Jaguars vs. Rams Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 7

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 7 matchup between the Jaguars and Rams in London.

Find a breakdown of every Week 7 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Matthew Stafford: We came into last week with some concerns that Stafford would not be pushed for a high-end fantasy run out.

That played out as he threw a season-low 26 passes, completing 17 of those for 181 yards and a touchdown.

We should have a better layout to increase passing volume, but we will likely need to calibrate for the potential that Puka Nacua does not play in this game.

Stafford still has Davante Adams to work with, but we have seen his output dip without Nacua on the field.

This offense was not nearly as efficient last week without Nacua, and that is something that occurred last season when Nacua missed time.

Stafford is averaging 7.1 yards per attempt, 10.8 yards per completion, and a 3.4% touchdown rate with Nacua off the field since the wideout was drafted.

Those numbers are 7.7 Y/A, 12.0 yards per completion, and a 4.9% touchdown rate with Nacua on the field.

Even with Nacua, Stafford is a floor-based QB2 who needs to run hot in the touchdown department to reach QB1 output.

Where Stafford can have success here, even without Nacua, is in the play-action game.

Stafford is using play action on 30.1% of his dropbacks, fourth in the league.

On play action passes, Stafford is averaging 8.8 Y/A (9th) with a 7.9% touchdown rate (13th) and 0 interceptions.

The Jaguars have wide splits against play action passes.

They are allowing a 68.6% completion rate (18th), 10.6 Y/A (30th), and a 5.9% touchdown rate (16th) on play-action passes compared to a 59.5% completion rate (4th), 6.1 Y/A (7th), and a 4.0% touchdown rate (16th) on non-play-action attempts.

Trevor Lawrence: It was not always pretty, but Lawrence managed to post a QB12 (19.2 points) scoring week on Sunday against Seattle.

Lawrence was 27 of 42 (64.3%) for 258 yards (6.1 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns, adding 9 yards rushing.

Lawrence has found his way to usable fantasy lines these past two weeks, but his passing production suggests that he is still a mid-range QB2 here.

Lawrence is completing 61.1% of his passes (29th) for 6.3 yards per pass attempt (25th).

He is the QB23 in fantasy points per game (15.7).

This can be a tougher matchup overall due to the Los Angeles pass rush.

The Rams are seventh in pressure rate (40.7%) and eighth in sack rate (8.4%) despite blitzing 20.4% of the time (26th).

The Rams are allowing 12.2 passing points per game (9th) and are fifth in passing points allowed per attempt (0.353).

Running Back

Kyren Williams: Williams turned 15 touches into 87 yards and a touchdown on Sunday against the Ravens.

Williams has turned in three RB1 scoring weeks over his past four games.

He is in that RB1 range again this week, due to his touchdown equity in the offense.

Williams has 31.3% of the Los Angeles touchdowns, RB8 on the season.

This is a tougher rushing matchup, however.

The Jaguars are allowing only 8.7 rushing points per game to backfields (4th).

They are allowing 3.7 yards per carry to running backs (6th), but they are allowing 11.3 receiving points per game to backfields (27th).

That can be relevant here for Williams if Nacua misses.

Williams has 17.6% of the team’s targets with Nacua off the field this season.

Going back to when Nacua was drafted, Williams has been targeted on 15.7% of his routes with Nacua off the field compared to a 12.7% rate with him on the field.

Travis Etienne: Etienne was held to 16 touches for 55 yards on Sunday.

That was his third game with fewer than 60 total yards over his past four.

While Etienne has slowed down in recent weeks, he has kept control of this backfield.

Etienne has handled 76.9%, 75%, and 72.7% of the backfield touches over the past three weeks.

Bhayshul Tuten has not had more than 6 touches in a game since Week 2.

Etienne will need that volume as an RB2 in this matchup.

The Rams are allowing 3.7 YPC to running backs (7th) and 8.3 rushing points per game to backfields (3rd).

They are allowing only 0.63 points per touch to running backs, second in the league.

Wide Receiver

Davante Adams (TRUST): Adams only pulled in 4 of 9 targets for 39 yards on Sunday.

It was a game of near misses for Adams.

He and Stafford were unable to connect on 3 different end zone targets.

Adams put another target on the ground for a potential long gain.

He has experienced a slight drop off in performance to start the season, with a 13.3% drop rate. That would be his highest since 2015 if it holds.

Despite leaving meat on the bone last week, Adams will have a surplus of opportunity this week should Puka Nacua be held out.

Adams has 29.4% of the team’s targets on plays with Nacua absent this season with 2.43 yards per route run.

He had a 33.3% target share on Sunday with Nacua off the field.

Adams comes with built-in touchdown upside.

He has 38.7% of the red zone targets, third in the NFL.

He leads the league with 68.8% of his team’s end zone targets and is second in the NFL with 11 end zone looks.

On top of all of that, Jacksonville is 30th in points allowed to WR1 targets (19.7) and has allowed a league-high 29.1 points per game to outside receivers.

Brian Thomas: Thomas collected 8 of 10 targets for 90 yards and a touchdown on Sunday.

Things could have even been better, as he had a 55-yard touchdown called back due to an offensive offside that did not impact the play.

