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Welcome back to the Rookie Report! Here’s hoping the first 6 weeks of the season have treated you better than they have Devonta Freeman, Marcus Mariota, and the entire Arizona Cardinals team. Week 6 saw a couple of promising rookies come back to earth a bit as Nyheim Hines, Calvin Ridley, and Keke Coutee all saw dips in production, and both receivers suffered injuries as well. Both are likely to play this week, but it’s a setback nonetheless. We’re getting closer to the part of the season where unexpected rookies start to take on bigger roles. We’re also getting into the serious bye weeks with some high-powered offenses taking week 7 off – Green Bay, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Are there rookies who can help you fill in? Is this the week we finally start to see something from Nick Chubb, Mike Gesicki, or Ronald Jones? Let’s dive into week 7 and discuss…

Rookies to Start:

RB Saquon Barkley, NYG (Wk. 7: @Atl.): Of course Barkley is an every-week starter at this point as the number 3 fantasy running back on the year (all ranks and point totals are in PPR scoring), but he should be worth his lofty price tag in DFS lineups this Sunday. The Falcons have allowed the most RB catches on the year, and the 2^nd-most RB receiving yards. They also allow the 3^rd-most fantasy points to the position. This is probably the best matchup Barkley will get all season.

RB Sony Michel, NE (Wk. 7: @Chi.): The matchup is a tough one for Michel this week. The Bears rank 4^th in Football Outsiders’ run defense DVOA stat, and allow the 2^nd-fewest RB points per game, but Sony and the Pats are on too much of a roll to hide from a tough matchup. Sony has averaged 105 rushing yards per game and found the end zone 4 times in the last 3 weeks. Even if he doesn’t match that kind of output this week, he should be a solid RB2 in week 7.

RB Phillip Lindsay, DEN (Wk. 7: @Ari.): Arizona has been gouged by opposing backs, allowing the 2^nd-most points to the position per game. Lindsay’s receiving floor makes him the safer and more attractive play between he and fellow rookie Royce Freeman. There is upside there for both guys this week, but I’d lean Lindsay if you have both. With the number of byes this week, you’d have a hard time convincing me Lindsay isn’t a top-20 RB play this week.

Borderline Rookies:

QB Baker Mayfield, CLE (Wk. 7: @TB): The Bucs haven’t met a QB that they could hold under 330 passing yards yet, and only one that they’ve held below 3 passing scores. They’ve allowed more QB fantasy points per game than any other team and rank dead last in pass defense DVOA. Mayfield has been less efficient than I’d like and has turned the ball over a bunch, but this matchup gives him big upside. I dare you not to start him in a 2-QB league this week.

RB Kerryon Johnson, DET (Wk. 7: @Mia.): This is about as good a matchup as Kerryon has had all year. I’d be listing him as a back to start if I had any faith that the Lions would commit to getting him the ball. The Dolphins allow the 5^th-most RB points per game, and the Lions should be in a positive game script as a 3-point road favorite. Miami is vulnerable to receiving backs, so Theo Riddick could be in line for a nice flex-worthy game as well, but Kerryon should be right on the cusp of an RB2 this week assuming the touches are there.

RB Royce Freeman, DEN (Wk. 7: @Ari.): As I mentioned with Phillip Lindsay, the Cardinals are bad at defending running backs. The Cardinals have allowed 8 rushing scores on the year and have coughed up 140+ rushing yards to the position in 3 straight weeks. While I like Lindsay a little better this week due to his receiving floor, Freeman has enough upside to be a solid flex play this week.

WR Christian Kirk, ARI (Wk. 7: vs. Den.): Kirk is quickly building a rapport with fellow rookie Josh Rosen, but he gets a reasonably tough matchup this week. There’s a low floor for everyone in this passing game, but Kirk has caught for 77+ yards in 3 of the last 4 weeks. That’s at least flex-worthy in a week with some top talent on byes.

