Welcome to the Week 7 Cheat Sheet and we got two surprises on Thursday night. First, an actual display of offense occurred during Thursday Night Football. A total of 76 points were scored in the matchup between the Saints and victorious Cardinals. To recap, over the previous two TNF games, we endured 19 points in Week 6 and 21 points in Week 5. To the patient fantasy managers waiting on DeAndre Hopkins, you were instantly rewarded with a 10-catch, 103-yard game and a near 50% target share.
I have to give props to Andy Dalton for accounting for six TD passes. I know we've all heard this joke, but Dalton tossed four TDs to Saints receivers and then gifted the Cardinals' defense with back-to-back pick sixes. Oof. And depending on who you root for, the second surprise may be good news or bad news.
1. Don't Call It a CoMebaCk
The 49ers traded four picks to Carolina for RB Christian McCaffrey. San Francisco gave up 2023 second-, third- and fourth-round picks and a 2024 fifth-round pick.
This is an interesting move, as the 49ers are only on the hook for $690,000 this year and nearly $26 million in dead cap stays with Carolina. I think it's a great move for San Francisco on paper. Jeff Wilson hasn't been that great and their offense is flat. This gives them major flexibility at a position that's been riddled with injuries between Elijah Mitchell and rookie Tyrion Davis-Price. If there's a counterpart to Deebo Samuel in the NFL, it would be McCaffrey. A running back who's often used more like a wide receiver now paired with a wide receiver who's often used more like a running back.
The NFC West is a logjam, so any separation would be huge. The 49ers, Rams and Seahawks are all 3-3. The Cardinals are right there with the group at 3-4. Only San Francisco has a positive point differential (122-89, +33) while Los Angeles (104-126, -22), Seattle (146-163, -17) and Arizona (156-176, -20) are all in the negative. This addition to an already deep backfield gives the 49ers the flexibility to trade somebody like Wilson or Tevin Coleman to get back a small piece of what was given up for CMC. The 49ers also got back a mostly healthy LT Trent Williams, DE Nick Bosa and S Jimmie Ward at practice on Wednesday. Including McCaffrey, that's three All-Pro players and a decent veteran starter. Not a bad couple days for the Niners.
For the rest of this Week 7 Cheat Sheet, I don't want to spend much time focusing on the marquee fantasy players across the league, and instead I want to focus on borderline players who are either at the end of your starting lineup, the end of your bench or near the top of a 12-team league's waiver wire.
