The Las Vegas Raiders will face the Los Angeles Rams in Week 7. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Raiders 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.
Aidan O’Connell, QB
O’Connell averages 5.6 yards per pass this season and has as many interceptions as touchdown passes (two). His two highest-volume games came in tough spots (at Denver and vs. Pittsburgh), something that this certainly is not. However, without much receiver depth or a run game to keep the Rams honest, there just isn’t enough upside here, even in a plus matchup.
O’Connell doesn’t have a single rushing attempt this season, giving him essentially no room for error on a roster that doesn’t support such an outing.
Alexander Mattison, RB
If you’re considering Mattison, you’re desperate and simply picking on a matchup. I don’t mind that approach (the Rams have allowed five running backs to clear 16 fantasy points and own the second-worst EPA rush defense in the league), and with Ameer Abdullah losing a goal-line fumble against the Steelers on Sunday, the path to 15-plus touches is reasonably clear.
As long as you are going into this week with eyes wide open (3.4 yards per carry this season and under 4.0 in each of the past three seasons), I’m fine with the spot start. Rams games have been played in a tight window of late (three straight games decided by fewer than seven points), and that keeps a player like Mattison involved for all 60 minutes.
I hope you have more upside on your roster somewhere, but if you’re running low on warm bodies, Mattison’s volume holds value.
Zamir White, RB
A nagging groin injury cost White his second consecutive game, and while this is a plus matchup, rostering him is aggressive, let alone starting him.
This summer, the idea behind drafting White was based solely on volume. We saw the Raiders give him 20+ touches in four straight games to end last season with Josh Jacobs sidelined. Thus, we assumed that, given White’s ADP, simply holding onto that role would be enough to return value.
White hasn’t been productive when active (3.1 yards per carry with his last catch coming more than a month ago), and the role is no longer a certainty. If you’re holding onto White, it’s more of a statement on the lack of options on your waiver wire than any level of confidence that he walks back into an impactful role moving forward.
Jakobi Meyers, WR
Meyers could not practice through an ankle injury suffered in Week 5 for most of last week, but a limited session on Friday gave us a glimmer of hope that he’d be available.
No such luck, though. The effort to get on the practice field late last week could foreshadow a return to this advantageous spot. With Davante Adams possibly having played his last game for the Silver and Black, Meyers’ path to as much volume as he can handle is reasonably clear, a role that, usually, pays off in a nice way against the Rams. Three times this season has a receiver seen 105+ air yards against the Rams …
- Week 1: Jameson Williams (nine targets, 24.4 PPR points)
- Week 2: Marvin Harrison Jr. (eight targets, 29 PPR points)
- Week 3: Jauan Jennings (12 targets, 46.5 PPR points)
There’s sound logic in wanting to exploit this Los Angeles defense down the field. However, I’m going to use that bit of information as an opportunity to optimize my future lineups (Jordan Addison next week and locking DK Metcalf into Week 9 DFS lineups) as opposed to acting on it this week in an offense being led by Aidan O’Connell, a quarterback with as many completions to the wrong team as the right one on his 12 deep shots this season (two).
Meyers is a “getting cute” DFS play only and sits outside of my top 40 at the position.
Brock Bowers, TE
It was only one game, but the early returns of Bowers in the Aidan O’Connell version of this offense (9-71-0) were certainly encouraging against one of the best defenses in the league.
As it turns out, you can’t really hide talent.
This wasn’t the first high-usage game for Bowers, but his 90 air yards were 23 more than any other game this season. The raw physical abilities are no secret, and he proved last week that he can shake free, even without much in the way of support (Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers both sat).
He gets to face the fourth-worst scoring defense in the league this week, and that plays into my ranking of him as TE3. But it should mean nothing to you — you’re playing him every single week and embracing the discount you got on him in August.
