NFL Week 7 Recap: Immediate fantasy football takeaways from Sunday’s games

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

PFF’s fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2025.

Los Angeles Rams @ Jacksonville Jaguars

The Rams adjust without their top weapon: Puka Nacua was ruled out due to an ankle injury after not practicing 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. He was able to practice in full since Thursday. 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 groupings. Rather than relying on 11 personnel like usual, they used more 13 personnel in the first half than they did over the first six weeks combined. Jordan Whittington had been their 13 personnel wide receiver in the past, but with Whittington further up the depth chart, Konata Mumpfield became their primary 13 personnel wide receiver. This led to Mumpfield scoring the first touchdown of the game. The high 13 personnel usage also led Adams to play less than usual. Targets were well spread out due to the rotation, so Adams didn’t earn the reception volume many fantasy managers hoped 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 are back, we should be back to Nacua and Adams as the top wide receivers, while Whittington and Atwell fight for the third spot. There is at least a chance the Rams use a little more 13 personnel going forward, given their success with it in this game. 

The Rams tight end rotation: Los Angeles opted to make all four tight ends active, rotating them more than most teams.

Los Angeles has four tight ends on the roster in veterans Tyler Higbee, Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen and second-round rookie Terrance Ferguson. The rookie has been inactive when everyone is healthy, but Ferguson has shown some promise as a receiver when given the opportunity. Tyler Higbee missed Week 5, leading to Ferguson catching a 21-yard pass. Most recently, Parkinson missed last week due to a concussion. Ferguson played a season-high 17 offensive snaps. Parkinson was a full participant in practice all week, and the Rams decided to use all four wide receivers rather than making someone inactive.

The Rams used Parkinson as the primary 11 personnel tight end on early downs and Ferguson as the primary 11 personnel 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 out of 13 personnel. Ferguson lined up as a wide receiver on several of his snaps out of 13 personnel. He made his second big play of the season with a 31-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. All four tight ends received at least some playing time in 11 personnel. 

This rotation makes it impossible to trust any of the tight ends for fantasy purposes. The most likely scenario where a tight end from this offense becomes an option would be Ferguson earning the majority of 11 personnel snaps on early downs to go along with his third-down usage. It’s also possible the Rams make a tight end inactive once they become healthier at other positions.

Bhayshul Tuten starts getting more involved: Travis Etienne Jr. hasn’t been as effective in recent weeks compared to early in the season.

Etienne had an excellent Week 1 with 143 yards on 16 carries, leading to Tank Bigsby being traded. Tuten has been the primary backup on early downs, while LeQuint Allen Jr. has been the third-down back. That rotation has been relatively stable in recent weeks, but Etienne’s production has declined. 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 only running for 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. This left them abandoning the run game relatively early. Tuten started rotating in on the third drive, playing significantly on the third and fourth drives prior to the two-minute drill drive. Etienne wasn’t effective the few times he ran the ball, while Tuten averaged more yards per carry for most of the game. The Jaguars were down 28 points in the last five minutes but made a few unexpected runs. This led to more than half of Etienne’s rushing production..

Tuten has been the more effective runner the past two weeks, but Etienne has the better numbers on the season. The one area where Tuten has an edge is avoided tackles per attempt. However, if Tuten keeps outplaying Etienne like he has the past two weeks, we could start to see more out of Tuten going forward. This is one of the few backfields where we could see the backup become the starter without any injuries or trades.

Monitor Brian Thomas Jr.’s health: Thomas was rotated out more than usual and left the game early due to a shoulder injury.

The Jaguars have generally used Brian Thomas Jr. in all situations in addition to using Travis Hunter in 11 personnel, leaving Dyami Brown and Parker Washington rotating for 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 was notably rotating in more often than usual for Thomas throughout the game, suggesting Thomas wasn’t 100% healthy before the end of the game. The game paused in the last five minutes while Thomas was slow to get off the field, and he didn’t return. Even if Thomas was close to 100%, it made sense for the Jaguars to not risk things with the game out of hand. When Thomas left for the last few minutes, Brown consistently took his place rather than Patrick’s.

The Jaguars have their bye week next week. Ideally, that will be enough time for Thomas to recover. If everyone is healthy in the next two weeks, we should find out in Week 9 if Washington’s ascension is a long-term temporary change.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Los Angeles’ running back Blake Corum didn’t practice on Wednesday, was limited in practice on Thursday and upgraded to full on Friday. He’s dealing with an ankle injury and wasn’t given a game status.
• Corum played a lot this week, but that isn’t indicative of future playing time. The Rams had a very long first drive, leading Corum to take a few snaps in the middle of that drive, as well as the second drive, which also ran long. Williams took the rest of the first half snaps, but then the Rams had a three-score lead in the second half.
• The Rams elevated running back Ronnie Rivers from the practice squad for this game on Saturday while making Jarquez Hunter a healthy inactive. Hunter was also inactive in Week 1. His special teams snaps have declined in recent weeks.
• Travis Hunter didn’t play his first defensive snap until the third quarter. He had started on defense the last two weeks, playing at least 20 snaps in each of the last two games. This was the first game that he didn’t play on defense in the first half. This week was Hunter’s best game on offense, but most of his production occurred after the game was out of reach.
• Jacksonville’s tight end Quintin Morris didn’t practice all week due to a groin injury. He was ruled out on Friday. This left the Jaguars with only two tight ends.
• Hunter Long remained the primary tight end for Jacksonville in all situations with Brenton Strange on injured reserve.

New Orleans Saints @ Chicago Bears

Coming soon!

Miami Dolphins @ Cleveland Browns

Coming soon!

Las Vegas Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs

Coming soon!

Philadelphia Eagles @ Minnesota Vikings

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Carolina Panthers @ New York Jets

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New England Patriots @ Tennessee Titans

Coming soon!

New York Giants @ Denver Broncos

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Indianapolis Colts @ Los Angeles Chargers

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Green Bay Packers @ Arizona Cardinals

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Washington Commanders @ Dallas Cowboys

Coming soon!

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. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.

This news was originally published on this post .

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