Waiver Favors™: 2025 Week 7 Fantasy Football Pickups

October 19, 2025

By Ha Kung Wong Week 7 Fantasy Football Pickups

As I do every year over the last 13 years, I’m here to help with waiver wire adds via my weekly Waiver Favors™ article! And I’m assuming if you’re reader right now, you’re in your fantasy football playoffs, so congratulations!

I’ll make a couple suggestions for after Week 7 of the 2025 fantasy football season that hopefully will keep your team running. You’re welcome. Again.

As usual, all pickups are available in at least 50% of Yahoo standard fantasy football leagues (with some minor exceptions) as of Sunday evening.

Andy Dalton

QB – Carolina Panthers – 0% Owned

Listen, Week 8 “Byemageddon” is coming, so you might be short a QB this weekend, particularly in two QB leagues, so I’m going to mention Andy Dalton, who will be starting for Bryce Young after already being ruled out with a high-ankle sprain. Dalton managed to close out Carolina’s win over the Jets after Young left in the 4th quarter, completing 4 of 7 passes for 60 yards. Last year, Dalton started from Week 3 to Week 7 and managed to complete 66.7 percent of his pass attempts for 989 yards, 7 TDs and 6 INTs. This time around he gets the benefit of rookie Tetairoa McMillan and a revamped ground game behind Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle so there’s definitely some potential there. He gets to face the Bills, which isn’t as bad as it sounds as they’ve allowed an average of 15.9 fantasy points in standard scoring (i.e., 4 points for passing TDs) to opposing QBs this season, and the negative game script with the Bills likely to be ahead will require Dalton to sling it continuously.

Kyle Monangai

RB – Chicago Bears – 6% Owned

D’Andre Swift is still the RB1 in Chicago, but Kyle Monangai has been ticking up week to week and managed to get 13 carries for 81 yards and a TD along with 2 receptions for 13 receiving yards in Week 7. It looks like the Bears are focusing on the ground game since the bye, so there should be enough touches for both Swift and Monangai. Go ahead and pick up Monangai as a backup RB in all 14-team leagues or deeper.

Xavier Legette

WR – Carolina Panthers – 6% Owned

Xavier Legette has been up and down this season but managed to pace all WRs in Week 7 catching 9 of 11 targets for 92 yards. Some of the targets came from Andy Dalton who stepped in once Bryce Young injured his ankle, but he got plenty from Young as well. It probably won’t be consistent, but Legette is worth speculating on in 14-team leagues and deeper.

Pat Freiermuth

TE – Pittsburgh Steelers – 7% Owned

This is what we thought Pat Freiermuth could bring to the table at the beginning of the Season. He managed to catch 5 of 6 targets for 111 yards and 2 TDs in Week 7, his second most yards in a game of his career. He was active throughout the game and seems to have caught the eye of Aaron Rodgers, which should mean he’ll get plenty more looks. If you need a TE, snag him in all 14-team leagues or deeper to see how it sorts out.

Receiving & Rushing Table
			Rece	Rece	Rece	Rece
Season	Team	G	Tgt	Rec	Yds	TD
2021	PIT	16	79	60	497	7
2022	PIT	16	98	63	732	2
2023	PIT	12	47	32	308	2
2024	PIT	17	78	65	653	7
2025	PIT	6	17	13	187	2
5 Yr	5 Yr	67	319	233	2377	20
17 G	17 G	17	81	59	603	5

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

UPDATE for Monday Night Football

Cade Otton

TE – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 42% Owned

With Chris Gowin out and Mike Evans going out early in Week 7, Cade Otton led the Buccaneers in receptions and receiving yards while tying for second in targets, catching 7 of 9 targets for 65 yards. Evans is likely out for most of the rest of the season and Godwin is unlikely to be rushed back with the bye week looming, so Otton might be in for a lot more targets in Week 8 against the Saints. If you need a TE during the upcoming heavy bye week, go ahead and snag him in all 12-team leagues or deeper.

Here’s we liked as pickups in previous weeks: