Fantasy football Week 7 WR preview: Injuries lead to surging rookies Bernard and Tate as prime starts

Injuries to Davante Adams and Terry McLaurin open the door for rookies like Germie Bernard and Carnell Tate to become reliable lineup options

Oct 20, 2026 at 5:16 pm ET • 2 min read

It was a bad week for veteran receivers in Week 6. Davante Adams suffered a significant hamstring injury and will be out for at least six weeks. Terry McLaurin suffered a knee injury that may end his season. And Mike Evans aggravated his Achilles tendinitis and will miss at least one week, possibly more. From a Fantasy Football perspective, one downside of these injuries is that there is no other receiver on the Rams or 49ers we are particularly interested in. The Rams should further condense and give a JSN-like target share to Puka Nacua, while the 49ers will lean even more on Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle.

In Washington, I have a lot of interest in rookie Antonio Williams, but he's on bye this week. Williams has seen his snap share increase since the start of the year and has played about two-thirds of the snaps in each of the Commanders' last three games. He could be over 80% of the snaps after the bye with McLaurin out, which is why he is my favorite wide receiver stash. 

On the flip side of the veteran injuries, Week 6 was a great week for the rookies. Germie Bernard finished as WR3, Omar Cooper Jr. finished as WR6, and Carnell Tate was a top-12 guy as well. I am pretty sold on Tate and Bernard as WR2s for the foreseeable future, but Cooper is a little more difficult to judge. This breakout came in a game where Garrett Wilson only had six targets and Adonai Mitchell didn't play. Mitchell is expected to return soon, and Wilson should be back to his eight to 10 targets per game as well. As you will see below in the waiver wire section, I do want to add Cooper; I just don't want to go overboard with the expectations.

Here is the rest of the Week 7 WR preview:

Week 7 WR Preview

• 7.2 -- Michael Wilson has averaged 7.2 PPR FPPG the last two weeks without Marvin Harrison. I am not sure things will improve much against the Broncos.
• 28.4% -- Germie Bernard has a 28.4% target share in his last two games. Start him.
• 252 -- DK Metcalf has run 252 routes this year, 15 more than any other receiver. Start him too.
• 817 -- Matthew Golden leads all receivers with 817 targeted air yards. He's a WR1.
• 50% -- It's a very small sample size, but half of Omar Cooper's targets have turned into explosive plays.
• 9.88 -- It's a very small sample size, but Marvin Harrison's average route depth was down three points to 9.88 in his first action with the Texans.
  
• 6.0 -- Jaylen Waddle is averaging a career-low 6.0 yards per target. The connection with Bo Nix just isn't there yet.
• 29% -- Malik Washington has a 29% target share over the past month. I am starting him as a WR3.

My full set of Week 7 Fantasy football projections for every position is now available here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 7. Projected stats for all starting wide receivers are updated throughout the week, so make sure you check back later in the week for changes.