Fantasy Football Week 7 Quarterback Rankings: Bye weeks, injuries taking their toll

Chris Towers walks you through his Week 7 QB rankings

By Chris Towers

Oct 22, 2023 at 10:55 am ET • 2 min read

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If you're not happy with what you've been getting from the quarterback position in your Fantasy Football lineup lately, I've got some good news. No, you probably aren't going to find some obvious, huge upgrade waiting for you on the waiver-wire this week, so it's not that kind of good news. The good news is, almost everyone else in your league is probably not feeling much better right now.

By my count, there are six quarterbacks you should feel really good about having in your starting lineup in Week 7: Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Tua Tagovailoa, and Justin Herbert, in some order (though that's the specific order I've got them in). After that? It's a whole bunch of question marks.

Partially, we have bye weeks to blame, with six teams sidelined this week, though it's not like Dak Prescott and Joe Burrow have been reliable starters so far this season. Injuries also hold some blame, with Justin Fields (thumb) Jimmy Garoppolo (back) looking unlikely to play, and Anthony Richardson (shoulder) on IR..

Which means that, when you look at the QB rankings for this week, you're going to notice some unexpected names in the top 12. Geno Smith, who ranks as QB21 for the season is QB7 for me; Matthew Stafford (QB16 for the season) is QB8; Russell Wilson is a top-12, too. Heck, Desmond Ridder opened the week as nearly a top-12 QB for me after a couple of solid games in a row before dropping a few spots. That's risky -- if the Falcons go up by more than one touchdown, they might just shut the entire passing game down at any point -- but that's the nature of the position right now.

If you took Hurts, Allen, or Mahomes early in drafts this season, you've got an edge almost every week on your opponents, but it might be a chasm separating you at the position this week.