Seven weeks have come and gone in the world of fantasy football, and for most people that means half of the regular season is now in the rear view mirror. Next week, we may include a few mid-season awards in our recap, but for this day, it’s all about what took place in the last 48 hours or so…let’s get started!

NY Jets @ New England
In an entertaining Thursday night game (for a change), the Patriots showed us for now that life after Stevan Ridley is going to include a lot of Shane Vereen. Vereen’s multi-touchdown performance cements him as a rock solid RB2 for the remainder of the season…or until Belichick changes his mind. The Jets’ offense was much improved as they stuck to a ball-control, keep it on the ground kind of offense with Chris Ivory (100-plus yards, 1 TD) being the main beneficiary. Ivory’s stock will continue to rise if this remains the Jets’ philosophy, but they may try to tinker with it now that Percy Harvin is in the fold. Assessing Harvin’s overall impact on the offense and team moving forward is going to be fascinating to watch.

For a brief moment C.J. Spiller's vaule was on the rise. He likely won't see the field again in 2014.

Minnesota @ Buffalo
It’s always rough when you lose a starting running back in a game for an extended period of time, but in this contest, Buffalo lost BOTH of its primary ball-carriers leaving fantasy owners to ponder the value of Bryce Brown and Anthony Dixon moving forward. The star of the day on the field, though, was Sammy Watkins who has shown flashes of brilliance this season and would be even better with someone other than EJ Manuel or Kyle Orton throwing him the ball. Watkins (9 rec, 122 yards, 2 TDs) is looking like dynasty gold at this point, but quietly so is the Vikings’ Jerick McKinnon who ran for over 100 yards on Sunday against the best rushing defense in the NFL. So, two young stars continued to emerge even as the quarterback play for both team is still subpar.

Cincinnati @ Indianapolis
Here at the Buzz, we’re puzzled as to whether A.J. Green is that valuable to the Bengals or if they would have stunk it up even with Green in the lineup. If you started a Bengal in this game, here’s hoping you survived to tell about it. 135 yards of total team offense isn’t going to cut it in the NFL or in fantasy football - ever. For the Colts, the story continued to be Andrew Luck, Ahmad Bradshaw, T.Y. Hilton, and Dwayne Allen. All are legitimate every week starters, with Bradshaw notching his first rushing touchdown of the season to go along with SIX receiving TDs. That’s not a misprint. Only one wide receiver in the entire NFL (Randall Cobb) has more receiving TDs than Bradshaw through seven weeks. Who would have ever guessed that?

Cleveland @ Jacksonville
A couple of weeks ago, we suggested that Jacksonville should just give the ball to Toby Gerhart thirty times and see what he can do. That may never happen now as Denard Robinson (22 carries, 127 yds, 1 TD) has seemingly taken the job by storm (and over Storm) and the Jaguars now have their first win. It was an ugly day for Cleveland and ugly in particular for owners of Ben Tate and Jordan Cameron. After appearing to break out last week, Cameron’s one catch for five yards was especially disappointing. Could Johnny Manziel do a better job of getting Cameron the ball? We may find out sooner than later if Hoyer’s numbers don’t improve. For now, assume a bounce-back game is coming for Tate.

Tennessee @ Washington
It’s funny how things turn on a dime in both the NFL and the world of fantasy football. Kirk Cousins looked like the real deal right after Robert Griffin III went down, but he was so bad Sunday (and of late) that journeyman quarterback Colt McCoy was the guy responsible for leading the Redskins from behind to get a win at home. In a game short on big fantasy performances, Pierre Garcon’s stat line (5 rec, 87 yds, 1 TD) was the most encouraging. Fantasy owners everywhere are still waiting on Bishop Sankey and Justin Hunter to reach their full potential in 2014. If you are one of those owners, it may be time to cut anchor. Tennessee looks like a team to avoid in terms of setting weekly lineups for now.

