NFL

7 Deep Fantasy Football Sleepers for Week 7

The 2020 NFL season -- like everything about 2020 -- is unique. While turning to the waiver wire or free agent pool for streaming options is a common practice in normal years, the need for deeper options could be even greater this year as the NFL tries to navigate playing through a pandemic.

This is your weekly home for finding deep sleeper options across the board this year with plug-and-play options listed at quarterback, running back, receiver, and tight end. Whether you set out to stream or circumstances have changed for your roster and dictate streaming on the fly, I've got you covered with a full roster's worth of low-rostered choices in Yahoo! leagues.

Kyle Allen, QB, Washington Football Team

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 4%

This week, the numberFire algorithm projects Kyle Allen to finish as just QB27 in fantasy scoring. That would seem to make him a poor streaming choice outside of two-quarterback or super-flex formats, but I'm more bullish on the outlook of the Washington Football Team's starting signal-caller. A matchup with the Dallas Cowboys on a short week after they were taken behind the woodshed by the Arizona Cardinals in the second game of the Monday Night Football doubleheader in Week 6 is tantalizing. The numberFire power rankings rank the Cowboys as the eighth-worst pass defense, and they've coughed up the seventh-most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks thus far this year, per Pro-Football-Reference. Also, while there's nothing to quantify with the following, I'll gladly use a quarterback against a struggling defense that's also been vocal about their discontent with their coaching staff.

Allen didn't play well in his first injury-abbreviated start of the year, but he acquitted himself well in his second start, passing for 280 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception while rushing for 8 yards and losing a fumble. Another step forward in this cupcake matchup is highly possible as this game has a chance to be played at a blistering pace. The Cowboys have played at the fastest situation neutral pace this year while the Football Team has played at the fourth-fastest situation neutral pace, according to Football Outsiders. Even if Dallas attempts to slow things down significantly, Washington's playing at a speedy and fantasy-friendly pace.

JaMycal Hasty, RB, San Francisco 49ers

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 7%

The return of Raheem Mostert was short-lived, and his early exit paved the way for undrafted rookie free-agent JaMycal Hasty to get some run in the backfield for the San Francisco 49ers. Prior to last week, Hasty had touched the ball only three times on offense, all in the Week 3 blowout win against the New York Giants. His contributions had largely come on special teams, but with Mostert leaving last week's contest early due to injury, Tevin Coleman on injured reserve and Jeff Wilson inactive, Hasty stepped up and toted the rock nine times for 37 rushing yards while failing to reel in his only target.

Comparatively, Jerick McKinnon carried the ball 6 times for 18 yards and hauled in 2-of-3 targets for 10 receiving yards. Most of Hasty's work came with the 49ers leading by two scores, so it's possible the 49ers were being extra cautious with McKinnon, but it's also possible Hasty demonstrated enough to turn things into a committee situation this week against the New England Patriots. If picking between the two, McKinnon's the stronger option this week. However, the percentage of rosters he's on precludes him from inclusion in this space. Speculation is key when hunting for a deep streamer option at the shallow position of running back, and there's a viable path to double-digit touches for Hasty this week.

Corey Clement, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 1%

Miles Sanders has been ruled out for this week's Thursday Night Football contest by the Philadelphia Eagles, and that leaves Boston Scott as the team's starting back. However, when Sanders was out in Week 1, Scott left enough meat on the bone for Clement to play 36.76 percent of the snaps touch the ball eight times on offense (six carries and two receptions) -- albeit for a measly 21 scoreless yards.

The New York Giants rank in the top half of the league in run defense in our power rankings, but they are susceptible to being beaten through the air by backs. The Giants have ceded the sixth-most receiving yards (303) and are tied for the seventh-most receptions (36) allowed to running backs this year, according to Pro-Football-Reference. With double-digit touches, Clement could have hail mary streaming value for running back-needy gamers. The numberFire projection algorithm puts him right on the cusp of double-digit touches, projecting him for roughly 7 rushes for 30 rushing yards and 2 receptions for 15 receiving yards, good for an RB34 projection in point-per-reception (PPR) formats.

