For a player to be listed, he must be owned in 50 percent (or less) of Yahoo! leagues. The goal is to provide recommendations of players that have a greater chance of being available on your league's waiver wire. Of course, your league's size and settings could significantly impact whether these players (or better options) are available in your particular league(s).
With that said, here are some quarterback waiver-wire options that I like heading into Week 7 (Yahoo! ownership in parenthesis):
[Note: Players listed below are sorted by my preference to add.]
1. Mitchell Trubisky, Chicago Bears (29 percent)
In terms of fantasy production, the past three weeks could not have been more different than the first three weeks for Trubisky. Starting the season as fantasy's QB17, QB25 and QB31 in Weeks 1 to 3, respectively, Trubisky averaged less than 200 passing yards per game with more interceptions (three) than touchdowns thrown (two).
Dominant in his start before and after Chicago's Week 5 bye, Trubisky now has back-to-back 300-yard games with three-plus touchdowns. In fact, Trubisky has 670 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, nine touchdowns and only one interception in his past two games.
Facing Tom Brady and the Patriots in Week 7, Trubisky and the Bears could throw it more often even though he has yet to throw more than 35 pass attempts in any of his five starts this season. Either way, he's worth streaming in Week 7 especially now that bye weeks expand to four teams; Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson and Derek Carr are on bye this week.
2. Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns (42 percent)
Like Trubisky, Mayfield could be a spot starter for fantasy owners needing a bye-week replacement. In fact, the schedule sets up nicely over the next few weeks for Mayfield with matchups against the Bucs, Steelers, Chiefs and Falcons before his Week 11 bye.
Heading into Monday Night Football, those four teams are amongst the top-five most-generous fantasy defenses to opposing quarterbacks. No team has allowed more fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks than the Bucs, Mayfield's Week 7 opponent.
While Mayfield gives the Browns fans reason for optimism, he has finished outside the top-20 weekly fantasy quarterbacks in his first three games and currently sits at QB19 heading into MNF. That said, the volume has been there as he has 41-plus pass attempts in each of his three starts. Coupling high volume with a plus matchup should set Mayfield up for his best fantasy performance of his young career this week.
3. Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars (42 percent)
As a reminder, there is a difference between an NFL quarterback and a fantasy quarterback. As poorly as he may play at times, Bortles is averaging 18.3 fantasy points per game and ranks 12th in fantasy points -- one spot ahead of Tom Brady (13th) heading into Monday Night Football.
While nobody would confuse Bortles for Brady, the much-maligned but mobile quarterback has finished as the QB4, QB10 and QB13 in the previous three seasons, respectively. Despite throwing nearly as many interceptions (eight) as touchdowns (nine) this season, he's still a viable streaming option in fantasy leagues.
4. Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens (27 percent)
Bad news first: Flacco has finished with less than 12 fantasy points and as the QB20 (or worse) in back-to-back weeks. The good news, however, is that Flacco has averaged 44.0 pass attempts per game and only Andrew Luck (288) has more pass attempts than Flacco (264) on the season. Set for a favorable matchup in Week 7 against the Saints, only the Bucs and Falcons have allowed more fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks this season.
5. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys (32 percent)
In his best fantasy performance of the season, Prescott threw for 183 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for a career-high 82 yards and another touchdown. Yet to complete 20 passes in any game this season, Prescott has 208 or fewer passing yards in five of six games this season and multiple touchdowns only twice. There will be the occasional big performance, especially on big rushing days like this past week, but I wouldn't get used to 40-point outburts from the Cowboys and (nearly) 30-point fantasy outings from Prescott.
6. C.J. Beathard, San Francisco 49ers (6 percent)
For all intents and purposes, the 49ers season was ended by the ACL injury to Jimmy Garoppolo. But that doesn't mean there won't be some fantasy success for his (normal) backup. Through two games as the starter, Beathard has thrown for 298 yards and two touchdowns in Week 4 and 349 yards and two touchdowns in Week 5. As nearly double-digit underdogs to the Packers, it wouldn't be a surprise if Beathard has another useful fantasy performance on MNF. Either way, he will remain at least worth consideration for those that stream the position going forward.
- More Fantasy Football Waiver-Wire Advice Heading Into Week 7
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