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Los Angeles Rams @ Jacksonville Jaguars
The Rams are adjusting without their top weapon: Puka Nacua was ruled out with an ankle injury after not training all week.
Davante Adams and Jordan Whittington slid into the top two spots at wide receiver. Whittington and Atwell have battled for the third wide receiver spot all season. However, Atwell missed last week due to a hamstring injury. Since Thursday he has been able to train fully. He was the third wide receiver on the first two drives, but Xavier Smith took his spot starting on the third drive.
The big change was that the Rams became more diverse in their personnel groups. Instead of relying on 11 staff as usual, they used more 13 staff in the first half than in the first six weeks combined. Jordan Whittington was their 13-man wide receiver in the past, but with Whittington moving up the depth chart, Konata Mumpfield became their top 13-man wide receiver. This led to Mumpfield scoring the first touchdown of the game. The high personnel usage of 13 also led to Adams playing less than normal. The targets were well spread out due to the rotation, so Adams didn’t earn the receiving volume many fantasy managers were hoping for, but he did score three touchdowns.
The Rams have their bye week next week, which will ideally be enough time for both Nacua and Atwell to recover. Once they get back, we should be back to Nacua and Adams as the top wide receivers, while Whittington and Atwell fight for the third spot. There’s at least a chance the Rams will use a little more 13 personnel in the future, given their success with it in this game.
The Rams’ tight end rotation: Los Angeles opted to make all four tight ends active and rotate them more than most teams.
Los Angeles has four tight ends on its roster: veterans Tyler Higbee, Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen and second-round rookie Terrance Ferguson. The rookie has been inactive when everyone has been healthy, but Ferguson has shown some promise as a receiver when given the opportunity. Tyler Higbee missed Week 5, which led to Ferguson catching a 21-yard pass. Most recently, Parkinson missed last week due to a concussion. Ferguson played 17 offensive snaps on the season. Parkinson was a full participant in practice all week and the Rams decided to use all four wide receivers instead of making anyone inactive.
The Rams used Parkinson as the primary 11-man tight end on early downs and Ferguson as the primary 11-man tight end on third downs. All four played at least five snaps each in single-tight end sets, and all four played double-digit snaps from 13 personnel. Ferguson lined up as a wide receiver on some of his 13-personnel snaps. He made his second big play of the season with a 31-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. All four tight ends got at least some 11-man playing time.
This rotation makes it impossible to trust any of the tight ends for fantasy purposes. The most likely scenario in which a tight end becomes an option in this offense is that Ferguson earns the majority of the eleven personnel snaps on early downs in addition to his third down usage. It’s also possible the Rams could inactivate a tight end once they get healthier at other positions.
Bhayshul Tuten is becoming more and more involved: Travis Etienne Jr. has not been as effective in recent weeks as it was at the start of the season.
Etienne had an excellent Week 1 with 143 yards on 16 carries to lead to Tank Bigsby is traded. Tuten was the primary backup on early downs, while LeQuint Allen Jr. the third down back was. That rotation has been relatively stable in recent weeks, but Etienne’s production has dropped. Eteinne averaged 3.5 yards per carry in Week 3, with no receptions. In Week 5, he was held to a season-low 12 carries. In Week 6, he matched those 12 carries while running for just 27 yards.
Etienne started this game, but the Jaguars went three-and-out on their first two drives, while the Rams scored touchdowns on their first two. Because of this, they left the run game relatively early. Tuten started turning in on the third drive and played significantly on the third and fourth drives prior to the two-minute drill drive. Etienne was ineffective the few times he ran the ball, while Tuten averaged more yards per carry for most of the game. The Jaguars trailed by 28 points in the last five minutes, but made some unexpected runs. This led to more than half of Etienne’s rushing production.
Tuten has been the most effective runner over the past two weeks, but Etienne has the better numbers of the season. The one area where Tuten has an edge is in tackles avoided per attempt. However, if Tuten continues to beat Etienne like he has over the last two weeks, we could see more from Tuten in the future. This is one of the few backfields where we could see the backup become the starter without injuries or trades.
The Jaguars generally have Brian Thomas Jr. used in all situations, in addition to using Travis Hunter on 11 personnel, rotating Dyami Brown and Parker Washington to the other spot in both two- and three-receiver sets. Brown missed time in Weeks 3 and 4, but in the other four games Brown played 70.6% of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps, compared to Washington’s 27.5%.
Tim Patrick substituted for Thomas noticeably more often than usual during the game, indicating that Thomas was not 100% healthy before the end of the game. The match was stopped for the last five minutes as Thomas came off the field slowly and did not return. Even if Thomas was close to 100%, it made sense that the Jaguars wouldn’t be at risk if the game got out of hand. When Thomas left in the final few minutes, Brown consistently took his place instead of Patrick’s.
The Jaguars have their bye week next week. Ideally, that is enough time for Thomas to recover. If everyone is healthy over the next two weeks, we should find out in Week 9 whether Washington’s ascension is a temporary, long-term change.
Various comments
- Los Angeles running back Blake Corum did not practice Wednesday, was limited in practice Thursday and was upgraded to full on Friday. He is struggling with an ankle injury and was not given competition status.
- Corum played a lot this week, but that says nothing about future playing time. The Rams had a very long first drive, causing Corum to take a few shots halfway through that drive, as well as the second drive, which was also long. Williams took charge of the rest of the first half, but then the Rams had a three-point lead in the second half.
- The Rams recalled Ronnie Rivers from the practice squad for this game on Saturday, while Jarquez Hunter became a healthy inactive. Hunter was also inactive in Week 1. His special teams snaps have decreased in recent weeks.
- Travis Hunter didn’t play his first defensive snap until the third quarter. He had started on defense the past two weeks and played at least 20 snaps in each of the last two games. This was the first game he did not play in defense in the first half. This week was Hunter’s best game on offense, but most of his production came after the game was out of reach.
- Jacksonville tight end Quintin Morris did not practice all week due to a groin injury. He was ruled out on Friday. This left the Jaguars with just two tight ends.
- Hunter Long reMained the starting tight end for Jacksonville in all situations with Brenton Strange on injured reserve.
New Orleans Saints @ Chicago bears
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Miami Dolphins @ Cleveland Browns
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Las Vegas Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs
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Philadelphia Eagles @ Minnesota Vikings
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Carolina Panthers @ Jets from New York
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New England Patriots @ Tennessee titans
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New York Giants @ Denver Broncos
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Indianapolis foals @ Los Angeles Chargers
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Washington commanders @ Dallas Cowboys
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Atlanta Falcons @ San Francisco 49ers
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Table notes
• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Objectives may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be due to an obviously thrown pass, where the NFL could give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data does not.
• Carries are only possible on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.
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