Fantasy Football Week 7 Mailbag: Cam Newton, Gary Barnidge Advice

It’s almost the halfway point of the NFL season, but there still are plenty of fantasy football questions out there.

Luckily for you, we’ve got some answers. As always, thanks for submitting questions to our Twitter and Facebook pages for our weekly fantasy football mailbag. We answered four of them below.

Question (via Twitter): Travis Kelce or Gary Barnidge? 

If this were a few weeks ago, Kelce would have been the clear answer. However, the Kansas City Chiefs are struggling, and Kelce’s numbers have gone down as a result.

Barnidge has been the more reliable of the two lately with five touchdown receptions over his past four games. You should keep playing Barnidge until he shows any signs of slowing down, which hasn’t happened so far.

If you have your FLEX open, though, you might want to think about starting both players.

Question (via Twitter): Standard scoring, Pick 3 Rb’s: J-Stew, The Dougernaut, CJ2K, and Dion Lewis (who apparently needs a nickname like my other choices)

You should definitely start Doug Martin. He has been a fantasy football savior over his past two outings with four total touchdowns, and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue coming off a bye.

The other three all have their pros and cons. It took him until Week 6, but Jonathan Stewart finally found the end zone in the Carolina Panthers’ win over the Seattle Seahawks. Lewis could be a big factor against the New York Jets, especially in the passing game. However, LeGarrette Blount has been taking the bulk of the snaps lately, and New York does have the second-best run defense. Chris Johnson appears to be the No. 1 running back for the Arizona Cardinals, but he has to share time with Andre Ellington and David Johnson in a crowded backfield.

You should give Stewart a chance to follow up his breakthrough performance with another week in your starting lineup, and then Johnson is probably your safer bet as your third running back instead of Lewis.

Question (via Facebook): Eli or SuperCam this week?

Both players face favorable matchups against middle-of-the-pack pass defenses, but Cam Newton really has been “Super Cam”of late. The Panthers quarterback threw two picks against the Seahawks, but he more than made up for it with his last-minute drive to clinch the come-from-behind win for Carolina. You should definitely keep Newton in your starting lineup right now.

Question (via Facebook): Hoyer, Fitzmagic, or Landry Jones? Assuming Big Ben & Mariota sit.

Keep an eye on Mariota’s status. He hasn’t been practicing, but the Tennessee Titans haven’t ruled him out yet. Regardless, either Ryan Fitzpatrick or Landry Jones are better starts this week. There are plenty of question marks with Jones due to his inexperience, but Martavis Bryant, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell should all help with that. Fitzpatrick is still a better start this week, though. He has plenty of weapons to utilize, too, and he is going to need to put up big numbers for the Jets to upset the New England Patriots.

Thumbnail photo via Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports Images