Miami @ Chicago
Since the rumor surfaced that the Dolphins were unhappy with Ryan Tannehill, the Dolphins’ signal caller has been on a mini-tear with Sunday’s showing (277 yards passing, 2 TDs) being the most impressive yet. Tannehill has also been getting it done with his feet as he’s rushed for a combined 132 yards in the last three games. As far as consistency goes, it’s hard to top Lamar Miller and Mike Wallace as both scored touchdowns Sunday to reinforce the notion that they are each excellent No.2 options at running back & wide receiver. The other TD went to Charles Clay who, like Tannehill, also enjoyed his finest game of the season to date. Consistency had been Jay Cutler’s calling card prior to Sunday, but things went off the rails for the Chicago passing game such that Matt Forte was the only fantasy skill position player who showed up. If you’ve been riding Cutler to victory so far this season, you may want to brace yourself for the dropping of the other shoe.

New Orleans @ Detroit
As was expected, no Saints Running backs solved the Lions’ defense on Sunday, but Drew Brees did connect with wide receivers Marques Colston and Kenny Stills a combined 11 times for 214 yards and a TD. It’s too bad he threw a costly interception at the end of the game, but that hurt his real stock more than his fantasy one. Jimmy Graham did his best Calvin Johnson/decoy impersonation and if you started him, you’re no doubt a little peeved about it still this morning. Speaking of Johnson, with him out of Detroit’s lineup, Golden Tate (10 rec, 154 yards, 1 TD) continues to excel. Makes you wonder why Seattle didn’t work harder to hang on to Tate. His numbers should fall when Johnson does eventually return, but for now, he’s a borderline WR1.

Carolina @ Green Bay
The Bengals looked tired yesterday after going five full quarters the previous Sunday and the same could be said for the Panthers who got blown up early in this game. Aaron Rodgers was again brilliant (255 yards passing, 3 TDs), but he once again only played three quarters meaning that he’s getting valuable rest, but also missing out on a true “monster” game in terms of stats. If Carolina could have kept it closer, there’s no telling what his numbers would have been along with the numbers of Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson. As was noted previously, Cobb leads all wide receivers with eight touchdowns this season. Quite a bounce-back year for a guy that many had doubts about coming into the season. Greg Olsen and Kelvin Benjamin got garbage-time points to salvage their fantasy day.

Seattle @ St. Louis
That thud you heard on Sunday was Zac Stacy’s value hitting rock bottom. With the Rams scoring an upset with Tre’ Mason toting the rock, look for Mason to continue to be the lead back moving forward as his 85 yards on the ground and a TD was impressive. Some who drafted Mason dropped him earlier this year, which just points out that you need to be slow in dropping rookies until they’ve proven that they have it or they don’t. The other big fantasy development in this game (besides Russell Wilson putting up ridiculous numbers) was the emergence of Doug Baldwin as Seattle’s new No.1 wide receiver. If Baldwin happens to still be on your waiver wire this week, bid the farm on him. You’ll have a No.2 fantasy wide receiver for the rest of the season. By the way, those “ridiculous” numbers for Wilson looked like this: 313 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 106 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD. Guess Harvin isn’t critical to Wilson’s fantasy success…

Atlanta @ Baltimore
The Falcons were a mess in this game even as Joe Flacco found a way to carve out a passing game in 30+ MPH winds. Torrey Smith (81 yds, 1 TD) and Owen Daniels (58 yds, 1 TD) ended up with very respectable games from a fantasy standpoint. It’s amazing how much better Baltimore looks on offense this season with a running game that’s clicking (95 yards on Sunday for Justin Forsett) and a more well-rounded receiving corps. Roddy White was Atlanta’s one saving grace in this game, recording 100+ yards and a TD, but he still shouldn’t be trusted as an every-week starter. Julio Jones should be, but continue to temper expectations when the Falcons are playing on the road.