WR Calvin Ridley, ATL (Wk. 7: vs. NYG): Ridley’s game was cut short last week due to an injury. The TDs have dried up a little bit over the last couple games, but that upside that we’ve seen keeps him in the flex/WR3 discussion this week. Only Jacksonville allows fewer WR points per game than the Giants, but this game has the 2^nd-highest over/under of the week.

Rookies to Sit:

QB Josh Rosen, ARI (Wk. 7: vs. Den.): Only 2 quarterbacks have thrown for multiple TDs against this Broncos’ defense on the year, and Denver ranks 8^th in the league in pass defense DVOA. Rosen is averaging just 10.2 fantasy points per game through 3 starts. This isn’t a good week to count on that improving.

RB Nick Chubb, CLE (Wk. 7: @TB): You know the deal here. He just isn’t getting enough opportunity to be useful. He carried just 3 times last week.

RB Ronald Jones, TB (Wk. 7: vs. Cle.): Jones is finally starting to see a little bit of playing time and gets a favorable matchup this week, but played just 12 snaps total and saw 4 touches last week. He’s not ready for primetime just yet.

WR Courtland Sutton, DEN (Wk. 7: @Ari.): If Patrick Peterson would just follow Emmanuel Sanders into the slot, there might be some legit opportunity for Sutton this week. Instead, Peterson will likely be blanketing Demaryius Thomas while the Cards let Sanders have his way in the slot. Sutton remains just a DFS dart throw.

WR Keke Coutee, HOU (Wk. 7: @Jax.): Coutee is working through a hamstring injury, which saps his biggest asset – his speed. Deshaun Watson is also a bit banged up and they face a Jaguars’ defense that allows the fewest points in the league to opposing WRs. I’d expect a performance closer to last week from Coutee (3-33) rather than the 17 catches he put up the 2 weeks before.

WR Anthony Miller, CHI (Wk. 7: vs. NE): The Bears’ passing attack has broken out a bit over the past couple weeks, but Miller is yet to top 35 yards or 5 targets in a game. He’s no more than a DFS tournament punt play for the time being.

TE Dallas Goedert, PHI (Wk. 7: vs. Car.): Goedert gets a decent matchup this week, but as I’ve noted in this column in previous weeks, his role is nearly non-existent with Alshon Jeffery back. Two targets a week isn’t going to result in usable stat lines.

TEs Mark Andrews & Hayden Hurst, BAL (Wk. 7: vs. NO): The tight end position is heavily utilized in the Ravens’ offense, but there are too many guys involved to trust any of them. Andrews seems to have the most receiving upside of the quartet, but he and Hurst each played 20 snaps or less last weekend. Until someone really separates himself, there isn’t much use for these guys.

TE Mike Gesicki, MIA (Wk. 7: vs. Det.): Gesicki has seemingly been passed on the depth chart by Nick O’Leary. Yikes.

Rookies on Byes: RB Rashaad Penny, SEA, WRs Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown, GB, WR James Washington, PIT

Deep League Sleepers, Stashes, and Cheap DFS Options:

QB Sam Darnold, NYJ (Wk. 7: vs. Min.): Darnold has actually been a top-15 QB in each of the past 2 weeks, and the Vikings have quietly been struggling to defend the pass. Minnesota ranks just 25^th in pass defense DVOA, and has allowed the 8^th-most QB points per game. You could do worse than Darnold as a QB2 this week or as a cheap DFS tournament option at QB in a week with no Big Ben, Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers.

RB Ito Smith, ATL (Wk. 7: vs. NYG): Devonta Freeman was placed on IR this week, and Ito actually out-touched Tevin Coleman last week. The Giants rank just 22^nd in run defense DVOA, and Atlanta is a 5.5-point favorite this week. I like Ito as a flex play in deep leagues where you’re looking for a replacement option. He’s found the end zone in 3 straight. That streak will eventually end, but he’s got nice upside for week 7.

