Week 7 Reactions: Fantasy Leaps of Faith

No matter how much work you put into your fantasy football team each week, we're constantly reminded that the players we enlist in our lineups are human beings and that anything can happen on any given Sunday.

If you came into the day hoping for a big performance by Carson Palmer against the Rams, you weren't given much of a chance after he was knocked out in the second quarter with what was later diagnosed as a broken arm. The Cardinals were down 13-0 at the time, and backup Drew Stanton could do very little after taking over as the Rams went on to win 33-0. The dominant performance by the Rams in London included completely shutting down Adrian Peterson, who finished with 11 carries for 21 rushing yards and one reception on four targets for 12 receiving yards. Fantasy managers who picked up Peterson from the waiver wire before or after last weekend's huge 134-yard, two-touchdown performance were left severely disappointed, with the sole positive coming out of the game that he was the only Cardinals running back to get a carry (backup Kerwynn Williams finished with the same number of targets, catching two for 27 yards).

The results from Sunday's games don't accurately reflect the work that goes into making those decisions. While plenty of fantasy managers check their lineups every Sunday morning to make sure they have enough starting players to field a complete team, there are others who take it significantly more seriously, doing hours of research each week, reviewing the players available on the waiver wire hourly, figuring out whether to use a waiver spot on a certain player or decide how much of their FAAB budget to use. Sometimes we're forced to make moves because of injuries or a loss of a defined role, while other times we simply see a better possible situation and we take the leap of faith that our research will pay off.

If you fall into that latter category and your leap of faith didn't quite work out, it's not the end of the world; just be thankful you're not this guy:

Well...

Kessler was active for the first time this year and took over as the Browns' starting quarterback after DeShone Kizer was benched for the second time this season. Kessler wasn't great -- 10 of 19 for 121 yards and an interception -- but he showed flashes of solid play last year and is a starting quarterback now. That's a tough one to lose in a two-QB league, especially one with a $12,000 prize to the winner.

Howard came into Sunday's game against the Bills with one or zero catches in his five games this year, with his sole good performance coming in Week 4 against the Giants when he caught two passes on four targets for 63 yards and a touchdown. Since that game he has one reception on four targets for 15 yards while starting tight end Cameron Brate came in with a touchdown and at least four receptions in four consecutive games. Brate was solid Sunday, catching six of nine targets for 60 yards, so what's the big deal about dropping Howard? Only that the rookie caught all six of his targets for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

Well, at least Stills wasn't going to have a huge impact. Sure, DeVante Parker was out with an injury so Stills would start opposite Jarvis Landry, but with Jay Cutler under center for the Dolphins, how effective could Stills really be? In fact, it got even cloudier when Cutler was forced out with a rib injury, bringing Matt Moore on for the Dolphins. So what happened? Stills caught two fourth-quarter touchdowns and finished with six catches on nine targets for 85 yards in a 31-28 come-from-behind victory.

But dropping players and having them go off isn't the worst thing in the world if the guys you pick up have good games. Sure, those players are now available to others, but if the players you replaced them with work out, it's a win. So how did that one work out?

(In case you're wondering, Jameis Winston started for the Bucs and completed 32 of 44 passes for 384 yards and a touchdown, Laquon Treadwell caught three of four targets for 28 yards and Donte Moncrief caught two of four targets for 30 yards.)

The Dolphins' comeback was a killer for Jets fans, but Josh McCown's fantasy owners (at least those who actually started him) were certainly in a good mood, as the 38-year-old completed 17 of 27 passes for 209 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for a one-yard score. Despite the loss in Miami, McCown continues to show that the team isn't a total dumpster fire, something many expected to be the case before the season started. In fact, McCown has now passed for multiple touchdowns in three consecutive games, and he's been a top-10 fantasy quarterback in back-to-back weeks. And while the Jets don't exactly have a long list of great quarterbacks (apologies to Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, Boomer Esiason, Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington and Mark Sanchez), McCown became the first one since 1960 (Al Dorow) to have three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in the same game.

Wideout Jermaine Kearse has been a beneficiary of McCown's improved play, scoring two touchdowns in the last three games, though he's only been targeted four times in each of the last three. Robbie Anderson was targeted 12 times last week and scored a touchdown Sunday against Miami, but it is tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins who has been the biggest surprise, now scoring a touchdown in three consecutive games. He has been targeted 23 times in that span, catching 17 passes for 96 yards, and he's become the clear top target in the red zone. Seferian-Jenkins doesn't have the consistency of the top-tier tight ends, but he has become a clear starter in most season-long fantasy leagues and is always a consideration in DFS.

And while it's easy to know that Seferian-Jenkins will start for the Jets, it's not nearly as easy to know who is going to succeed out of the Vikings' backfield. Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray have had similar carry numbers since Dalvin Cook suffered his season-ending knee injury in Week 4, but McKinnon appeared to be the better fantasy option, racking up 245 yards and three touchdowns in the past two games thanks to a 42-30 total touch split. However, the tables turned Sunday, as McKinnon rushed 14 times for 47 yards and caught all three targets for 10 receiving yards while Murray rushed 18 times for 113 yards and a touchdown. Murray scored on a 29-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, one that helped his final line but certainly did nothing to help us figure out which back to prefer in the coming weeks.

Speaking of complicated backfields, how good would you feel about Chris Ivory if I told you Leonard Fournette wasn't going to play Sunday against the Colts because of an ankle injury and the Jaguars would rush for 188 yards and two scores in a 27-0 win? You'd feel pretty darn good, right? Ivory looked well on his way to a big fantasy day, scoring a touchdown on the Jags' opening drive, but he was pretty dreadful after that, finishing with 47 rushing yards on 17 carries (2.8 yards per carry) while failing to get a single target in a game where Blake Bortles threw for 330 yards. Instead, backup T.J. Yeldon, who did not have a single carry this season, rushed nine times for 122 yards and a touchdown while also catching both targets for 15 receiving yards. Fournette is expected to return after the Jaguars' Week 8 bye, but if he's forced to miss any additional time, Ivory doesn't look like such an easy replacement anymore now, does he? Maybe wait and see if Chris Liss picks one of them up and make your decision from there.