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Week 7 Fantasy Picks: Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Detroit Lions vs Atlanta Falcons

By Max Staley

Matthew Stafford fantasy outlook makes him a great start in Week 7.
Matthew Stafford fantasy outlook makes him a great start in Week 7. / James Gilbert/Getty Images
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The Detroit Lions take on the Atlanta Falcons in what has a chance to be the highest-scoring game of Week 7. In fact, FanDuel Sportsbook puts the over/under for this one at 56.5, which is tied for the heftiest total of the week.

This one has a chance to be a goldmine for fantasy managers, so if you need some help with your Week 7 lineups, here's some start 'em, sit 'em advice for this NFC showdown.

Who Should I Start Fantasy Football

Start Matthew Stafford, QB, Detroit Lions: Matthew Stafford was one of our favorite breakout quarterback picks of the year. It hasn't worked out. He's currently fantasy's QB24, and he's just QB21 on a per-game basis. But we're not willing to admit defeat quite yet. This is as good of a get-right game as fantasy managers could hope for. Only the Seattle Seahawks are allowing more passing yards per game than the Falcons (335.3), and no one allows more fantasy points per game to quarterbacks than Atlanta's 30.5. For reference, Seattle is second in that category at 25.7. If Stafford doesn't dominate this defense, it's probably safe to drop him – but we're betting he'll be just fine.

Start Todd Gurley, RB, Atlanta Falcons: Todd Gurley definitely isn't the player that he once was, but he appears to have more left in the tank than he was given credit for. He's currently the RB14 in PPR formats and he should have little trouble lighting up the NFL's third-worst defense against the run, per Football Outsiders' DVOA metrics.

Sit D'Andre Swift, RB, Detroit Lions: D'Andre Swift is coming off the best game of his career, but we're not sure the Lions quite understand what they have in Swift. He has been inexplicably buried behind Adrian Peterson on the depth chart. Despite a massive gap in production (116 rushing yards for Swift to 40 for AP), Peterson still got more carries (15) than Swift (14). This will likely be a frustrating situation all year. Plus, Atlanta is a surprisingly stout No. 8 in run defense DVOA.

Sit Russell Gage, WR, Atlanta Falcons: The Falcons' offense finally woke up from its mini slump last week, but that didn't mean much for Russell Gage, who recorded 65 yards on 4 targets. After recording 160 yards and a score over the his two weeks, Gage has been held to just 129 yards over the team's four subsequent games. Atlanta's top-tier pass-catchers will be just fine on Sunday, but Gage probably isn't worth a start unless your truly desperate. And if you are, there should be plenty of more appealing options on the waiver wire.

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Max Staley is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Max Staley also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mstaley1212. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.