New Orleans Saints vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Fantasy Football Matchup Breakdown For Week 7
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New Orleans Saints vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Fantasy Football Matchup Breakdown For Week 7

John Laghezza breaks down the Week 7 matchup in Paris between the Steelers and Saints for fantasy football.

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Only five teams in the NFL boast a 64%+ throw rate, two of them face off on a fine Sunday in France, and the game total’s just 44? Color me skeptical of sitting my guys in this one …

Saints (2-4) vs. Steelers (4-2) Matchup Breakdown For Fantasy Football Week 7 (Paris, France)

PIT_steelers-logo.svgPittsburgh Steelers Fantasy Preview For Week 7

Among the very best of just a few unequivocal wins off the waiver wire is old man Aaron Rodgers. Proving he can still sling it when given a chance, the nearly 43-year-old QB just hung his fourth top-12 performance in a row as the overall QB4 in that timeframe. Now, it’s not always pretty (-0.14 EPA/dropback, 13.7% off-target, 6.4 yards/attempt, 35.6% throws to sticks), but nearly 40 attempts/game plus the league’s fourth-most deep shots +20-air yards down the field (28) will get the job done. Still more of a matchup-based play than a lock-and-load weekly starter, he’ll face a Saints secondary bottom-10 in EPA/dropback (-0.13), opposing passer rating (97.8), and yards allowed/attempts (7.7).

Finally left in command of the Steelers backfield all by himself, Jaylen Warren exploded for +24 fantasy points/game over a three-week stretch as fantasy’s overall RB4. He must’ve done enough to keep the lion’s share of work for himself in the face of a Rico Dowdle return, right? Right?!? The answer’s a big old N-O. Fine, Warren technically served as the lead back, but the touch share split was just 61/39 in his favor, with three targets going to each. Big deal. As a matter of fact, had it not been for OT, the duo would’ve split a total of 12.3 fantasy points right down the middle, helping absolutely no one. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, managers need to prepare for the new old reality where they cancel each other out — and Dowdle’s 5.7 yards/attempt versus the Bucs certainly won’t cost him playing time when the team sits down for film review.

Suffering multiple injuries at the WR position in a short period of time, Pittsburgh threw already emerging Germie Bernard directly into the fire. Boy, did the second-year rookie answer the call, running 54 routes (11-87-1) to earn 11 of 12 targets,  plus the love and affection of his veteran QB. Don’t care who returns to this lineup; there’s no putting the black-and-yellow toothpaste back in the tube.

Keep one eye peeled for the Steelers’ increased 12-personnel usage. Mike McCarthy deployed 2-TE sets at his second-highest rate in 2026 (42.1%), resulting in season-long highs in routes (29), targets (6), catches (4), and touchdowns (1) for the behemoth Darnell Washington.

  • Start: Aaron Rodgers (QB17), Jaylen Warren (RB11), DK Metcalf (WR23), Germie Bernard (WR24), Pat Freirmuth (TE17)
  • Sit: Rico Dowdle (RB32)
  • Sleeper: Darnell Washington (TE25)

NO_saints-logo.svgNew Orleans Saints Fantasy Preview For Week 7

Glad I recommended staying the course on my boy Tyler Shough. Accounting for another four TDs Sunday, he’s currently working on a third top-5 finish this season — something only Drake Maye and Josh Allen achieved as of writing. Listen, Minnesota’s going to make a lot of teams look listless or off-schedule. It’s what they do best. Erase it from memory and move on. Frankly, Shefty’s report of Shough playing with two broken bones in his left hand in combination with the drop-off in play’s making me more worried than anything. This could be a good time to sell the rip and start someone else against T.J. Watt, Patrick Queen, and their boys.

As someone who’s swung the mallet and missed every week trying to whack-a-mole in the Saints backfield, I think we finally got that little bugger in our sights — well, for a week at least until Travis Etienne returns. Alvin Kamara already started ceding work to both backups before pulling up lame late in Sunday's contest, giving Kendre Miller another chance. Remember, he fumbled early versus ATL in Week 4, sending him straight to the doghouse. Fast forward a few weeks and Miller’s setting the team’s single-game touch lead (22) by a mile. His newfound bellcow role’s likely short-lived with Etienne on the mend, but setbacks happen all the time — a bird in the hand’s worth two in the bush.

Again, pass volume rules the day for New Orleans’ WRs, locking Chris Olave into a static WR1 spot, with Devaughn Vele consistently projecting as a flex player at worst — he’s earning 7.2 targets/game on the second-most routes in the NFL (231).  What did concern me, however, is the recent Juwan Johnson usage. Careful hand-waving it as natural regression, there are some red flags here.

Johnson ran just 17 routes each of the last two weeks, despite the Saints playing their highest rate of 12-personnel all year. Noah Fant and Oscar Delp continue nipping into the routes, but it's actually rookie Bryce Lance quietly soaking up more opportunities each week. Check out his target/route rate over each of his last four games: 8.3%, 10.6%, 17.6%, 18.2%. Timing couldn’t be worse for Lance to finally pop off with rookie WR Jordyn Tyson off the IR. He's not practicing but will be traveling to France. Part of me doubts he sees much work, but then why go through all the rigmarole of international travel? A very fun Saints’ gets even more exciting …

  • Start: Tyler Shough (QB12), Kendre Miller (RB31), Chris Olave (WR7), Devaughn Vele (WR32)
  • Sit: Juwan Johnson (TE13)
  • Sleeper: Bryce Lance (WR75)

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