Fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em, and lineup advice for the Browns vs. Colts on Sunday in Week 7 (2023). Detailed player breakdowns and matchups analysis.
Cooper made a couple of extremely impressive catches to turn what seemed like a death sentence of a situation into a good game with over 100 receiving yards. P.J. Walker proved to be a much better option than Dorian Thompson-Robinson, not only enabling the Browns to total over 300 yards of offense but also getting the win over the 49ers. Deshaun Watson remains a question mark for Week 7 with a shoulder injury that was either underrepresented by the team or he's deciding to be overly cautious about. Regardless of where the truth lies, Cooper is a top-20 receiver against the Colts and their secondary. It's also good news for Elijah Moore, who earned seven targets, trailing only Cooper. We don't want to get too excited with Walker at the helm, but he's a possible flex option in full-PPR formats.
UPDATE: Watson has been pushing play to play and is now questionable. He'd be an upgrade for the offense, especially the receiving weapons.
Amari Cooper has been elite at the LOS for a decade
It was not looking good for Ford until late in the game when he started racking up yards on the ground. He ended up with 84 on the ground and seven through the air on 19 touches. It's a promising sign given he was facing the San Francisco defense. Part of what was hampering his production was the involvement of Kareem Hunt, who had 15 touches of his own. His 37% of snaps was the highest since joining the Browns, indicating he's carved out a role behind Ford, primarily as a receiver. The Colts are 19th in rushing yards per attempt allowed, 18th in run defense DVOA, and allow the 10th-most fantasy points to running backs, making Ford a top-20 option with Hunt an upside flex play.
UPDATE: Hunt is listed as questionable for Sunday's game. If he misses, Ford would see an uptick in work and Pierre Strong Jr. would take over as the backup.
Matchups We Hate
Colts Passing Attack
Gardner Minshew is by no means an above-average NFL quarterback. However, he's capable of distributing the ball to his receivers and running backs with massive volume. The game script forced the Colts to air it out 55 times, which meant a great day forMichael Pittman Jr.,who hauled in nine passes for 109 yards, and Josh Downs, who found the end zone. Unfortunately, the matchup is as bad as it gets against Cleveland, who ranks at or near the top of pretty much every defensive category, especially their pass defense. The hope is that this duo of wideouts can survive on volume, dropping Pittman Jr. right around the top 24 and Downs outside of it.
"Minshew has played almost 200 snaps and has yet to throw a pick"
After a big game with the rookie looking for checkdowns and quick throws, Njoku came crashing back down to earth. He's not off the radar completely, but he's not someone to chase on a team that prefers to pound the rock.
Other Matchups
Colts RBs
We already covered the brutal matchup the backfield will be facing. Thankfully, they earned a combined 13 targets, representing a 23.6% target share. Both Jonathan Taylor and Zack Moss finished with 13 touches. Although Taylor was more productive in terms of yards, which is what we'd expect given his talent profile. They also split the goal-line work, but it was Moss who found pay dirt. The shift in snaps and touches toward Taylor is slow but steady, making him the preferred option as a top-24 tailback with Moss right on the cusp of that range.
Jonathan Taylor out-carried Zack Moss 8 to 7 and 3 to 2 in the red zone in Week 6 but yielded the lone #Colts TD run to Moss.
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy football app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, rankings, starts/sits & more. All free!
Our goal is to put out the highest-quality content and tools. Ads help us pay RotobBaller's award-winning writers as much as possible they are vital to the site's operations and team.
We would appreciate your support by either turning off your adblocker or signing up for our ad-free subscription tier. Thanks for being a reader!
Join Our VIP Community
For just $0.83/month, get an ad-free experience and access to RotoBaller's VIP Discord Chat Community
RADIO
