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Last-Minute Week 7 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Additions

Originally posted on The Lead | By Mitchell Skurzewski | Last updated Oct 17, 2025 4:21 PM ET

The waiver wire starts to become incredibly important at this point in the season. We have had some stellar standouts in our previous waiver wire adds, from Rico Dowdle to Sam Darnold and Harold Fannin Jr. last week.

For the following waiver wire adds, the player has to be owned by 60% of teams or less, and this week we go with one player at quarterback and one at each flex-position spot to add if you’re in a pinch ahead of your Week 7 matchup.

Quarterback

Dillon Gabriel, Browns: There aren’t many options if you’re looking for a quarterback, not mentioned previously here. Gabriel, though, could be a matchup play this week against the Dolphins.

The rookie QB threw for 190 yards and two touchdowns in his first start against Minnesota. A solid if unspectacular start. He followed that up with 221 yards passing, but on 52 pass attempts. Against quarterbacks, the Dolphins surrender the second-most points to fantasy quarterbacks. This one is all about the matchup if you are in the unfortunate spot of needing a waiver wire QB in Week 7.

Running Back

Tyjae Spears, Titans: Spears came off the IR two weeks ago, and in his second week, he received a nice uptick in touches with six carries for 31 yards and four catches for 19 yards. He ran more routes and has really cut into Tony Pollard‘s share of the Titans’ backfield load. Spears is a strong threat receiving out of the backfield.

The Tulane product is likely to play when the Titans are playing catchup, which from what we’ve seen so far this season, is probably quite often.

Every Week 6 touch for Tyjae Spears https://t.co/BdyCSMHXtA pic.twitter.com/weOeWT67kx

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) October 16, 2025

Wide Receiver

Sterling Shepard, Bucs: Shepard isn’t an every week starter. However, the Bucs have a high-powered offense with an MVP candidate in Baker Mayfield at quarterback and are dealing with some injuries to playmakers.

Is Mike Evans playing? Even if he does, it’s his first week back. Chris Godwin is out and Emeka Egbuka is also expected to be out.

That leaves Shepard as one of the likely go-to targets for Mayfield in Week 7. On the year, Shepard has 19 catches for 212 yards and a touchdown on 27 targets. With a couple top playmakers out, though, Shepard should receive an uptick in targets in Week 7.

Tight end

AJ Barner, Seahawks: The tight end position has been pretty sparse for production this year. One of the surprises of the year at the position, though, is AJ Barner.

Barner has scored in double figures in the last three weeks and four of six weeks total. The second year TE had three catches for 71 yards last week. The prior two weeks he had three touchdowns combined, including seven catches for 53 yards and two scores in Week 6.

Barner seems to have a growing rapport with Sam Darnold and has 17 catches (on just 19 targets) for 205 yards and four touchdowns.

AJ Barner is interesting

– 28.6% Reception TD Rate (TE5)
– 0.6 Targets Inside The 10 (TE9)
– 1.2 Red Zone Opportunities (TE7)
– 1.3 Yards Per Route Run (TE20)
– 10.4 Fantasy Points Per Game (TE16)

The last stat is only going up yet he’s still underrated…
GO GET BARNER pic.twitter.com/m4IOwSsvpn

— Daily Dynasty Show (@TheDDShow3) October 9, 2025