RB Nyheim Hines, IND (Wk. 7: vs. Buf.): Hines’s snap count saw a pretty big dip with Marlon Mack back in the lineup last weekend, but he still played more snaps than the aforementioned Mack. The Bills have been solid at defending RBs, but they rank 22^nd in pass defense DVOA on throws to opposing backs. Hines is the best receiving RB on the team. He might see his production bounce back a bit this week in PPR leagues.

WR DJ Moore, CAR (Wk. 7: @Phi.): Moore has now seen solid production in back-to-back weeks (minus the 2 fumbles last week). He’s posted 4-49 with an 18-yard run, and 4-59 with an 18-yard run in the past 2 contests. The Eagles allow the 7^th-most WR points per game. Moore hasn’t been consistent enough this year to warrant more than a flex play in the deepest of leagues or in DFS tournaments, but if he continues to progress you’ll be using him in normal 12-team leagues before you know it.

WR Antonio Callaway, CLE (Wk. 7: @TB): Callaway saw his snaps and targets return last week, but still without the production. He turned 72 offensive snaps and 10 targets into just 2 catches for 9 yards. If he’s ever going to get it going now is the time. The Bucs allow the 2^nd-most WR points per game and rank dead last in pass defense DVOA. He’s no more than a cheap DFS tournament play, but this could be the week where he finally puts something together.

WR Tre’Quan Smith, NO (Wk. 7: @Bal.): Smith’s Monday night outburst before the team’s bye may have seemed like a one-time fluke, but it looks like Ted Ginn may be out again this week. He isn’t practicing as of Wednesday. Smith played about two-thirds of the offensive snaps with Ginn sidelined in week 5. If that repeats itself here, Tre’Quan is an intriguing DFS tournament play against a Ravens’ defense that has hardly been a shutdown unit against competent passing attacks.

That’s all I’ve got for this week. Hopefully it helps you with some of your tougher rookie lineup decisions this week. Keep an eye on the injury report this week. There are plenty of rookies dealing with their own injuries, and a few others who could be impacted by injuries to teammates like Tre’Quan and Ito Smith. Feel free to hit me up on twitter if you have any specific questions or want to yell at me about anything written above (@Shawn_Foss). As always: Good luck, trust your gut, and have fun. It’s just a game.

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring, unless otherwise noted.

3 More Touchdowns

Todd Gurley continues to set the league on fire, scoring another three touchdowns in San Francisco on Sunday. This time around, Gurley had a season low 19 touches en route to a paltry 26.6 points. Gurley's touchdown pace, now 14 in just 7 games, would put him at a league record 32 for the season, if he can keep it up. Realistically, LaDanian Tomlinson's single season record of 31 touchdowns is probably safe. Gurley is unlikely to play all 16 games if his team keeps winning - they currently have a 1.5 game lead for the #1 seed, and an incredible 4 game lead in their division already. To break Tomlinson's record, Gurley would likely need to increase his TD production. As someone who drafted Gurley #1 overall, I'm all for it. I just hope that Gurley doesn't sit out for week 16, as well as 17. That would truly be a fantasy football tragedy.

222 Consecutive Extra Points

Justin Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, finally missed an extra point. Tucker had converted his previous 222 attempts, over 102 games going back to the start of the 2012 season. Tucker's miss kept his team from tying the game at the end of the 4th quarter and the Saints beat the Ravens 24-23. The Ravens, Bengals and Browns losses combined to grant the Steelers first place in the AFC North, all during their bye week. Over in England, Marcus Mariota broke a career long streak of his own. Mariota threw his first interception in the red zone in his career. A career that has spanned 4 years now in 48 games, the streak was preceded by 41 passing TDs on 161 passing attempts with a 104.1 QB rating in the red zone. Like Tucker, Mariota also contributed to his team losing the game at the end of regulation. He's not the root cause, however - I put the blame on Coach Vrabel and the lack of Derrick Henry, as well as the ill-advised decision to desperately go for 2 when your team is winning on both sides of the ball.

