The Kansas City Chiefs will face the San Francisco 49ers in Week 7. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Chiefs skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 7 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Patrick Mahomes, QB
The Chiefs are one of four teams returning from a bye this week, and their franchise signal-caller has looked an awful lot like a veteran QB also coming off of a bye but happens to be off of fantasy radars completely:
- 1,238 pass yards
- 67.4% complete
- 1.0 TD/INT rate
- 16 deep completions
Mahomes:
- 1,235 pass yards
- 69.4% complete
- 1.0 TD/INT rate
- 13 deep completions
Malik Willis, Tua Tagovailoa, and Deshaun Watson are three names on the long list of quarterbacks with a higher peak weekly finish this season than Mahomes. The future Hall of Famer hasn’t been a top-15 QB since the first week of the season and has been intercepted in every game this season and yet …
The Chiefs are unbeaten.
That’s great for fans of Kansas City but disheartening for his fantasy managers. While the Chiefs can win in a multitude of ways, options like Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, and even Jared Goff are asked to wear the cap for their respective teams, something that allows them to have access to a weekly fantasy ceiling that Mahomes just doesn’t.
Of course, counting out Andy Reid is dangerous and the odds are good that if you drafted Mahomes, you don’t have a reliable option that I have ranked ahead of him this week. That said, you need to adjust your expectations — as a football fan, you naturally lump Mahomes in with the best in the game, but that’s not the case in 2024 for fantasy purposes.
The only QB to reach 20 fantasy points against the 49ers this season is Kyler Murray (Week 5) — and he did so courtesy of 14.3 points as a runner (Mahomes has 8.3 this season). He’s a low-end QB1 for me this week and until I see a statistical reason to adjust.
Kareem Hunt, RB
Hunt was nothing short of impressive against the Saints on Monday Night Football before the Week 6 bye (117 yards and a score on 28 touches, good for RB5 honors) and while the production was promising, I was more encouraged by him being given 84.4% of the running back carries.
It stands to reason that Hunt is still rounding into form, so I’m not yet sweating the fact that none of his 41 rush attempts have gained 10 yards. The 49ers rank 12th in rush defense EPA and fifth in yards per carry allowed to running backs before contact, two limiting factors when trying to get a feel for Hunt’s upside.
At the tail end of my RB2 tier sits featured backs that I don’t feel great about, and Hunt is smack dab in the middle of that range (for reference, Najee Harris and J.K. Dobbins are also a part of that mix).
JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR
Week 5 feels like a while ago. I encourage you to not forget just how impressive Smith-Schuster’s role was. He played a season-high 66.3% snap share against the Saints and paid it off with eight targets, seven catches, and 130 yards (+34.2% production over expectation) as he essentially assumed the role vacated by Rashee Rice.
2024 Rashee Rice:
- 41% slot
- 33% on-field target share
Week 5 Smith-Schuster:
- 39.6% slot
- 27.6% on-field target share
I’m not suggesting that Smith-Schuster is poised to be Rice, but don’t forget that we were labeling Rice as a top-10 PPR option before his injury. Is a top-30 week too much to ask? I don’t think so.
The three highest-scoring WR games against San Francisco this season all spent over 28% of their snaps in the slot (Allen Lazard, Tyler Lockett, and Justin Jefferson), putting Smith-Schuster in a spot to be Kansas City’s WR1 this weekend.
Xavier Worthy, WR
Fantasy sports are funny, aren’t they? I just discussed a rookie with the same first name who is in the good graces of fantasy managers due to limited expectations. And now we have Worthy, a speed demon that walked into a role that came with it projections of greatness.
Worthy has just one top-20 finish to his name as the Chiefs have been using him more as a gadget option than a featured piece. His 139 routes this season have resulted in just 12 receptions, a rate that wouldn’t put him in Flex conversations if not for the environment that insulates him.
Benching a player like Worthy means you have to be OK with being very wrong and, in this matchup, I am. The 49ers have allowed the fifth-fewest deep completions per game this year (2.0), and their offense plays at the slowest pace in the league.
Is it possible that Andy Reid spent the bye week dreaming up ways to get Worthy the rock? It’s possible — throw a dart in a DFS contest if you want exposure. In a season-long setting, I opt for safety more often than not. With just two teams on a bye, you likely have a “safer” option to plug in.
Travis Kelce, TE
It took a month, but Kelce is right back to holding down the top spot in the tight end rankings and that is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future. As expected, his role has spiked following the Rashee Rice injury and he’s back to dominating.
- Weeks 1-3: 0.78 yards per route run
- Weeks 4-5: 2.27 yards per route run
Kelce has been a top-five performer at the position in both of those games (TE15 or worse in each of the first three weeks this season) and offers the best blend of ceiling and floor moving forward.
If you withstood the early struggles, it’s your time to thrive.