Week 7 of the NFL season is coming up and some fantasy owners’ seasons are in the balance. This could be a rough week for some owners as far as wide receivers go. Megatron and A.J. Green are likely not playing again. Marvin Jones is officially out for the year. Victor Cruz is out for the year after a nasty knee injury. Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans, and Jeremy Maclin are all out on the bye. Eddie Royal and Eric Decker are both expected to play but have been underwhelming.

Your 2-4 or 3-3 team needs a FLEX or WR2 fringe candidate to keep your playoff dreams alive? I believe Oakland Raiders wide receiver Andre Holmes will cure what ails you.

Andre Holmes isn’t a household name, but he is starting to become one after gaining 121 receiving yards with two touchdowns against a Chargers team viewed as one of the best in the league. Holmes is a fourth-year wide receiver out of college football powerhouse Hillsdale College in the ultra-competitive Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Ok, I kid.

However, despite being a tiny Division II school that doesn’t make waves, Hillsdale did produce Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Jared Veldheer the year before Holmes came out. Holmes wasn’t heavily recruited due to playing wide receiver only one year in high school before going to college. Holmes didn’t terrorize Division II football but showed progression each year culminating in a senior year good enough to get him invites to the Texas vs. the Nation All-Star Game and the 2011 NFL Combine.

RosterWatch was told in 2012 by a GLIAC assistant coach that Holmes was “a special player” having game-planned against him during his college career.

Holmes went undrafted in 2011 and was signed by the Minnesota Vikings. He bounced around training camp rosters and practice squads of the Vikings, Cowboys, Patriots and finally the Raiders from 2011-2013. Holmes got significant playing time at the end of 2013 and caught 25 balls for 431 yards and a touchdown. The really impressive things about his late-2013 campaign were his 17.2 yards per catch average and the fact that 21 of his 25 receptions were for first downs.

Holmes has put up decent numbers in five games this season with 15 receptions for 269 yards and 3 receiving touchdowns. Week 6 really inflated his numbers, though.

Holmes is still available in 56% of leagues right now. Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives for Andre Holmes and look at his value Week 6 versus the Cardinals.

Positives

– Physical Ability: Andre Holmes has that long, leggy build that deep-passing offensive coordinators love. He’s 6’4”, 210 pounds and he’s got arms longer than as Demaryius Thomas and Calvin Johnson. His wingspan and catch radius are huge. Holmes ran a 4.51 40-time at the Combine, which puts him on the same level as Dez Bryant and A.J. Green. This kid can get down the field fast. The physical traits are all there for Holmes. The only thing he’s really lacking is short-area quickness, which tends to make him a little slow coming out of his breaks.

Holmes burns the Chargers for a 77-yard touchdown. He calls out Chargers safety Marcus Ghilchrist (38) as a blitzer on the play. He beats Brandon Flowers (26) to take the top off the coverage and Jason Verrett (22) has no chance of catching him.

– Hands: Holmes has pretty good hands. He only had 3 drops in 2013 on 52 targets. He’s not incredible, but you don’t have to worry about him being plagued with drops like Justin Hunter. Holmes tends to attack the ball instead of body catch.

– Derek Carr’s Arm: Everybody knows Derek Carr’s got an absolute cannon for an arm. I was really concerned about his pocket presence and ability to throw with rushers in his face coming in as a rookie but we’ll get to that later. Raiders interim head coach Tony Sparano apparently told Carr to let his lasagna hang loose, because Carr was airing it out against the Chargers early and often. He seems to have developed a really good rapport with Holmes – and Holmes looks like his favorite target. He’s not a wasted talent with Carr able to throw bombs downfield.

– No.1 Receiver: Coming into the 2014 season, it was assumed James Jones would be the No. 1 receiver for the Raiders with a bunch of turds question marks behind him. Jones has looked OK but not as good as his contract would indicate. (Thanks again, Reggie.) He’s 30 years old and clearly not the future of the franchise, which makes him about like 3/4 of the current Raiders roster. Denarius Moore has been given a “clean slate” by Sparano, but has clearly been thought of as a miscreant and a creep previously. Brice Butler is in his second year but he’s still very raw. Rod Streater is a fan favorite, but the fact is, he’s a limited-volume possession guy.

The Raiders recently picked up Patriots castoff Kenbrell Tompkins, but he figures to take some time before getting majorly involved in the offense. In a pack of JAGs, Holmes looks like the No. 1 receiver right now and likely for the rest of the season. This team is going to be playing from behind quite a bit so he should see a steady stream of targets.

– The Matchup: Holmes had quite a day against the San Diego Chargers who have given up the 14th fewest fantasy points to wide receivers this year and were ranked as one of the toughest matchups on the Week 6 RosterWatch Matchup Tool. The Arizona Cardinals defense comes into this week’s game giving up the 2nd most fantasy points to wide receivers. The Cardinals are only giving up 75 yards a game on the ground but they’re letting opposing offenses pop off big plays like Cardinals CB Antonio Cromartie pops out children: Often, and in lots of different states. The Cardinals have minimal pass rush which will help the Raiders improving offensive line give Carr time to push the ball down the field. Plus, the Raiders are at home. This is a great matchup for Holmes.

Negatives

– Bad Offense: I tend to shy away from every player possible in a bad offense. Putrid offenses can bring down the most talented of players. Darren McFadden and MJD have been worthless this year as has pretty much every Raiders receiver. Before this week Derek Carr wasn’t even a streaming QB option. The offense is looking up now that Sparano has let Olson open up the playbook, but they’re still dead last in rushing in the league and 21st in passing.

– Rookie Quarterback: Derek Carr looked like the real deal in Week 6. However, he looked like a struggling rookie before that with the exception of maybe the Raiders loss to the New York Jets early in 2014. It is highly unlikely Carr throws for 4 touchdowns again this week and given the Raiders inability to run the ball, the Cardinals are going to throw the house at him. Rookie quarterbacks tend to have big peaks and valleys and there has to be concern that Carr won’t maintain that level of play.

– Inconsistent Targeting: Holmes has been targeted fairly well in the past two weeks (20 targets in 2 weeks) but that hasn’t been the case all season. He got no looks in Week 1, a respectable 7 targets in Week 2 but only two targets in Week 3. Carr really seems to favor Homes, but he did spread the ball out to Brice Butler, James Jones and tight end Mychal Rivera as well in Week 6.

– Game Tape: Holmes lit up the Chargers secondary but the tape is out on him now. There was little-to-none of his style or capability from Hillsdale (believe me I looked high and low). There’s a high likelihood the Cardinals will shift coverage to Holmes and try to shut him down as the Raiders primary deep threat. The defensive coaching staff of the Cardinals is too good not to notice that Holmes is the apparent No.1 in Oakland right now. He’s going to get a lot of attention.

DECLASSIFIED: Andre Holmes’ Week 7 Fantasy Outlook

Tony Sparano is a big fan of Holmes and it appears right now that the Raiders are going to keep the offense open with a deep passing game. Even if the Raiders start getting blown out quick in this contest it won’t hurt Holmes value much. Take a look at his value in daily leagues as a cheap starter. However, don’t expect multiple touchdowns like last week. All factors considered, I would expect Holmes to catch in the neighborhood of four passes for about 110 yards and score one receiving touchdown.