The Buffalo Bills will face the Tennessee Titans in Week 7. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Bills skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 7 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Josh Allen, QB
On Monday night, Allen recorded his 21st game since 2020 (playoffs included) with multiple TD passes and a rush TD — no other player during that stretch has more than Kyler Murray’s 10. After yet another strong performance, he apologized for vulturing the goal-line touchdown:
“I stole one from the running backs. They worked hard to get us there. So I feel bad for them.”
He can feel bad all he wants as long as he doesn’t insist on giving them those carries moving forward. The Titans have strong numbers against opposing QBs this season, but they’ve largely faced pocket-locked dinosaurs. Malik Willis (73 rushing yards and a touchdown) produced the best fantasy stat line against them this season, and what is Willis but a very low-rent Allen?
With Amari Cooper joining this team on Tuesday, I’d listen to the argument for Allen as fantasy’s top per-game player the rest of the way. I still prefer Lamar Jackson, but we are splitting hairs – if you have Allen, his production is real and spectacular.
James Cook, RB
Cook entered Monday Night Football with a questionable tag due to a toe injury and was ruled out 90 minutes before kickoff, marking his first DNP of his young career. It’s obviously a short work week heading into this game with the Titans, but his sitting last week (hopefully it didn’t cost you your matchup!) helps his prospects this week as he was thought to be on the right side of questionable.
How you value Cook in this matchup largely depends on how you see the game script playing out. In three blowouts (two wins and one loss), Buffalo’s RB1 averaged 12.3 touches, but in the two close games in which he was a part, he handled 22 touches in both.
My general thought is that this game would skew toward a competitive game due to how Tennessee looks to limit the possession count (31st in pace) — that’s the good news. The bad news is that this Titans run defense is far from a pushover.
Through six weeks, they rank third in rush defense EPA, and that’s not a noisy stat as much as I’ve been dismissing what Seattle has done up to this point. De’Von Achane, Josh Jacobs, and D’Andre Swift combined to turn 38 touches into just 16.7 PPR fantasy points against this group — that doesn’t happen by accident.
There’s a tier of featured backs in tough spots this week (James Conner, Najee Harris, and Kareem Hunt), and Cook lands right in the middle of them as a part of my low-end RB2 tier for Week 7.
Ray Davis, RB
Ty Johnson got the start for James Cook on Monday night, but Davis was the featured man on the first drive. Johnson was later the recipient of Josh Allen’s longest pass ever to a running back, a 42-yard scramble drill that only works when you have a superhero under center like Buffalo has the luxury of.
Cook wasn’t far from suiting up for Week 6 — that leads me to believe that he gives it a go this week. But with last week serving as clarity when it comes to the hierarchy of this backfield, Davis is a must-roster player.
Ty Johnson, RB
Johnson got the first carry on Monday night and that means he was the starter, but that title didn’t prove descriptive as Ray Davis out-touched him 10-4 through the first three drives. I tend to believe the lopsided early work was more the result of identifying a hot hand than anything else. But the usage was telling and paints the picture of Johnson being multiple injuries away from a viable role.
I’d want to make sure that James Cook is trending toward playing before cutting Johnson, but once we get that sort of report, you can feel fine about moving on.
Amari Cooper, WR
During his time in Cleveland this season, Cooper had as many targets as their next two leaders in receiving yards have combined (53). While I don’t think the quantity of attempts reflects that in Buffalo, the spike in quality of opportunity should far outweigh that.
With the Browns (2022-24), Cooper produced 56.4% over expectation on passes thrown 20+ yards down the field, a rate that checks in ahead of both of Josh Allen’s primary weapons over that stretch (Stefon Diggs was +34.9% and Gabe Davis +40.3%). Even with those two receivers moving on, Joe Brady has Allen’s average depth of throw up 19.5% this season from last and pacing for a career-high.
Remember way back in 2022 when A.J. Brown came to Philadelphia from a questionable offense in Tennessee? He was a top-15 receiver in five of his first eight games with the team and WR10 over his first 11 games with the team — there are 11 games left in the regular season for the Bills. Guess who was WR9 over that stretch?
Amari Cooper.
He has one top-40 finish this season, and I’m willing to write that off as 100% situational. He’s a top-20 receiver for me this week if he debuts and a top-20 option at the position for the remainder of the season.
And I may not be high enough.
Keon Coleman, WR
It’s OK to like the player long-term and acknowledge that it’ll take time for him to be a usable fantasy piece. Coleman has shown promise in spurts, but he’s yet to clear 51 receiving yards in a game this season and is coming off the second-worst yards-per-route performance of his season (1.04).
Buffalo showed the ability to pound the ball in their win against the Jets. With them opening as an 8.5-point favorite in a game with a 41.5-point total in this game, I’m not projecting enough volume through the air to rank him as a top-40 player.
Khalil Shakir, WR
The most efficient receiver in the sport missed Week 5 with an ankle injury. While he played through the injury on Monday night, his 36.7% snap share ranked fourth among Buffalo receivers.
There haven’t been any reports suggesting that a setback occurred. That has me projecting a snap share closer to the 57.7% rate that he posted through the first month. Shakir’s ability to maximize the value of every target is a skill I love having access to in a PPR league. But he’s the type of player that I’m happy to be a wee bit late on rather than a week early in terms of reinserting him into lineups.
His path to mattering revolves around volume, and if he’s at risk of coming off the field like he did last week, the floor is worrisome. I’m not paying Shakir this week, but if we see him assume the role he had pre-injury, I’ll be talking him up as a Flex in Week 8 against the Seahawks.
Dalton Kincaid, TE
I’m still not sure the Bills know how to best utilize Kincaid. But their willingness to explore different options is strong for his long-term outlook, though it has come with some ups and downs.
- Week 2 at Dolphins: -2.0-yard aDOT
- Week 3 vs. Jaguars: 12.2-yard aDOT
- Week 4 at Ravens: 6.7-yard aDOT
- Week 5 at Texans: 16.8-yard aDOT
- Week 6 at Jets: 3.4-yard aDOT
His ability to intrigue them at all three levels, I believe, will allow him to eventually unlock some pretty special upside. We just aren’t there yet.
But maybe we will be in Week 7?
The Titans create pressure at the second-lowest rate in the NFL, and Kincaid has vacuumed in at least a quarter of Josh Allen’s targets when not pressured in four straight games. You’re playing him if you roster him weekly, and I think you get rewarded for that loyalty with maybe his best week of the season to date.
