Fantasy Football Week 7 Advice: Start Cam Newton

Last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins limited Michael Vick to 237 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception, and only 54 yards rushing, which is significantly below his season average. Why then might we advocate starting a similarly run-happy Cam Newton at quarterback against the Redskins this week then? Because Newton isn't Vick.

Since the beginning of last season, Vick has moved further and further away from being the quarterback we remember from his past years in Atlanta. No longer does he look to run the moment his first target fails to get open. Newton hasn't quite taken that step yet though.

Newton has had at least one rushing touchdown in each of the last three weeks, and looks likely to get one on Sunday as well. Using Yahoo! standard scoring, Newton is the second highest scoring quarterback so far this season, behind only Aaron Rodgers. The fantasy football site numberFire projects Newton to earn 19.27 fantasy points this week, so if your league values rushing yards and touchdowns as highly as most, insert him into your starting lineup with confidence.