Start Austin Hooper or Shawn Bowman? Week 7

Our Week 7 call

Start Austin Hooper over Shawn Bowman in Week 7.

Market-based projections have Austin Hooper at 1.5 points and Shawn Bowman at 0.1, a gap of 1.4. That is inside the noise of a single catch, so treat it as close to a coin flip. Shawn Bowman's number is scaled up from a partial market: not every stat the position needs is posted yet, so the rest is estimated from what is.

What the market projects

Player markets imply 1.5 fantasy points for Austin Hooper, with 100 percent of the markets a TE needs posted.

The market-based projection for Austin Hooper is 5 receiving yards, 0-1 receptions and 0.1 touchdowns (8, 8 and 13 market sources).

Player markets imply 0.1 fantasy points for Shawn Bowman, with 40 percent of the markets a TE needs posted.

The market-based projection for Shawn Bowman is 1 receiving yards (3 market sources).

That puts Austin Hooper 1.4 points ahead of Shawn Bowman on the market projections.

Week 7 matchups

Austin Hooper and ATL host SF on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET.

SF allowed 9.4 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 6 games, the 4th fewest in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 42 yards and no touchdowns a game against SF.

Shawn Bowman and ARI host DEN on Sunday at 4:05 PM ET.

DEN allowed 13.3 fantasy points a game to TEs this season over 6 games, the 14th most in the league.

Tight ends caught passes for 55 yards and 0-1 touchdowns a game against DEN.

By points allowed to the position, Shawn Bowman has the softer matchup.

Injury status

Austin Hooper is not on the injury report.

Shawn Bowman is not on the injury report.

Usage before Week 7

Through Week 6, Austin Hooper played 24 percent of ATL snaps, drew 5 percent of the targets, earned 2 percent of the air yards and had 2 percent of the red zone chances.

Austin Hooper, Week 3 against GB: 16 of 71 snaps, 2 targets and 2 catches for 11 yards, 1 touchdown.

Austin Hooper, Week 4 against NO: 13 of 57 snaps, 1 target and 1 catch for 9 yards.

Austin Hooper, Week 5 against BAL: 10 of 64 snaps, 0 targets and 0 catches for 0 yards.

Austin Hooper, Week 6 against CHI: 7 of 55 snaps, 1 target and 1 catch for 6 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025, Austin Hooper played 16 games for NE and scored 59.3 PPR points, 3.7 a game, finishing TE47.

He caught 21 of 26 targets for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 5 red zone targets and 177 air yards.

He was on the field for 50 percent of the offense's snaps in the games he played.

Their other Week 7 calls

• Start Cole Kmet over Austin Hooper.
• Start Daniel Bellinger over Austin Hooper.
• Start Darnell Washington over Austin Hooper.
• Start David Martin-Robinson over Shawn Bowman.
• Start Kylen Granson over Shawn Bowman.