10 Fantasy Football Takeaways from Week 7: Rashee Rice is back

Week 7 is in the books following a Monday night doubleheader. With the spreadsheets fully calibrated, these are the 10 storylines you need to know for Week 8 of the 2025 NFL season.

1) Rashee Rice’s impact

Rashee Rice completed his six-game suspension and was back on the field on Sunday. The Chiefs limited him to a 48 percent route rate, but fantasy managers ain’t reading all that. Rice was targeted on an absurd 47 percent of his routes, allowing him to lead the team with 10 targets, seven of which he caught for 42 yards and two touchdowns. As evidenced by the two touchdowns, the Chiefs made sure to get Rice involved where it counts.

Rice is already second on the team in targets inside the 10, trailing only Hollywood Brown. Notably, Brown and Xavier Worthy both logged their lowest target shares of the year, excluding Worthy’s three-snap showing in Week 1. Both wideouts earned 12 percent of the passing game opportunities. Rice looked like a rising star as a rookie and then went supernova as a sophomore before suffering a season-ending knee injury. He picked up right where he left off on Sunday, potentially leaving the rest of the Chiefs’ pass-catchers to fight for scraps in his wake.

2) More Oronde Gadsden hype

I wrote about Gadsden a bit in the Week 8 Waiver Wire column, but I want to dig in a little deeper here. His 164 receiving yards in Week 7 are the most for a rookie tight end in 40 years and the most by any tight end or rookie of any position this season. He is currently PFF’s No. 5 graded receiving tight end. He sits at third in yards per route run. Gadsden was an interesting college prospect. He posted a stellar sophomore season with a 61/975/6 receiving line and a 33 percent College Dominator. That is Kyle Pitts and Brock Bowers levels of production. He missed his junior season and returned for a productive but less efficient senior campaign. Gadsden also went from never playing as an inline tight end to running around a third of his routes from that alignment as a senior. The experience served him well as he is currently running roughly a third of his routes from an inline position. Gadsden’s isn’t graded highly as a run-blocker and his lack of inline snaps could limit his role going forward, but those are minor gripes. Gadsden was a high-upside prospect as a pass-catcher who is now flashing that ceiling earlier than anyone could have hoped for. Are there holes in his game? Of course. Do they seem like the type of holes that will impact his fantasy outlook? I don’t think so.

3) CeeDee Lamb returns

The Cowboys got CeeDee Lamb back this week and, as expected, he immediately returned to the WR1 ranks, going for 110 yards and a touchdown on five grabs. His return also meant fewer looks for George Pickens. Pickens averaged 8.7 targets per game and a 27 percent target share with Lamb out of the lineup for three weeks. He fell to six targets and a 21 percent target share in Week 7. The silver lining is that Pickens accounted for 54 percent of the Cowboys’ air yards via an 18 average target depth. Pickens would still have plenty of fantasy value in this role, even if it’s as feast-or-famine as it gets.

4) Jordan Addison quiet superstar

Addison was suspended for the first three weeks of the season and has come out guns blazing over his past three games. The young wideout has 18 grabs for 283 yards and a touchdown on the back of two 100-yard outings. He is on pace for career-highs in YPRR (2.2) and TPRR (.20). A 23 percent target share and 36 percent air yards share would also be high-water marks for the third-year receiver. Justin Jefferson is always going to be the alpha of this offense, but Addison is finding a new gear in 2025. He appears to be joining the Tee Higgins and DeVonta Smith brigade of “a WR1 on any other team.”

5) Quinshon Judkins breaks out

The Browns’ rookie running back had been bubbling beneath the surface, ready for a blowup spot whenever the game script broke just right for him. That could not have been more true in Week 7 when the Browns were favored at home against a pathetic Miami run defense. With gusting winds taking the air out of the ball, Judkins got to tote the rock a season-high 23 times. He cashed in with three rushing touchdowns.

Judkins and Cam Skattebo are the first rookie running backs to run for three touchdowns in a game since Antonio Gibson did so in 2020. Normally a pass-first coach, Kevin Stefanski has made a point to hide Dillon Gabriel behind Judkins. The Browns have a -7% pass rate over expected in Gabriel’s three starts.

A dearth of pass-catching work and the Browns’ inability to threaten defenses through the air will be issues for the rookie this year, but only to the point that they prevent him from cracking the top five at his position.

6) Travis Hunter gets on the board

Jags head coach Liam Coen talked about getting Travis Hunter more involved heading into Week 7. Brian Thomas Jr. looked banged up throughout their loss to the Rams, but it was clear from the jump that Hunter’s usage was different. He finished the day with an 8/101/1 receiving line. Every number you just read was a season-high for the young wideout. These were all season-highs as well:

86 percent route rate

14 targets

117 air yards

Hunter saw 31 percent of the Jags’ first read targets, something Coen also mentioned before the game. The Jags get their bye in Week 8 and rookies have historically seen an increase in production after the week off. Hunter’s breakout might be here to stay.

7) Saints hiding Spencer Rattler

The Saints opened the year playing at breakneck speeds. They were averaging 20.5 seconds per play in neutral situations, faster than any team by nearly five seconds. Kellen Moore was also relatively aggressive on early downs, passing on first and second down 57 percent of the time, the 13th-highest rate in the league. Over the past four weeks, those numbers are down to 26.7 seconds and 52 percent. Spencer Rattler, in turn, fell from nearly 40 attempts per game to 29. The Saints went from throwing Rattler to the wolves to hiding him behind a more run-oriented and slower offense. That is going to make it harder for the ancillary pieces like Rashid Shaheed and Juwan Johnson to get home on a weekly basis.

8) Jameson Williams goose egg

Coming off a zero-ball in Week 7, it’s looking like a bust of a season for Jameson Williams. He is on pace for 41 receptions, 702 yards, and five touchdowns. There’s no one reason to point to for his decline. His production is simply getting pinched from every angle. The Lions are throwing four fewer times per game compared to 2024 and Williams’ target share is down from 18 percent to 15 percent. His first-read target share is also down a few points and he is being targeted on just 15 percent of his routes. He ranks 56th in yards per route run (1.37) and is the WR44 in PPR scoring. Williams will still spike weeks occasionally, but the team isn’t making him a priority and he isn’t forcing the issue on his own.

9) Bryce Young suffers an ankle injury

Bryce Young went down with an ankle injury in Week 7 and is expected to miss some time. As a hater, “The backup is actually better” is a bread-and-butter staple of my playbook. I’m not sure it applies here. Since Dave Canales took over as head coach, Young has been slightly better in several key metrics.

Accurate Throw RateCPOEEPA per playPFF Passing GradeBryce Young60.0%0.2%-0.00273.6Andy Dalton57.9%-0.2%-0.04169.4

Young hasn’t played well this year, but Dalton hasn’t been great over the past two years either. I see this as largely a lateral move.

10) C.J. Stroud is spiraling

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