35 Points per Game

Mitchell Trubisky leads the league in points per game over the last 4 games with 27.96 PPG. That's better than Gurley, Mahomes... everyone. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Bringing down that average is his performance in week 3 where he put up only 6.60 points. In the last 3 weeks, Trubisky is averaging 35 points per game. He's still only on a roster in 53% of Yahoo leagues, but will likely be a big pickup this week. Even if the Bears are losing (especially, really), they will be throwing the ball a lot. Trubisky has fewer than 31 pass attempts just once this season and he scored 43.46 points on the strength of 6 passing TDs in that outing. My point is that he's on hell of a tear and he's the perfect option for bye weeks coming up, because the Bears already were off during week 5.

7 games of 100 yards in a row

I do love keeping track of big streaks in the NFL. Earlier, we looked at some career long streaks that have ended, so let's go positive here. Adam Thielen now has 100 yards in each of the first 7 games this season and he's now one game short of tying Calvin Johnson's all time record of 8 games. Thielen is leading the league in receptions with 67, currently a 10 catch lead over 2nd place. He also leads in receiving yards with 822, though Julio Jones will go into tonight's game with 708 yards and I really could use a good performance, Julio. But I digress, The other streak is of course, Patrick Mahomes, who notched his 6th straight 300 yard game. He's up over 2200 passing yards on the season and on pace to break the 5000 yard mark. Mahomes is not technically a rookie, but that would smash Andrew Luck's rookie record of 4374 yards.

4 OT Games in 7 Weeks

Humor me for a moment while I examine the fantasy football relevance of the Cleveland Browns, who have now basically played a league leading 7.5 games on the season. This hasn't quite helped out the 2-4-1 Browns, but at least there's some bright spots on the team, unlike last year. Baker Mayfield has made the Browns look like a team again, but he's not very productive in fantasy football yet, averaging just over 17 points per game when he starts. A bright spot has been TE David Njoku, who is one of Mayfield's preferred targets. He has at least 50 receiving yards in the last 4 games, and a TD in each of the last two. He's now the TE9 on the season and can be started on a weekly basis. Finally, Nick Chubb seems like he'll settle into Carlos Hyde's empty spot just fine. Chubb had 80 yards and a TD on Sunday and had all but 5 of the team's rushing attempts. Chubb should be a decent RB2/Flex start for most of the season, with a lot of upside.

Bust out your folding tables and trim up your mustache, because this week we’re picking the Buffalo Bills. The Bills come into this week off a bye and should be getting back a healthy Josh Allen and Devin Singletary to take on the Miami Dolphins on their home field. They are also this week’s biggest odds on favorite at -17.

I would feel even better about this pick if the Fins were still rolling out Josh Rosen, but either way this ferocious Bills D should make that O-line look like swiss cheese. No amount of Fitzmagic can save them.

A close 2^nd this week would be to pick the 49ers on the road vs the Washington Redskins favored by 10. I opted to take the Bills though, for the home field advantage, and because San Francisco is a better team overall that I can use later on in the season.

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are standard Yahoo scoring unless otherwise noted.

158.3 Passer Rating

The NFL’s all-time leader in passer rating, Aaron Rodgers (with 103.2 for his career) finally posted his very first game with a perfect passer rating on Sunday. Rodgers went 25/31 for 429 yards and 5 TDs, adding another TD on the ground in perhaps the best game of his career. This was good for 43.76 fantasy points, which is 10 more than the next closest player this week. Perhaps Rodgers has finally figured out the new system that has been implemented in Green Bay this year. While they have done fantastic in the win-loss column, they definitely have not looked like the juggernaut offense that we all expected from a team led by Aaron Rodgers, until this week. This game was domination from start to finish, with Rodgers throwing for a TD in every quarter, and also spreading the love. All 5 TDs went to 5 different players. Honorable mention goes to Marquez Valdes-Scanting, who averaged 66.5 yards per reception (2 catches for 133 yards and 1 TD).

