Fantasy Football Week 7 wide receiver rankings: Sunday update

Chris Towers ranks the wide receivers for Week 7

By Chris Towers

Oct 24, 2021 at 11:43 am ET • 2 min read

Wide receiver is probably in the best shape of any position for Week 7, though we are obviously missing several must-start options here as well. Given the relative depth of the position, your flex options should probably come from this list this week, and if you don't absolutely need a running back for Week 7, Sterling Shepard, Rashod Bateman, and T.Y. Hilton (if his quad injury isn't serious) were my top targets on waivers.

As for the rankings, A.J. Brown has moved up from 15th in Week 5 to 10th in Week 6. That might not seem like an obvious move after he finished 20th in Week 6, his best showing of the season, but it makes sense to me. He was a top-eight WR coming into the season, and I think his slow start can be almost entirely attributed to the injuries he's been dealing with dating back to the preseason. Obviously, those injuries create some long-term question marks, but in a matchup against what has been a pretty bad Chiefs defense, Brown should be in line for a huge performance this week. No. 10 might be too low.

Similarly, it might be confusing to see DeAndre Hopkins down at WR coming off a two-TD game, but I just continue to be mostly discouraged by his usage this season. He leads the team in targets, but his edge on A.J. Green is only six, as he sits with a 19.5% target share -- he was at 28.6% last season. I still think at some point the Cardinals are going to hit a rough patch and they'll find themselves leaning on Hopkins more, but I don't think a matchup against the Texans is going to be where they feel that squeeze. They've been mostly content to spread the ball around all season, and so while you should still start Hopkins, I just don't view him as an elite option right now.

Here's my first run at ranking the top 48 wide receivers for Week 7. To see the rankings from Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard and Heath Cummings, make sure you head here. We'll be updating this throughout the week with new notes and rankings as we get news and the rankings get tweaked, so make sure you bookmark the page.