Fantasy Football Stock Report: Saquon Barkley, Rome Odunze falling fast after Week 7 performances

https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/article/fantasy-football-stock-report-saquon-barkley-rome-odunze-falling-fast-after-week-7-performances-172526908.html

With all but two Week 7 games in the books (Monday Night Football doubleheader), we’ve learned a little bit more than we knew last week. Or, in some cases, thought we knew. Players impressed, players disappointed and there is fantasy football fallout to unpack.

[Upgrade to Fantasy Plus and gain your edge in player projections and much more]

Once again, I’ve compiled the full weekly fantasy football stock report below. These are the most notable risers and fallers coming out of Week 7. Invest accordingly!

📈 Stock Up at RB

Quinshon Judkins, Browns

After an abysmal Week 6 in which Quinshon Judkins logged just 36 yards on 13 opportunities (3.6 fantasy points), he posted a monster bounce-back performance against the Dolphins on Sunday. The rookie toted the rock 25 times for 84 yards and three touchdowns, as Cleveland broke 20 points for the first time this season (and 30 points for just the second time in the last two seasons). He looked incredible on multiple plays, particularly a 46-yard touchdown run, and is clearly the best player on the offense. And while that offense will still cap his ceiling most weeks, keeping him just out of rest-of-season RB1 territory, he should be in the heart of RB2 range down the stretch.

D’Andre Swift (and Kyle Monangai), Bears

It’s starting to look like Ben Johnson has his Jahmyr Gibbs-David Montgomery backfield rounding into shape in Chicago. D’Andre Swift has exploded for 313 scrimmage yards over the last two weeks, averaging 8.7 per touch with a touchdown receiving (Week 6) and rushing (Week 7). The Bears have scored 25+ points in four straight games and are approaching a stretch of incredibly juicy matchups — including the Ravens and Bengals the next two weeks — and the offensive breakout is fantasy gold for the running backs. I say “backs” because Kyle Monangai also had a bit of a breakout game — 13 carries for 81 yards and a score — and might have entrenched his role as the “Montgomery” alongside Swift. He’s more of a distant No. 2 — the type who should be rostered everywhere and started almost nowhere — but things are looking up for Chicago’s run game.

📈 Stock Up at WR

Travis Hunter, Jaguars

After endless coachspeak about snap share, downfield usage and opportunities as the No. 1 … it finally happened for Travis Hunter. The one-of-a-kind rookie didn’t just break out on Sunday, he garnered a whopping 14 targets and caught eight of them for 181 yards and a touchdown. With Brian Thomas Jr. getting banged up later in the game (and looking less than excellent earlier), Hunter tied Parker Washington for the most routes on the team and was by far the most productive receiver. Whether or not BTJ misses any time, Hunter has finally flashed the upside he was drafted for and it’s going to be hard to put the genie back in the bottle in Duval. This is why he should have been rostered in every league (which he’s still not) and it might now be time to get him into lineups … following a Week 8 bye.

Rashee Rice, Chiefs

Hopes were high for Rashee Rice managers as they slotted him into Week 7 lineups upon his return from suspension. And hopes were met as Rice caught seven of 10 targets for 42 yards and two touchdowns. Xavier Worthy, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton were next-to-non-factors in a blowout of the Raiders on Sunday, as was Hollywood Brown outside of an eight-yard touchdown catch. The only other Chief to log more than four catches was running back Brashard Smith (five) and while Travis Kelce led them in yards (54), almost all of them came on one of his three targets on the day. All told, Rice accounted for a 29.4% target share in his first game back, and could theoretically get better as he ramps back up over the next month. He’s an immediate fringe WR1 with top-eight upside rest of season.

Eagles WR Duo

Sometimes fantasy football sees all the work we put in researching and speculating, laughs and throws a curveball right in our face. In a horrible matchup with the Vikings, after weeks of inconsistency and unhappiness, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were major “avoids” in Week 7 — so of course they dropped season highs of 26.1 and 28.8 fantasy points, respectively. Smith racked up an absurd 183 yards and a score, while Brown averaged more than 30 yards per catch and found the end zone twice. It’s hard to believe Philly didn’t fix something through the last couple weeks of special team meetings, after watching them throw all over the Minnesota defense. And best of all, the schedule is incredibly green the rest of season, so Brown and Smith can both be started with (some) confidence again for the foreseeable future.

📈 Stock Up Elsewhere

Bo Nix, Broncos

After looking like a star over the second half of his rookie season, Bo Nix had been inconsistent (at best) through the first six week of 2025. Then he tagged the New York Giants for 39.96 fantasy points. Not a typo. Nix threw for 279 and two touchdowns but also ran for 48 and two on the ground. He found Courtland Sutton and Marvin Mims Jr. for big plays through the course of the game, and led the Broncos on a massive comeback (down 19-0 late in the third quarter) and game-winning drive. He did throw the ball 50 times and Denver scored all 33 of their points in the fourth quarter, so there’s no doubt his numbers were a bit “inflated,” and we may need a couple more weeks to lock him back in as a QB1. But with a matchup against the Dallas defense on deck, you can expect more of the same for at least Week 8.

