No position in fantasy football is more volatile from week to week than wide receiver. While some big-name stars are pretty reliable, sleepers pop up every week with big games. Whether you’re looking for one of those sleepers to fill in a spot in your season-long fantasy team or a low-cost slot on your DFS roster, finding available and affordable players in positions to succeed is critical to getting the win each week.
In Week 7, cheap receiver options are available across the 10-game main DFS slate who are also sitting on many leagues’ waiver wires. While they are high-risk and not locks, they still have a chance to make an impact this week. The options below are ranked outside my top-25 plays at the position, but they bring value upside if you need an emergency option for your season-long team or a DFS bargain.
Let’s jump right in to my top five sleeper wide receivers for Week 7.
JuJu Smith Schuster, Kansas City Chiefs ($4,000)
JuJu Smith-Schuster is probably not available in most leagues after his big Week 5, especially with his expanded role due to the Chiefs’ injuries. On Friday, I broke down his fantasy football outlook if he plays through injury this week. If you want a full breakdown of how good he can be, check out my analysis in that post.
He’s virtually a must-roster in season-long fantasy and still way too cheap in DFS contests like the NFL $2.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st]. While he isn’t much of an “off the radar” pick for this week, he does have the highest ceiling of all options in this salary range. He at least needs to be mentioned in this post since for DFS, he’s going to be extremely chalky as a “Free Space” play.
Noah Brown, Washington Commanders ($4,000)
The Commanders have relied heavily on their running game during their early season success under rookie Jayden Daniels ($7,600), but there’s some interesting value in their passing game as well. In addition to Terry McLaurin ($6,800), Noah Brown has been very involved, and he remains very affordable with a good upside at $4,000. He’s a contrarian alternative to JuJu and still brings plenty of potential in this tasty matchup with the Panthers.
Brown didn’t play in Week 1 and missed Week 5 with a groin injury, but his snap percentage jumped from 28% and 22% in his first two games to 67% and 64% in his last two contests. He returned from injury last week against the Ravens and caught four of his team-high eight targets for 58 yards — his best yardage total of the season.
Before coming to the Commanders, Brown flashed big-play potential while playing five years and Dallas and one in Houston. The veteran has hauled in at least three catches in each of the four games he has played and has a pretty high floor to go with his upside. The Panthers have allowed nine wide receiver touchdowns in their six games this year while giving up an average of 146.3 yards per game to the position. Brown hasn’t scored yet, but he has the potential to put together a big game as he continues to emerge as the team’s second receiver behind Scary Terry.
Tyler Boyd, Tennessee Titans ($3,900)
The Titans have used Boyd as their primary slot option most of the year, but the veteran has yet to shake free for any big games. He has been regularly involved with multiple catches in all five of his games, but has yet to reach 35 yards or score a touchdown. He has finished between 4.0 and 7.0 fantasy points in each of his five games.
During practice this week, Treylon Burks (knee) suffered an injury that landed him on IR, which could open up a few looks for Boyd, but the main thing holding him back so far has been the QB play of Will Levis ($4,700; shoulder) who is questionable this week. If Mason Rudolph ($4,700) takes over, that could actually be a boost for the offense since it can’t get much worse than last week’s anemic 95-yard effort from Levis.
Boyd is getting looks, though, and if the passes continue to come his way, he does have upside as a punt play under $4,000. I definitely wouldn’t pick him over Brown or JuJu since his risk is much higher, but if you need to spend way down or throw a hail mary off waiver wires, at least he is unlikely to come up totally empty.
Elijah Moore, Cleveland Browns ($3,200)
The Browns traded top WR Amari Cooper ($5,800) to the Bills which causes a ripple effect through the rest of their receiving corps. While David Njoku ($4,100) will likely get the most targets and Jerry Jeudy ($4,800) take over as top receiver, Moore could also be in for an expanded role, making him an intriguing punt play at receiver.
Moore has had multiple catches in four of his six games this season, including a six-catch performance back in Week 2 vs. the Jaguars when he posted a season-high 44 yards and 10.4 fantasy points. Overall, he has 16 catches on 23 targets for 95 yards. He has regularly been playing more than two-thirds of the team’s snaps and has flashed potential in the past when asked to step into a larger role.
There have also been rumors that Moore is also a potential trade option for some teams, so giving him a showcase game against the Bengals could help his trade market heat up. Cedric Tillman ($3,000) is another potential Browns receiver stepping up, but Moore is a better play this week based on his spot on the depth chart.
Jalen Coker, Carolina Panthers ($3,000)
Now we get to the real sleeper! I actually think Coker is a very interesting option at the minimum salary of only $3,000.
The undrafted rookie free agent from Holy Cross has stepped up the past two weeks. He led the team in receiving yards two weeks ago against the Bears, catching 4-of-4 targets for 68 yards and 10.8 fantasy points.
Most of that production came in garbage time, but it earned him more work last week against the Falcons. He hauled in 3-of-3 targets for 30 yards in that contest. He played a season-high 65% of snaps in that game and out-snapped Jonathan Mingo ($3,600), who he seems to have passed on the depth chart.
With Diontae Johnson ($6,800; ankle) questionable while playing through multiple injuries and possibly angling for a trade, Coker could get even more work moving forward. He has shown more upside than Mingo this year, and could be just behind Xavier Legette ($5,100) for targets while Adam Thielen (hamstring) remains on IR.
Coker is definitely not a sure thing, but the Panthers often have to go pass-heavy when playing from behind. If that’s the game script this week, he brings a ton of upside for a play at only $3,000 and could be a sneaky way to make space for stacking superstars. You can even pair him with JuJu or another chalky play to build in some definite differentiation.
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