Good Surprises, Bad Surprises from Fantasy Football Week 7

Many interesting games took place in Week 7, although plenty of fantasy owners probably found them to be more infuriating than anything else.

Multiple records were set Sunday, but some big names also came up very short. Other notable players got injured.

There were definitely some good surprises this weekend, but the huge number of duds undoubtedly wrecked plenty of fantasy games.

Let’s go ahead and discuss both the good and bad surprises from fantasy football in Week 7.

Good Surprises

Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle Seahawks

While Seattle fans are reeling from a bad loss to the St. Louis Rams, Wilson’s fantasy owners have to be celebrating in the streets. Wilson was one of my “bad surprises” last week and really turned things around from a fantasy standpoint.

We finally got to see that quickness that makes him such a dangerous dual threat. He put up 106 rushing yards plus a score on the ground.

He added 313 passing yards and two touchdowns without turning the ball over at all, ending up as the top fantasy performer of the week by far.

Odell Beckham, WR, New York Giants

There haven’t been many rookies on this list yet. On the whole, rookies haven't made significant waves throughout the fantasy world this season.

But Beckham is looking like he has the best chance to do that over the remainder of the year. He is a full-time starter now that Victor Cruz is lost for the season to injury.

Beckham’s explosiveness was on display Sunday, but it was his nose for the end zone that produced a great fantasy day. He ended up with only 34 receiving yards and 13 rushing yards but supplemented that with two touchdowns.

Denard Robinson, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Toby who? It looks like Robinson is now the primary back in Jacksonville, and he looked like a true feature back Sunday against Cleveland.

He’s not as small as everyone thinks and proved that he was able to carry a full workload, racking up 127 rushing yards and scoring a touchdown.

That made him one of the highest-scoring running backs, and although most people didn’t have him in their starting lineup to take advantage, he’ll be a hot pickup on the waiver wire this week.

Bad Surprises

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Giovani Bernard, RB, Cincinnati Bengals

Bernard looked to have a juicy matchup against an Indianapolis team with a good (but not great) defense in what was sure to be a shootout.

It ended up being a one-sided shootout, however, as Indy dominated the Bengals 27-0 and shut down Bernard in the process.

With A.J. Green out, common sense would have thought that the offense would have gone through Cincy’s star running back, but he ended up with a mere seven carries for 17 yards.

It was a devastating week for Bernard owners, and his week-to-week production is now back in question.

Alshon Jeffery, WR, Chicago Bears

Jeffery has been pretty disappointing thus far, at least from a consistency standpoint, and Week 7 was perhaps his most crushing performance yet.

Jay Cutler simply could not figure out Miami’s defense and couldn’t get anything going with Jeffery.

With just two catches for nine yards on the day, Jeffery had arguably the biggest dud of the entire week, especially for non-PPR leagues.

Michael Crabtree, WR, San Francisco 49ers

Maybe this shouldn’t be much of a surprise anymore—it isn’t Crabtree's first time on this list this season.

But for such a talented No. 1 wide receiver on a good offense, it’s insanely frustrating to see Crabtree have so many poor games.

He was completely uninvolved Sunday night, ending up with just a few fantasy points while San Francisco’s offense sputtered. It’s tough to swallow, but Crabtree is a WR4 at best moving forward.

Julius Thomas, TE, Denver Broncos

I had basically pegged Thomas as the top tight end for the remainder of the season, but it looks like he is human after all.

With nine touchdowns heading into Week 7, Thomas was looking like Peyton Manning’s favorite target. In a high-scoring performance Sunday night, it was shocking to see Thomas overlooked.

But he was just that and finished with a mere 2.7 fantasy points in standard-scoring leagues. It will likely go down as his worst game of the year.