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Week 7 fantasy football waiver wire pickups for Kendre Miller, Kenneth Gainwell, Brashard Smith in 2025. Read their waiver wire outlooks for fantasy football.
With Week 7 on the horizon, the 2025 NFL season is quickly approaching the halfway mark. Fantasy managers sitting at two wins or fewer at this stage may feel the pressure mounting, but there's still plenty of ball left to turn things around.
Finding the next gem at running back on the waiver wire is how these runs can start. Those fortunate enough to be aboard for the historic two-game stretch from Rico Dowdle are riding high. Additionally, the midway point of the season is often when we see young players and rookies take on expanded roles in their respective offenses.
So, should fantasy managers pick up Kendre Miller, Kenneth Gainwell, or Brashard Smith in your fantasy football leagues for Week 7 of 2025? Let's dive in.
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Kendre Miller Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickups
Rostered: 45% of Leagues
Baller Move: Add in 12+ Team PPR Leagues
Miller likely should already be rostered in most leagues, as his playing time and opportunity share have been consistent over the past three weeks. Since Week 3, he’s logged snap shares of 32.3%, 41.9%, and, most recently, 37.3% in Week 6.
The third-year back had more carries than veteran Alvin Kamara in Week 5, as he was a bit banged up with an ankle injury, which perhaps played into it. But Miller has also just been incredibly dynamic with his opportunities. Unfortunately, that flipped back in Week 6 as Kamara regained his touch advantage.
Among running backs with at least 40 rush attempts, Miller has the highest missed tackles forced per attempt (0.30), per Fantasy Points Data Suite. The Saints offense has also been trending in the right direction, with second-year quarterback Spencer Rattler showing positive signs of development every week.
Miller could have some standalone value, especially with a wave of bye weeks looming, if his opportunities stay steady and the New Orleans offense is capable of sustaining drives.
Kendre Miller finds an opening for a Saints TD
NOvsBUF on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXnxV pic.twitter.com/g1kSJHyVTO
— NFL (@NFL) September 28, 2025
Kamara still has a pretty safe hold on the touches in the New Orleans backfield, with 50 compared to Miller's 31 since Week 3. And with the news that Kamara is unlikely to be dealt at the trade deadline, the path for Miller to be a workhorse is pretty much limited to Kamara missing time at some point. But that contingency value is absolutely worth adding and holding in 12-team leagues.
Kenneth Gainwell Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickups
Rostered: 60% of Leagues
Baller Move: Add in All PPR Leagues
Gainwell had one of the best individual performances of any player in fantasy in Pittsburgh's Week 4 win over the Vikings in Dublin. Gainwell earned a workhorse role with starter Jaylen Warren (knee) out for the matchup, playing 77.4% of snaps and handling 19 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns while catching all six targets for 35 yards en route to a monster 31.4-point PPR fantasy day.
That output is the eighth-most PPR points in a game by a running back this season and the 19th most of any position, per FantasyData.
The 26-year-old is the primary backup to Warren, but he's maintained a healthy role in the offense behind him. In each game besides the one Warren missed, Gainwell has played at least 28% of the offensive snaps while seeing a minimum of five touches. He is clearly ahead of rookie third-rounder Kaleb Johnson, who just can't seem to stop making costly blunders.
Even with Warren back in Week 6, Gainwell played 34.5% of the snaps compared to Warren’s 51.7% and nearly matched him in touches, with 12 to Warren’s 13. Gainwell posted back-to-back weeks (excluding the bye week) with six targets and six receptions in a game.
Gainwell appears to be the preferred option in the Steelers' receiving back role, running 43.8% of routes compared to Warren’s 33.6% on the season. Warren has run more routes in only one of the four games they've played together this season.
When I scouted Kenneth Gainwell at Memphis, he was a smart & versatile back.
Excellent reads and good feet here.
What held him back was size/burst/speed. If he had or could have developed more of these three things, he could have compared favorably to Tiki Barber pic.twitter.com/O1fyf7x86j
— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) September 29, 2025
Warren has still been more dynamic and the better overall runner with his touches, with the second-highest missed tackles forced per attempt (0.28) in the league among backs with at least 25 rushes. But Gainwell's role on pass downs in Pittsburgh's offense is possibly more valuable than Warren's, and he has already shown the week-winning upside when he gets an opportunity to start.
Aaron Rodgers currently has the lowest aDOT in the league (5.4) and is top 10 in Checkdown% (11.6%), per Fantasy Points Data Suite. Gainwell should be rostered in all PPR formats at this point.
Brashard Smith Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickups
Rostered: 13% of Leagues
Baller Move: Stash in Deeper Leagues
Smith is a fun player to think about in the Jerick McKinnon role and project for more touches in Kansas City's electric offense, but it's more of an idea than reality at this point. The Chiefs are reportedly inquiring about running backs with the trade deadline approaching in a few weeks. That doesn't bode well for the rookie seventh-rounder.
But he's mostly been used as a receiver as opposed to a traditional running back so far through six games, which makes sense because Smith spent three years as a wide receiver at the University of Miami before converting to running back for a season at SMU.
The highest snap share that Smith has posted this season was 25.7% back in Week 4, and he had his most robust workload of the season with four rushes for nine yards and three catches for 27 yards as a receiver.
He's now stacked three games in a row with at least three receptions, as head coach Andy Reid has made a concerted effort to get him the ball on some designed plays. But he dipped back below 10% of offensive snaps in each of the past two weeks.
“He played receiver a lot, so he can run routes; he also played running back, so he can run between the tackles, and those are special football players to have.”
Patrick Mahomes on #Chiefs rookie RB Brashard Smith. pic.twitter.com/NmMhFa5Fls
— KC Sports Network (@KCSportsNetwork) October 2, 2025
Kansas City's run game has remained relatively efficient with Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt handling the bulk of the running back carries. But like previous years, there are very few explosive runs. That's where Smith can provide some juice, as he has elite speed and agility.
It remains to be seen if they lean into the rookie's playmaking ability more as the season goes on, but Smith is an intriguing guy to stash at the end of benches in 12-plus team leagues for the time being.
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