Cole Beasley, WR, Buffalo Bills

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 35%

This is the second week in a row Cole Beasley appears in this piece after making the cut last week. He's seen a four percent bump in the number of rosters he's on, but he remains available in enough leagues to allow for inclusion again. With 4 receptions for 45 yards and 1 touchdown on 7 targets last week, he's now caught 3 or more passes in all six games and either bested 50 receiving yards or scored a touchdown in each contest, too. He's reliable.

The Buffalo Bills have the magical elixir of a matchup with the lowly New York Jets to cure what ails them after their two-game skid, and with that tasty matchup comes a robust implied total of 29.00 points, per our Heat Map. Beasley projects to tie for WR42 in scoring this week in PPR formats, coincidentally, with the next receiver touted in this space.

Tim Patrick, WR, Denver Broncos

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 20%

Tim Patrick has emerged as a weapon in the passing attack for the Denver Broncos of late, putting together back-to-back 100-plus receiving yard efforts in Week 4 and Week 6 around a Covid-influenced Week 5 bye. Even before his first 100-plus yard effort, he'd posted a solid fantasy line in Week 3 reeling in all four of his targets for 43 receiving yards and a touchdown. His first two efforts came while Drew Lock was hurt, though, so his most recent showing of 4 receptions for 101 receiving yards on 8 targets with Lock starting is encouraging for his outlook going forward.

With Lock slinging it last week, Patrick ranked second in targeted air yards (23) and totaled the fifth-highest percentage (45.41 percent) of team air yards in Week 6, per NFL Next Gen Stats. With Courtland Sutton on the shelf for the remainder of the year due to injury, Patrick's stepped up as the big-bodied vertical threat in the passing attack. Among receivers and tight ends targeted at least 10 times this year, Patrick's average depth of target of 17.0 yards down-field is the ninth deepest, per Sports Info Solutions. Patrick is my favorite suggested deep sleeper this week.

Logan Thomas, TE, Washington Football Team

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 17%

Logan Thomas's health requires monitoring after not practicing on Wednesday, but if he is trending in the right direction to play this weekend, he's my top deep sleeper at the tight end position. As was the case last week when touting Kirk Cousins and Irv Smith Jr., it's another quarterback and tight end tandem appearing in this space as a stacking possibility. Thomas is coming off of a stellar showing last week in which he caught 3-of-4 targets for 42 receiving yards and a touchdown, and he has a dreamy matchup this week.

The Cowboys have had back-to-back excellent showings against the tight end position, but both should be taken with a grain of salt. The Cardinals won in a rout and rarely utilize their tight ends, and Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett continues to fail to properly utilize matchup-nightmare Evan Engram for the Giants.

In their opener, the Cowboys allowed 4 receptions on 6 targets for 47 yards to the combination of Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett. In Week 2, Hayden Hurst burned them for 5 receptions for 72 receiving yards and a touchdown on 8 targets. In Week 3, Greg Olsen recorded 5 grabs for 61 receiving yards on 6 targets while teammates Will Dissly and Jacob Hollister hauled in 2 more receptions on 3 targets for 3 receiving yards and a touchdown. Rounding out the notable tight end lines posted against the Cowboys this year, in Week 4, Austin Hooper hauled in 5-of-7 targets for 34 receiving yards and a touchdown while rookie Harrison Bryant also caught all 4 of his targets for 37 receiving yards.

The projection algorithm calls for Thomas to finish as TE18 in PPR formats this week. That puts him firmly in the tight end streamer mix.

Breshad Perriman, WR, New York Jets

Yahoo Roster Percentage: 8%

Investing in the New York Jets in fantasy isn't ideal, but a likely pass-heavy game script with them serving as the biggest underdogs and getting 13.5 points could result in some of their pass-catching options contributing to fantasy success. Breshad Perriman returned from injury last week to catch 4 balls for 62 receiving yards on 8 targets while playing a solid 88.73 percent of the team's snaps.

With Joe Flacco filling in for an injured Sam Darnold last week, Perriman accounted for 37.2 percent of the team's air yards, good for the 20th-highest percentage of team air yards. Darnold's expected back this week, providing Perriman a signal-caller upgrade. The speedy wideout falls just outside the top-50 receivers this week with a WR51 projection in PPR formats. I'm a little more bullish on his outlook, putting him in the flex or emergency wide receiver fill-in mix this week.


Joshua Shepardson is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Joshua Shepardson also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username bchad50. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.