Week 7 of the 2026 NFL season kicks off with a Thursday Night Football matchup between two exciting offenses. The New England Patriots are visiting the Chicago Bears in a fun interconference game in the Windy City. Neither team has had a straight path to success, but both have been impressive in several of their wins and come into this matchup at 4-2. The Bears are 1.5-point home favorites, and the over/under is 47.5 points.
Last week, the Bears went on the road and defeated the Falcons in the return of starting QB Caleb Williams, while the Patriots defeated the Jets in a home divisional matchup to keep pace with the Bills in the AFC East. Both teams are in very competitive divisions and are looking to set themselves up for a long playoff run, but they have also dealt with multiple injuries already this season. Let’s take a closer look at this matchup from a DFS showdown perspective.
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NFL DFS Stud Picks
The biggest fantasy studs in this matchup are the two starting quarterbacks. Both Drake Maye of the Patriots and Caleb Williams of the Bears add a little rushing potential to their fantasy upside. They have also shown they can operate their respective offenses at a high level and spread the ball around to a wide variety of targets. With both teams also using rotations in the backfield, the quarterbacks become the key fantasy producers for each squad.
In the FantasyLabs Consensus Projections, Maye has the highest ceiling, median, and floor projections of all players. He also has the highest Optimal vs. Projected Ownership in our NFL SimLabs for this contest. He only has the third-highest ownership projection in that spot, but he has the highest Optimal% on the slate in that Captain spot.
Maye has struggled with turnovers at times this season and posted down games against the Seahawks and Jaguars, but he has bounced back and looked excellent in the last three weeks. He threw for at least three touchdowns in each of his last three games while averaging 292.7 passing yards per game. He had a high point of 42.5 DraftKings points against the Raiders two weeks ago and has averaged 31.5 DraftKings points over his last three contests.
Maye has run for 20+ yards in each of his last three games as well and added a rushing touchdown in that monster game against the Raiders, when he was the highest-scoring player at all positions on Week 5’s main slate.
He will be working without two of his top wide receivers, with Romeo Doubs (shoulder) and Mack Hollins (calf) on IR. The Patriots will also be without starting LG Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring) and starting RG Ben Brown (knee), forcing Maye to work behind backups on the offensive line. They held up fairly well against a good Jets pass rush last week but will face another tough task against the Bears.
The injuries all around him make Maye a riskier play, but his upside is still undeniable as the top stud to build around if you can afford him.
Williams is a little bit cheaper than Maye and is projected to be the second-most popular pick for the Captain spot. His Projected Plus/Minus is a little higher than Maye’s since he is cheaper and their projections are very similar. He also has a positive Optimal vs. Projected Ownership in the Captain’s spot, with the second-highest Optimal% as a Captain.
Last week, Williams returned from a three-game absence and posted 19.5 DraftKings points, completing 30 of 36 pass attempts for 305 yards and a touchdown while running four times for three yards. His strong numbers overall were only limited by his lack of touchdown passes in his team’s 31-23 road win over the Falcons.
Williams flashed his high ceiling in Week 1 against the Panthers, when he ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more touchdowns on his way to an impressive total of 37.3 DraftKings points. Either QB could go off with a big game like that in this matchup. But since Williams is still possibly getting back to full speed and has a tougher matchup, Maye stands out as a slightly better play, especially since he brings more leverage with a lower ownership projection.
The player with the highest ownership projection in the Captain’s spot surprisingly isn’t either of the QBs. D’Andre Swift is getting so much attention with Kyle Monangai (thumb) ruled out that he is expected to be the Captain in the most lineups in tournament play this Thursday, even though he only has the third-highest Optimal%.
Swift has carried the load without Monangai in the last two weeks, rushing for a total of three touchdowns and averaging 20.15 DraftKings points in those two games. He didn’t reach 50 rushing yards in either contest but did add four receptions in each game. Swift was nursing hip and knee issues that limited him in practice, but he has been able to produce even through the injuries and will be a solid fantasy play as long as he keeps finding the end zone so regularly.
The Patriots rank in the middle of the pack against running backs but have allowed four running-back touchdowns in the last four weeks. They have also allowed at least three receptions to running backs in every one of their games this season, so Swift should continue to have the opportunity to supplement his production by catching passes out of the backfield.
On the New England side, the secondary stud besides Maye should be A.J. Brown, but the star receiver had a rough return from IR last week. He had multiple drops and near-misses, catching only three of his 10 targets for 27 yards. The good news is that the chances are definitely there. The bad news is that Brown struggled to convert them into production in his return.
Without Doubs and Hollins, Brown should again be heavily targeted and has the potential for a huge game if he can knock off the rust he showed last week. Wide receivers have scored six touchdowns against the Bears in six games and are averaging over 155 combined receiving yards per game against a sometimes-sketchy Chicago secondary.
Brown could be a nice bounce-back option, and SimLabs ranks him in the top four in Optimal% both at FLEX and as Captain. He has the fourth-highest median, ceiling, and floor projections in the FantasyLabs Consensus projections for Thursday night.
NFL DFS Midrange Picks
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