Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups: Week 7 Wide Receivers & Defense

 
This week, I hope to provide you both short- and long-term options to help fill in the gaps via waivers.  Keep in mind that I have strict rules I'm using this year (see at the bottom of this article).  If I were in your shoes, I'd first look at the list on the bottom of this article before picking up any of this week's waiver recommendations.  This week, I will speculate on two players (Randle and Boykin), as I don't have a lot of rigorous "data" to back those recommendations.  But those are both low-risk high-reward guys for leagues with deep benches, which in and of itself makes them worthy of some consideration.
 
For defensive recommendations, I will continue to use streaming and matchup choices.  Again, this is a strategy I mentioned last week in case you missed that article.  In a nutshell, the recommendations are just for Week Seven--  I won't vouch for them beyond the very short term.

NFL Week 7 Waiver Wire – Wide Receivers

Rueben Randle, WR, NYG - Waiver Wire Pickup

NFL Week 7 Waiver Wire - Defense

Defense No Brainer Starts: Kansas City (vs Hou - continue their amazing season), Seattle (vs Arizona), New England (vs Jets)

MIN, DEF - Waiver Wire Pickup
BALLER MOVE: Add in Standard Leagues (10+ teams)
ANALYSIS:  Eli Manning is having a terrible season.  His offensive line cannot protect him and he is throwing interceptions at an epic pace (15 so far).  I expect the trend to continue this week with Minnesota.  Unless Manning decides to stop pressing this week (which doesn't seem likely), I would happily stream the Vikings this week.

GB, DEF - Waiver Wire Pickup
BALLER MOVE: Add in Standard Leagues (14+ teams)
ANALYSIS: This week, the Packers will be facing a Browns team that has surprised this season.  However, Brandon Weeden is back at the QB helm, he and threw two picks that cost him the game last week.  I expect that OC Norv Turner will stress at practice this week to keep the turnovers out of the mix.  But Weeden has it ingrained in his DNA (17 interceptions last year), and I expect the Packers defense will pressure Weeden to make a mistake.

DeMeco Ryans , IDP - LB, PHI - Waiver Wire Pickup
BALLER MOVE: Add in Standard Leagues (12+ teams IDP Leagues)
ANALYSIS:  In Week Five, DeMeco Ryans had a terrible game against the Giants.  But in Week Six, he responded with his best game of the season-- 12 solo tackles.  On the season, Ryans has 40 tackles, 11 assists, and a sack, which averages to nearly 7.0 points/week. Ryans is a nice option if you are looking for a bye-week fill-in or a consistent IDP, which is a hard thing to find.

My Guidelines

1. I will not repeat waiver selections.  All mentioned players prior to week 4 will apply to the current waiver options and going forward.

2. I will only recommend players that are lower than 25% ownership in Yahoo! or ESPN leagues.
 

 
Josh Gordon, WR, CLE; Justin Blackmon, WR, JAC; Vincent Brown, WR, SD; Keenan Allen, WR, SD; Percy Harvin, WR, SEA; Golden Tate, WR, SEA; Emmanuel Sanders, WR, PIT; Kenbrell Thompkins, WR, NE; DeAndre Hopkins, WR, HOU; Michael Crabtree, WR, SF; Marlon Brown, WR, BAL; Robert Woods, WR, BUF