Rams vs. Texans Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 1

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 1 matchup between the Rams and Texans.

Find a breakdown of every Week 1 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

C.J. Stroud: Stroud took a step back across the board in his second season, completing 63.2% of his passes (27th) for 7.0 yards per attempt (22nd) and a 3.8% touchdown rate (29th).

He went from QB9 in fantasy points per game (18.4) down to QB33 (13.0) last season.

Negative plays were his major undoing.

He took a sack on 8.9% of his dropbacks compared to a 7.1% rate as a rookie.

With his interception rate jumping to 2.3% (1% as a rookie), paired with those sacks, Stroud had an NFL-high 21.1% of his dropbacks resulting in a loss of 1.0 EPA or worse.

One of the exciting aspects for Stroud coming into his second season was that he would be throwing the ball to Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs, and Tank Dell.

He ended up throwing only 66 total passes with all three of those receivers on the field.

With Bobby Slowik gone, Nick Caley was brought in as the new offensive coordinator, coinciding with movement at wide receiver.

Caley comes from the Sean McVay coaching tree, serving as the tight ends coach and passing game coordinator for the past two seasons with the Rams.

Stroud has asked for more agency in Caley’s offense.

The receiving room has added several new faces around Collins.

This receiver room is not as impressive as it was at this point a year ago, but if the unit can stay healthy, there is not much to ask for in terms of improvement over what Stroud ended up working with a year ago.

The offensive line remains a question mark.

They traded their best offensive lineman, Laremy Tunsil.

The team also traded away Kenyon Green (who led the team in snaps at right guard) and did not re-sign Shaq Mason (who also led the team in snaps at right guard).

Houston is throwing a lot of new pieces at the line and shuffling up the players they have retained.

Ed Ingram, Jake Andrews, and Laken Tomlinson are projected starters on the interior who have bounced around the league.

Second-round rookie Aireontae Ersery is going to start at left tackle.

That is four new starters on the line while Tytus Howard stays at right tackle.

Pressure is the name of the game for the Rams, with whom Caley is undoubtedly familiar.

When the Rams were able to pressure the opposing quarterback last season, they allowed 6.2 yards per pass attempt (18th) and a 69.9 rating (18th).

Without pressure, they allowed 8.1 Y/A (28th) and a 106.5 rating (28th).

Overall, the Rams allowed 15.1 passing points per game to quarterbacks, which was 26th in the league.

It will be interesting to see if Caley installs more play-action passing.

Stroud was in the middle of the league with a 26.5% play-action rate in 2024.

The Rams struggled to defend play action last year, allowing a 113.1 rating (29th) on those play fakes.

The truth lies somewhere between Stroud’s rookie season output and last year’s drop off, but we still only have two weeks in which he has finished higher than QB7 in weekly scoring.

There is shootout potential here to sell yourself on Stroud pushing into the fringe QB1 range, but that leaves Stroud as more of a floor-based fantasy option, better suited in 2QB formats.

Matthew Stafford: Stafford, who just turned 37 in February, has dealt with a back injury that sidelined him for the majority of the summer.

He is expected to be ready to go for Week 1.

Stafford had a tale of two seasons centered around the health of this offense in 2024.

Getting Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp back in Week 8, Stafford was 10th in EPA per dropback (0.16) after sitting 24th through seven games (-0.07) with those wideouts banged up.

He threw 17 touchdowns to 4 interceptions over his final 10 games.

That was still operating with a shell of what Kupp was early in his career.

Now, Stafford has Davante Adams sliding into that role in the offense.

Adams will turn 33 this December, but unlike Kupp, his 2024 season ended on a positive note.

Stafford also could see a bump in the red zone with the addition of Adams.

Stafford completed only 46.5% of his red zone passes, which was 32nd in the league.

That was below Caleb Williams (50%).

Stafford was 24th in red zone touchdown rate (22.5%) due to running extremely cold on his throws into the end zone.

Only 27.8% of Stafford’s red zone passes into the end zone were touchdowns.

That ranked 35th, ahead of only Gardner Minshew (25%). The league rate was 41.1%, which is below the 36.4% career rate for Stafford.

Stafford is a solid floor-based 2QB option, but his lack of rushing makes him a tough bet for consistent upside.

He goes for fantasy based on his touchdown output.

This is also not a spot to target for ceiling potential.

The Texans only allowed 6.8 yards per pass attempt (6th) and a league-low 58.9% completion rate.

But the Texans also allowed their share of big plays when they gave up completions.

Houston allowed 11.5 yards per completion (25th) and a 5.6% touchdown rate (30th).

Running Back

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