Things have started to ramp up for Thomas as he has scored more fantasy points than the week before in each of the past three games.

He is looking healthier, seemingly past whatever wrist injury he was working through early in the season.

Thomas has seen 23.3%, 24%, and 23.8% of the team’s targets the past three weeks, giving him 17 more targets than the next closest wide receiver on the team now for the season.

He has 32.3% of the first read targets over that span per Fantasy Points data, WR14 over the past three weeks.

While those target rates are not quite as lofty as where we left off with Thomas a year ago, he has worked his way back into the higher-end WR2 range with larger upside for continued growth.

This is a solid matchup for Thomas to keep pushing for points.

The Rams are allowing 9.0 yards per target to outside receivers (19th), where Thomas is playing 78% of his snaps.

They have allowed some big games to wide receivers since losing Ahkello Witherspoon: A.J. Brown (6-109-1), DeVonta Smith (8-60-1), Kendrick Bourne (10-142-0), and Michael Pittman (5-41-1) over that span.

Tutu Atwell: Atwell missed Week 6 with a hamstring injury, but he is supposedly on track to return this weekend.

With the potential absence of Nacua, Atwell gets a bump as an upside WR4/FLEX.

Since the start of last season, Atwell has been targeted on 23.6% of his routes with Nacua off the field, averaging 1.97 yards per route run.

With an average depth of target of 12.0 air yards on those snaps, Atwell should have opportunities to win downfield on those play-action shots we highlighted earlier.

On his snaps with Nacua off the field, Atwell has a 17.1% target share on play-action passes.

Jordan Whittington: We are entering the week with the assumption that the Rams will be without Nacua, and we will adjust throughout the week as we gather more information.

Whittington ran a route on 91.7% of the dropbacks Sunday with Nacua off the field, but that was also with Atwell absent.

The Rams are second in the league in 11 personnel (78.2%), so Whittington can still play a lot of snaps.

Going back to last year, Whittington has been targeted on 21.3% of his routes with 2.33 yards per route with Nacua sidelined.

I prefer Atwell for his upside per target against a defense that has struggled on the outside and against play-action, but Whittington does have floor-based FLEX appeal himself in deeper formats.

He has played 90% of the snaps three times in his early career, posting games of 6-62-0 (8 targets), 7-89-0 (10 targets), and 3-23-0 (4 targets).

Whittington is not just a slot receiver, so he can get a piece of the matchup on the outside.

On his snaps filling in, Whittington has played 52% of his snaps out wide.

Even on Sunday, he only had a 27% slot rate.

If Nacua is out, I would anticipate that the slot role in the offense will be fluid, with no one receiver dominating slot snaps.

Travis Hunter: Hunter caught 4 of 7 targets for 15 yards on Sunday.

Six weeks into the season, Hunter has not logged a week as a top-36 scorer, with two weeks inside the top 50.

Hunter has played more offensive snaps these past two weeks (67.2% and 77.6%).

We entered last week expecting him to be used more on offense, since Seattle runs at a low rate of 11 personnel, reducing the need for Hunter on defense.

The Rams are on the other end of the spectrum, using 11 personnel on 78.2% of their snaps (second in the league).

Even losing Nacua in the game last week and without Atwell, the Rams used 11 personnel on 76.5% of their snaps.

Hunter could be pushed to play more defense, but even if his offensive snaps remain on par with these past two weeks, we need more diverse usage for him as a pass catcher to be more than a WR4/FLEX option.

Hunter has only been targeted on 17.8% of his routes (sixth on the team).

16.1% of his targets are on screens, a team high.

66% of Hunter’s snaps have come from the slot, where the Rams have allowed 5.5 yards per target to receivers (third in the league).

Jaguars WRs: With Hunter playing more offense last week, Dyami Brown (66% of the dropbacks), Parker Washington (36%), and Tim Patrick (14%) all worked into the rotation.

There is not enough usage there to latch onto any of these options outside of the deepest formats.

Brown is the best bet for snaps and routes, while Washington has been the best target earner of the group, drawing a target on 23.8% of his routes compared to a 16.9% rate for Brown and a 14.7% rate for Patrick.

Rams WRs: If Nacua and Atwell are out another week, the Rams rotated Xavier Smith and Konata Mumpfield at the other wide receiver spot outside of Adams and Whittington last week.

Smith played 58.3% of the dropbacks (0 targets) while Mumpfield played 50% (1 catch for 7 yards).

Those wideouts would only be dart throws in single-game DFS.

Tight End

Hunter Long: Long caught 2 of 3 targets for 19 yards on Sunday.

He only ran a route on 64% of the dropbacks, which was TE24 on the week.

Outside of chasing a touchdown, Long is a thin fantasy option.

The Rams are allowing 5.9 yards per target (8th) and a 4.3% touchdown rate (11th) to tight ends.

Rams TEs: Tyler Higbee only has 10 catches for 102 yards and a touchdown this season.

He did score his first touchdown of the season on Sunday, but he was also only on the field for 48.3% of the dropbacks, sharing snaps with Terrance Ferguson (27.6%) and Davis Allen (20.7%).

There could be more targets available if Nacua and Atwell are out for this offense on Sunday, but all of these tight ends are touchdown-or-bust fantasy plays.

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