Week 7 Fantasy Football Trends for FanDuel
Identifying trends is extremely important to daily fantasy football and online sports betting success. If you want to win your weekly contests and bets, you have to be proactive in identifying trends and figuring out how those trends influence the value of that player and his teammates. This weekly article will attempt to help you in that process by highlighting a couple of players whose values may be trending up and a couple of players who are trending down.
Trending Up
Hunter Henry ($5,700)
Hunter Henry returned from injury in Week 6 to put up a monster 8 catch, 100 yard, 2 TD performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Henry ranked second behind Mike Williams in both target share (20%) and market share of air yards (20%) despite being on the field for just 41-of-62 snaps. Encouragingly for Henry, he was on the field when it mattered most as he ran a route on 37 of his 41 snaps and on 37-of-49 dropbacks, which was third-most on the team behind Keenan Allen (48) and Mike Williams (45).
While it’s safe to expect Keenan Allen’s role to increase moving forward, Henry’s price didn’t fully adjust with the Chargers playing Sunday night’s game. Henry is currently underpriced ($5,700) for his current role as he heads into a Week 7 matchup against the Titans.
Golden Tate ($6,100)
Golden Tate’s fantasy value is trending in the right direction, partially due to Sterling Shepard suffering a concussion. Tate returned to action in Week 5 and operated behind Shepard, running a route on 36-of-48 dropbacks. With Shepard out in Week 6, Tate ran a route on all 34 of Daniel Jones dropbacks and wasn’t forced to split slot snaps, ending the game with a 6/102/1 line. Shepard is currently expected to be a long shot to suit up for Week 7’s game which should help Tate retain his value as the lead wideout in a paced up matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. Notably, Evan Engram, who missed Week 6’s game with an MCL sprain, is optimistic he’ll suit up against the Cardinals which could ultimately hurt Tate’s expected target share. Saquon Barkley also has the potential to return from his ankle injury.
Trending Down
Aaron Jones ($7,600)
Aaron Jones got our hopes up in Week 5 just to shoot them back down in Week 6. Jones’ reduction in playing time was expected with Jamaal Williams returning from a concussion but even the most skeptical didn’t envision a fall this far. Jones started Week 6 against the Lions but the combination of poor play – a fumble and a dropped touchdown – and Williams lurking quickly led to him getting out-snapped by Williams 39-36. Week 6 marked the fourth time the RB duo played a full game together and their splits have been nearly equal in those games with Jones (51.8% snap-rate, 57 carries, 15 targets) slightly seeing more opportunity than Williams (49.5% snap-rate, 40 carries, 13 targets).
This isn’t a debate about Jones’ skill-set but rather the reduction in opportunity he sees when Williams is active and healthy. Jones’ price tag shot up after his Week 5 fantasy explosion and his current Week 6 price tag ($7,600) doesn’t take into account the Packers backfield being evenly split.
Austin Ekeler ($6,900)
Similar to Aaron Jones, Austin Ekeler has also been hit with a reduced role due to the return of a player. Melvin Gordon returned to the Chargers from suspension in Week 5 and has been gradually worked back into the offense. Gordon only played 32-of-70 Week 5 snaps but saw that number rise of 37-of-62 snaps in Week 6. Perhaps most discouraging for Ekeler was the fact that Week 6’s game script was almost entirely negative for the Chargers, meaning they were playing from behind for most of the game. Still, despite being the superior pass-catching back and the Chargers playing from behind, Ekeler only saw the field for 28-of-62 snaps and touched the ball just 8 times. Anthony Lynn has seemingly been stubborn in making sure Gordon is thought of and used as RB1 when he’s been active which doesn’t bode well for Ekeler’s fantasy value moving forward.