Patriots’ Tom Brady travels to a Bears team undoubtedly embarrassed by its no-show against Brock Osweiler. . . . The Rams’ Jared Goff has come back to Earth in consecutive road games and gets another trip outside of L.A., albeit a short one. . . . The Saints’ Drew Brees and the Colts’ Andrew Luck have a couple of the aforementioned less appetizing tasks, but they can’t be left out of the top 10. . . . Against the Buccaneers in Tampa, the Browns’ Baker Mayfield has an excellent chance at his first really big game. . . . Can the Texans’ Deshaun Watson strafe the Jaguars the way the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott just did? Probably not, especially in Jacksonville. . . . The Giants’ Eli Manning has an inviting matchup, but please do not accept the invitation. . . . The Dolphins’ Ryan Tannehill may or may not be healthy enough to reclaim his job from Osweiler, but does it really matter in fantasy?

[Waiver wire targets: Add Ito Smith immediately]

Running backs: The Rams’ Todd Gurley is on pace for 2,320 yards from scrimmage and 29 total touchdowns. That’ll do nicely. . . . As with his first three seasons, the Chargers’ Melvin Gordon is proving incapable of averaging four yards per carry. Except this time, it’s because he’s up over five. . . . The Panthers’ Christian McCaffrey had 14 catches for 102 yards in Week 2; in three games since then, he has 14 catches for 91 yards, and just one TD on the season. . . . The Patriots’ James White took a back seat to teammate Sony Michel Sunday, but the opposite could well be the case at Chicago. . . . Speaking of RB pairings in the Windy City, the Bears’ Jordan Howard has been vastly outplayed by Tarik Cohen over their past two games, and for the time being, the latter must be considered a superior option in any PPR format. . . . The Bills’ LeSean McCoy now has over 90 yards from scrimmage in each of his past two games, even as Buffalo’s offense crumbles around him. . . . The Lions have had a bye week to realize that they should give the ball more to Kerryon Johnson, which is not the same as saying they’ll actually do that. . . . Devonta Freeman has been put on the IR, giving Falcons teammate Tevin Coleman yet another chance to finally look as good as his owners wish he would in such promising opportunities, while Ito Smith merits legitimate flex consideration. . . . The Colts’ Marlon Mack looked spry on Sunday and could soon push his way into RB2 consideration. . . . Getting pushed out of any consideration (i.e., should be dropped ASAP) is the 49ers’ Alfred Morris, who played well behind a suddenly intriguing Raheem Mostert on Monday night. . . . Peyton Barber spoiled the presumed coming-out party for Ronald Jones and appears to have solidified his place atop the Buccaneers’ pecking order, for whatever that’s worth.

Wide receivers: The Vikings’ Adam Thielen has more than earned his spot at No. 1 this week, going over 100 yards all six weeks thus far, a feat never before accomplished in the Super Bowl era. . . . The Falcons’ Julio Jones is on pace to break his own mark for second-most receiving yards in a single season, which makes up for the fact that he’s also on pace to score zero TDs. . . . The Bengals’ A.J. Green has gotten double-digit targets in each of the past two weeks, a trend that should continue in a likely shootout in K.C. . . . Another trend that should continue has the Giants’ Odell Beckham Jr. alternating weeks with over 100 yards with outings of 60 or below, and the Falcons should help him get over the century mark again, even with Eli Manning’s much-noted struggles. . . . The Saints’ Michael Thomas and the Texans’ DeAndre Hopkins will be tested with tricky road matchups. . . . The Browns’ Jarvis Landry has yet to click with Mayfield, totaling just 114 in the QB’s three starts, but the Bucs can make everything better. . . . Kenny Golladay gets an aggressive ranking, as we wait to see if the Lions made any changes to their passing schemes during their bye week. . . . The Bengals’ Tyler Boyd has at least 21 PPR points in four of his past five games. . . . The Ravens’ Michael Crabtree finally turned his steady diet of targets into appreciable production. . . . It didn’t show up in the box score Sunday, but the Patriots dramatically increased the snap count for Josh Gordon. . . . Taylor Gabriel has gone over 100 yards in each of the Bears’ past two games and has an impressive 79.4 catch percentage on the season. . . . Corey Davis and the entire Titans offense are going through some seriously dark times. . . . Marquise Goodwin returned with a heck of a bang for the 49ers. . . . Cardinals rookie Christian Kirk has nudged his way into the WR3 conversation. . . . With T.Y. Hilton (hamstring) out, the Colts’ Chester Rogers has gotten double-digit targets in each of the past three games. . . . Jermaine Kearse was already displacing Quincy Enunwa as the Jets’ slot receiver even before the latter suffered a high-ankle sprain. . . . The Browns’ Antonio Callaway has shown he can get open but, as a rookie, is struggling with some of the finer points of NFL play, such as catching the ball when it is thrown to him.

Tight ends: The Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski has slid behind the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and the Eagles’ Zach Ertz among the Big Three at TE, as he appears to have lost a step (or two), and hasn’t caught a TD pass since Week 1. . . . The Browns’ David Njoku finally got into the end zone in Week 6 and while the yardage hasn’t been exceptional, he has gotten double-digit targets in each of the past two weeks. . . . Until we hear that Jack Doyle is playing, it seems safe to assume he’s not, which means the Colts’ Eric Ebron should be a TE1 again. . . . The Buccaneers’ O.J. Howard doesn’t get a lot of targets, but he sure seems to make the most of ‘em. . . . Austin Hooper has nine catches for 70-plus yards in each of his past two games, and Falcons WRs Calvin Ridley and Mo Sanu are in various states of banged-upedness. . . . Evan Engram (MCL sprain) is tentatively expected back for the Giants. . . . The Panthers’ Greg Olsen looked good in his return from a foot procedure. . . . With each ineffective performance, the Redskins’ Jordan Reed drifts ever closer to falling out of the top 12. . . . The Tylers (Eifert and Kroft) are out of the picture in Cincinnati, leaving C.J. Uzomah on the TE1/2 border . . . The Vikings’ Kyle Rudolph goes up against a Jets defense that’s among the league’s stingiest to TEs . . . With a nice line Sunday for the Dolphins (4-49-1) and an excellent rating from Pro Football Focus, Nick O’Leary put himself on the fantasy radar.