Week 7 Fantasy Football Rankings: WRs Guaranteed to Have Monster Games

Any prediction in fantasy football is typically a far cry from a slam dunk. But in looking over the Week 7 NFL slate, there are plenty of wide receivers who are all but guaranteed to have monster games.

This quartet of All-Pro caliber wideouts all have extremely favorable home matchups against hapless secondaries. Although three of them have been inconsistent in 2012, this is sure to be a spectacular week for everyone involved.

Here is an ascending ranking of the best wide receiver options for the impending weekend.

4. Vincent Jackson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints

Who knows what to make of third-year quarterback Josh Freeman, who continues to be up and down. Jackson leads the team with just 20 receptions, but seemed to finally click with his QB last week against Kansas City, catching four passes for 66 yards and two touchdowns.

The Saints give up the most total yards in the league nearly 31 points per game. This is the type of competition the Bucs have feasted on.

Tampa's secondary itself is terrible, which means Drew Brees will likely have a big day through the air. Expect a lot of possessions and a lot of points from both teams.

Freeman is a strong-armed QB, and Jackson is one of the best deep threats in the game. The more these two play together, the more explosive they'll be. Their matchup with New Orleans is an ideal one to build rapport while producing fantastic results.

3. Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers vs. Dallas Cowboys

Coming off of a bye week at 1-4, the Panthers will have to answer a lot of questions quickly on the field if they want to justify center Ryan Kalil's full-page Super Bowl ad from the offseason.

Playing desperate football and approaching the end of his career, Smith will be determined to put up a huge game against Dallas, who could be without rookie cornerback Morris Claiborne.

Dallas may have the No. 1 pass defense in terms of yards per game allowed, but there are some serious outliers in that statistic.

Here they are: The extremely conservative game plan of the Seattle Seahawks allowed Russell Wilson to throw only 20 passes for 151 yards in Week 2. In the subsequent game, the Cowboys somehow held Freeman and the Bucs to only 118 yards through the air.

It has been a far different story most recently. Rob Ryan's unit has been shredded by the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens. Jay Culter and Joe Flacco are both strong-armed quarterbacks that can stretch the field vertically, much like Panthers QB Cam Newton loves to do with Smith.

Averaging 18.5 yards per catch, Smith should be able to get some looks down the field as long as Newton is well-protected.

Expect the Carolina offense to get back on track, and for Newton to break out of his sophomore slump by slinging it to Smith early, deep and often.

2. Andre Johnson, Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens

No elite NFL receiver has had to gut through as many injuries as Johnson this side of Kenny Britt. A promising Week 1 showing hasn't materialized into a season of sustained greatness.

But all the pieces fit for Johnson to build off of his eight-catch, 75-yard performance in Sunday night's embarrassing home loss to the Packers. The Texans will come out playing angry against a very short-handed Baltimore defense.

Top Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb tore his ACL, ending his season, per ESPN. Legendary linebacker Ray Lewis tore his triceps muscle, and will also miss the season per ESPN's report. No. 3 cornerback and 2011 first-round pick Jimmy Smith injured his groin, per the Baltimore Sun.

The hits didn't seem to stop coming for the Ravens, who also saw Haloti Ngata go down with multiple injuries in their Week 6 tilt with the Dallas Cowboys (per the Baltimore Sun).

While Ed Reed can still help with coverage over the top, Johnson should be able to use his big frame to his advantage on the other overmatched Ravens defensive backs. Texans QB Matt Schaub will be dialing up fades and back-shoulder throws to Johnson in the red zone, and he should be able to breeze past man-coverage jams to get the ball in space as well.

Even before this ridiculous rash of Ravens injuries, the defense has been yielding yards this year at a nearly unprecedented rate under the leadership of Lewis.

With his injury history, it might be difficult to consider Johnson a lock to light it up in fantasy football. As the unrelated libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson says: "Just this once."

Just this once, start Johnson on your fantasy team if you have him. It will be well worth it, at least, for Week 7.

1. Victor Cruz, New York Giants vs. Washington Redskins

Even without Hakeem Nicks to distract defenses until the blowout win in San Francisco, Cruz has proven that his fairy tale 2011 season was no fluke. In fact, he is currently on pace for 115 catches for over 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns.

No one yields more yards through the air than the Washington secondary does: just over 328 yards per game. The only reason the Skins are afloat is because of a certain quarterback named RGIII.

Speaking of really good QBs, the Giants' Eli Manning is the best one the putrid Skins backfield will have faced all season.

On paper, this couldn't be a more ideal opponent for Cruz to put up crazy numbers. New York is starting to run the ball better, too, which is opening up the passing game even more.

Washington's offense hasn't really been stopped yet, though. That means plenty of passes will be flying through the air from Manning, and his go-to guy will get the majority of those targets. Cruz is tied with Reggie Wayne for the NFL lead in targets with 70.

This is a huge NFC East showdown with playoff implications. Manning is likely to be his usual self and step up with a tremendously clutch game.

That means Cruz's numbers will be monstrous.