Kansas City @ San Diego
Looking for a couple of guys who are going to impact the second half of the fantasy season in a tremendous way? Look no further than LeSean McCoy and Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles. Charles demonstrated again that when he’s healthy, he’s just about as good a fantasy back as you can have. Certainly, fantasy owners would like to see his receiving numbers climb back to what they once were (Charles is only averaging 11 yards receiving per game this season), but we at the Buzz believe that’s going to happen soon. Want to know what’s harder to figure out than Obamacare? How about how to choose a Chargers wide receiver from week to week? You never know when or if Malcom Floyd, Keenan Allen, and Eddie Royal will make an impact…but just as sure as you try to predict that performance, you’ll be disappointed. Sunday, the trio was 0 for 3 so at least there’s some consistency for you.

Arizona @ Oakland
Well, I guess that outburst we saw from Oakland last week was just a mirage. Facing the worst pass defense in the NFL, Derek Carr, James Jones, and Andre Holmes came nowhere close to repeating their Week 6 numbers as there was nary a touchdown pass or reception for the Raiders in this game. Arizona, meanwhile, pulled a red zone switch that left Andre Ellington owners frustrated as Stepfan Taylor scored two TDs from inside of five yards. Ellington owners can’t be too unhappy with Bruce Arians and the coaching staff, however - 30 touches and 160 total yards keeps Ellington on the back end of the RB1s for now. And, after one week hiatus, Larry Fitzgerald returned to irrelevancy this week. Like Reggie Wayne, Fitzgerald is having trouble separating from defenders…and it shows in his stat lines.

NY Giants @ Dallas
It’s amazing how quickly Dez Bryant can accumulate yards in a game. Bryant can be relatively quiet for more than half a contest before exploding for 70-80 yards on one drive alone. So it was on Sunday as Dallas saw a mismatch and exploited it much to Bryant owners’ delight. Terrance Williams continues to be a decent option as well, but his numbers are very touchdown dependent. Andre Williams failed for a second straight week to acquire the fantasy numbers that Rashad Jennings was putting up when he was healthy while Odell Beckham, Jr. seems to get more and more involved in the Giants’ offense every week he suits up. Something to watch moving forward: Is Gavin Escobar now the Cowboys tight end to own? He had more TDs on Sunday than Jason Witten has had all year.

San Francisco @ Denver
With the Broncos at home and Peyton Manning having a chance to break the all-time touchdown record in front of a home crowd, everyone knew it would likely be a top-notch fantasy performance from the now record-holding quarterback. Manning didn’t disappoint, nor did the recently unstoppable DeMaryius Thomas (8 rec., 171 yards, 2 TDs). What was surprising was how much success Ronnie Hillman had against the usually stellar San Francisco-D. Hillman’s 103 total yards and 2 TDs make us think here at the Buzz that he could be a legitimate RB1 next week and beyond…even when/if Montee Ball returns. For the Niners, Colin Kaepernick is completing a lot of passes to wide receivers (22 to be exact), but he’s spreading it around so much that no one receiver has significant fantasy value.

Houston @ Pittsburgh
The Texans were able to hold Le’Veon Bell to 57 rushing yards…which seems like a good deal for them until you realize that Bell also had 88 yards receiving and a receiving TD. I guess if Bell can’t find the end zone running the ball, it’s best to just do it like Ahmad Bradshaw does it. Fantasy scoring was plentiful in this one as Arian Foster scored a late TD and ran for over 100 yards and Antonio Brown not only had 90 receiving yards, but threw a touchdown pass as well. The stat lines for quarterbacks Roethlisberger and Fitzpatrick were eerily similar as Big Ben completed 23 passes for 265 yards while Fitz had 21 completions for 262. Did anyone win or lose based on the Arian Foster TD in the final minute? I would imagine some did…shoot me an e-mail and let me know how it unfolding for you in the closing seconds.

I guess that’s a wrap for this edition of TMB. One more week to go before the two mega bye weeks hit. Until then, we’ll continue recapping all that is from every game…week in and week out. Buzz out.