576 Rushing Yards

Lamar Jackson, after fooling us all with only 6 rushing yards in Week 1, just posted his third game out of the last 6 where we went over 100 rushing yards. This is a historic pace and projects to 1,316 yards over 16 games. If Jackson can keep this up, he will crush the single-season record by Mike Vick, which is 1,039 yards back in 2006. Jackson also continued his fantasy dominance, leading the league with 180.6 total fantasy points in 7 games. When you consider that he has not thrown for a TD in the last two games, this is just amazing. Not bad for a guy who was drafted 106^th overall on average (QB14). He’s the kind of player that allows for league dominance when you can find that kind of value. To further put Jackson’s rushing dominance in perspective, he’s on pace to break Vick’s career total of 6,109 rushing yards in only 111 games, versus Vick’s career 143 games. That’s two full seasons worth of games.

9% of Yahoo Leagues

This week’s leading RB scorer was Chase Edmonds, who was started in only 9% of Yahoo leagues on Sunday. Currently, he’s owned in 48% of leagues, which includes a 14% jump from yesterday. To me, this means that 14% of Yahoo leagues probably do not operate with a waiver system, which is bizarre to me, but I digress. Edmonds was able to dominate the Giants non-existent rushing defense, scoring 3 TDs all from at least 20 yards or more. Edmonds will definitely be the #1 waiver wire pickup this week, and deservedly so. It looks like David Johnson might wind up sitting a week or two, considering he spent almost all of Week 7 on the sideline and the Cardinals were able to win with only 104 passing yards. Edmonds’ 33 points basically doubled up the rest of his entire team combined, which was led by Kyler Murray’s whopping 6.96 points. On a side note, Murray joined Patrick Mahomes and Matt Ryan in the formerly high-floor group falling back to earth. At least Murray doesn’t have an injury he’s nursing.

1 of the Top 10 Fantasy Performers

Only one of the top 10 fantasy performances turned in this week was by a player owned in 100% of Yahoo leagues. To give some context, there are 23 players owned in 100% of leagues and another 15 owned in 99% of leagues. This is usually a stat that I like to track early in the season to find out who’s performing that we weren’t expecting. To see this kind of disparity halfway in the fantasy season means that we’re probably flat out ignoring some players. And I think we are – guys like Matt Stafford (58% owned) who is the QB8 in points per game, Jacoby Brissett (48% owned) who is QB10 in the same category and Kirk Cousins (64% owned), who is averaging 26 points per game the last 3 weeks. Throw in big performances by Latavius Murray and Marvin Jones and you have an average ownership of just 75% across the top 10 fantasy performers in Week 7. This is probably just a fluky week, but I think it’s time to take notice of a few of the QBs that fantasy players seem to insist on not rolling out there.

104 Rush Yards Per Game

The NFL’s rushing yards leader is currently Dalvin Cook, with 725 yards across 7 games. There’s only been one 200+ yard performance this season (Leonard Fournette, 225 yards, Week 4), so we’re lacking the gaudy totals that we have seen in previous years. But, none of that really matters to fantasy players as long as your guys are finding the end zone as well, which is what Cook is doing. Cook has scored 8 TDs on the season, which is tied with Aaron Jones for the league lead. Cook has also managed to have an amazing points floor, never scoring below 11.4 points on the season. Only Ezekiel Elliott can claim such a double-digit elite status. Even super fantasy RB Christian McCaffrey (who still leads Cook in points despite having his bye week already) cannot claim such a floor. Cook and McCaffrey sit alone in tier 1, about 30 points above the tier two guys, who all have 107-111 points. Cook’s ADP of RB10 this season makes him one of the few second round “steals” that are pretty rare any year.