What to do with Joe Flacco in Week 7 fantasy football

The Denver Broncos face the Kansas City Chiefs to open Week 7, and while they might try and rely on their ground game early, it’s all but certain that quarterback Joe Flacco will need to make some big plays through the air if the Broncos are going to spring the upset. The Broncos defense is playing well, but there’s only so much one can do to contain the Chiefs offense.

Flacco has struggled in recent weeks, with his best game of the season coming three weeks ago against a Jalen Ramsey-less Jacksonville Jaguars squad. That game he threw for 303 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. In the two games since, he’s thrown for a combined 359 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

The most notable news on the injury front is that Emmanuel Sanders is on track to play after sitting out the second half of the team’s Week 6 win over Tennessee. He aggravated a knee injury, but was a full participant in practice on Tuesday and should play on Thursday.

Fantasy football analysis, Broncos QB Joe Flacco

Flacco remains a boom or bust type of quarterback, with more bust than boom this season. This week he faces a Chiefs defense that ranks 11th in pass defense efficiency, but has also given up the seventh most fantasy points to the quarterback position. The difference between those two is garbage points. A quarterback throwing for 100 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter trailing by four touchdowns is not going to make a dent in pass defense efficiency metrics, but will pile on fantasy points.

The big question is whether or not the Broncos defense can turn this into a slugfest and slow down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. If the Broncos defense finds success, expect more fantasy value from Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman in the ground game. If the Broncos defense struggles, Flacco is a good bet to score plenty of garbage stats to boost his fantasy numbers.

Start/Sit Recommendation

Sit in most leagues. Start in 16-team and two QB leagues