Oronde Gadsden, Chargers

Rookie tight end Oronde Gadsden had his first mini-breakout back in his Week 3 NFL debut, but went quiet for a couple weeks after that. Then he caught seven of eight targets for 68 yards in Week 6, and followed that with an encore of seven catches, 164 yards and a touchdown on nine targets this Sunday. With Quentin Johnston’s hands betraying him (frequently) once again, Gadsden stepped up as the best downfield threat in Los Angeles and has the makings of a legitimate fantasy starter if he can maintain a decent target share in a crowded offense moving forward.

📉 Stock Down at RB

Saquon Barkley, Eagles

I’m honestly not quite sure how long Saquon Barkley’s leash should be in fantasy lineups, but it’s getting seriously concerning for last year’s RB1. After a 42-yard performance on 19 touches on Sunday, Barkley has now gone seven straight games to start the season without a 100-yard game, and back-to-back games without a touchdown. He has not had 60+ rushing yards since Week 2 and has averaged just 10.3 fantasy points over the last five weeks. His high-water mark for fantasy is 16.4 points (in both Week 1 and Week 2), but he’s hit single digits in three of his last five. Simply put, without caveat, Barkley is a middling RB2 in 2025, not an elite RB1. Adjust expectations (and make trades) accordingly.

Ashton Jeanty, Raiders

Outside of the one 32.5-point fantasy day in Week 4, Ashton Jeanty’s season looks an awful lot like Barkley’s: lots of touches, lots of inefficiency, a couple decent weeks and several duds. What’s more concerning is Jeanty plays in an offense with far less upside or promise, behind an offensive line that remains exceedingly terrible. On Sunday, Jeanty totaled just 3.9 fantasy points, with 34 total yards on just seven touches (career lows) in a horrific 31-0 loss to the Chiefs. He has a bye in Week 8 and a number of tough matchups directly afterwards, and it feels like Jeanty is trending quickly towards “major fantasy draft bust” on this current trajectory. Barring an offensive spark of some kind — maybe a quarterback change — the promising rookie will likely remain inconsistent and disappointing outside of excellent matchups.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Commanders

We might need to rename this column “Bill’s Fantasy Football Stock Report,” with how often Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt has risen and fallen and risen and fallen again in his rookie season. Most recently, he had been a riser after winning the job in Washington — and while that remains true, the job hasn’t meant much for fantasy the last couple weeks. In two extremely soft matchups (Chicago and Dallas), Croskey-Merritt has totaled just 9.0 fantasy points, while averaging 3.1 yards per carry and failing to find the end zone. He has now logged single-digit performances in five of seven weeks, and his 26 points in Week 5 are starting to look more like an aberration than a breakout. You can hold onto hope if you wish, but the “seventh-round running backs are never fantasy stars” chicken might be coming home to roost.

📉 Stock Down at WR

Rome Odunze, Bears

After logging 12+ fantasy points in each of the first four games of the season, heading into an early bye, it truly looked like Rome Odunze had established himself as the clear WR1 in Chicago and a potential WR1 in fantasy. Then, in two weeks since, he has totaled just four catches for 63 yards on 11 targets (in pretty juicy matchups). The good news is that Odunze still led the team in targets on Sunday and was one off the target lead last Monday night, so it’s not like he’s lost his job to DJ Moore, Luther Burden III, Olamide Zaccheaus or anyone else. But target share matters as a herald of fantasy points, and we’re not getting the points right now. Stay tuned for a matchup with the Ravens defense in Week 8.

Quentin Johnston, Chargers

While Quentin Johnston was only credited (by PFF at least) with one drop in his Week 7 return from a hamstring injury, it felt much worse than that watching the game. He finished with just two catches for 30 yards on six targets, and while one of them went for a touchdown, saving his fantasy day, his hands looked a whole lot like they did early in his career. Incidentally, they’ve never looked that smooth this season either, but he’s posted a number of great weeks thanks to extremely lucrative air yards shares and five touchdowns. However, with Gadsden stepping up alongside Ladd McConkey and Keenan Allen, Johnston’s chances at remaining a strong fantasy asset are growing quickly thin. He has a terrifying matchup with the Vikings next week (despite what Philly did to them) and should probably be benched for that game if possible.

📉 Stock Down Elsewhere

Justin Fields, Jets

In his first three healthy games of the season, Justin Fields logged 29.52, 27.14 and 25.92 fantasy points. He was looking like an elite fantasy asset with an unsurprisingly high rushing floor. In the two games since, he has totaled 8.94 points. Not averaged. Totaled. That’s partly because he was benched at halftime for Tyrod Taylor this Sunday, after getting banged up and being all-around ineffective once again. The Jets haven’t named a starter for Week 8 yet, but we can’t rely on quarterbacks for whom that question even needs to be asked. Find alternative options to Fields, and find them quick.

George Kittle, 49ers

Grain of salt here: this was George Kittle’s first game back from a five-week absence, so his goose egg on two targets can be somewhat excused. And for what it’s worth — which isn’t much for fantasy — he single-handedly revitalized the 49ers run game in his return. He also ran a full complement of routes, so it’s not like he was on a “pitch count” of some kind as a receiver, he simply did not find any production in the passing game. Things should get better, perhaps with the (likely) eventual return of Brock Purdy, but we might be in for some disappointing weeks with Kittle in the meantime.

https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/article/fantasy-football-stock-report-saquon-barkley-rome-odunze-falling-fast-after-week-7-performances-172526908.html