Team-by-Team: Everything To Know Heading Into Week 7 (Episode 1037 with Evan Silva and Adam Levitan)

Adam Levitan (0:15)

Hello, and welcome to episode 1037 of the official establishtherun.com podcast. My name is Adam Levitan. As always, joined by fellow co-founder Evan Silva in week six is behind us, Adam Levitan.

And we're gonna talk about the podcast And week six is behind us. One third of the NFL regular season is in the books. Evan, how's it going?

Evan Silva (0:37)

It's going well.

It was a low-scoring fantasy week, but I think that there were a ton of fantasy-impactful situations that occurred. And of course, we will hit on all of that. We got another week with four teams on by upcoming. Week seven will start off with a bang. Thursday night, Patriots at Bears.

Adam Levitan (0:58)

Indeed. Are you going to the game?

Evan Silva (1:01)

No, no, I don't go to NFL games. I'm like you. I guess you do go to NFL games now, though.

Adam Levitan (1:06)

Yes, you can check out the solo pod for a trip report from Seahawks, Broncos last Thursday. Anyways, on today's show, we are going to go team by team through all 32 NFL franchises, discussing the most important things we saw in each and what it means going forward. Usage, injuries, performance, everything.

Quick note before we get into it, the NBA season starts tonight. We cover the NBA with the same intensity we cover the NFL. It is led by Drew Dinkmeyer and Mike Gallagher. If you are interested in hoops, we have projections for every player in every game, everything you need to play, DFS, Sims and Optimizer on Solver, Gallagher's Matchups, similar to Silva's Matchups for NFL, shows and tons more. So head to establishtherun.com and the NBA tab for details. That is the NBA product at establishtherun.com.

All right, going to start with the five biggest stories of the week, and then we will go team by team in alphabetical order after that.

Story number one, Evan, you have to go to the Los Angeles Rams. Rams somehow lose on Sunday as a 13.5 point home favorite to the Arizona Cardinals. The Rams are now two and four on the season. Making matters worse, Devante Adams ruptured his hamstring late in this game. He is out six to 10 weeks. This is getting bad for the Rams. Evan thoughts on their loss and fallout from the Devante Adams injury.

Evan Silva (2:46)

Well the absence of Aleric Jackson who was out for this game due to a suspension was definitely felt against Arizona. So was the presence of Buddha Baker who was a hair on fire kind of player, Troy Pulamalu kind of impact in this game. I started to think that he might be, you know, we got guys that we followed our entire careers, Derrick Henry, Mike Evans. These guys are going to be first bow Hall of Famers. I don't know that Buddha Baker is going to be a first bow Hall of Famer. I definitely think he's going to be in Hall of Fame contention.

But yeah, the Cardinals played a hell of a game, and the Rams are really starting to get hit with attrition. As you mentioned, Devontae Adams on the defensive side of the ball. They've been without Miles Garrett. They lost Kobe Turner, a stud defensive tackle to injured reserve in this game. Puna Ford, when they're run stopping defensive tackles to torn triceps.

Also Trent McDuffie was inactive. They have a game against the Vegas Raiders coming up. I think that that game could end up being very explosive from an offensive standpoint. But yeah, the injuries are really starting to catch up. One note from JJ Zacharysian. Here's a great stat. With Devontae Adams off the field this season on plays where Devontae Adams is not on the field, the Rams have used 13 personnel, three tight end jumbo sets on 86% of the snaps. So expect a ton of 12, 13 personnel looks, especially when Terrence Ferguson comes back in week eight. But I think starting in week seven even, the Rams are going to go really, really heavy on multiple tight end sets the rest of the way.

Adam Levitan (4:20)

So this is a nuclear situation for Pukka Nikua. I know he had a quiet game against the Cardinals until late when he started to get going a little bit. But no Devontae Adams and you're competing with a lot of tight ends for targets. Not that Pukka Nikua needs more reasons to go nuclear. But obviously this is an incredible setup for him now.

I agree the biggest winner from the Devontae Adams injury will be Terrence Ferguson. Remember in that one game when Pukka was out, it was a Monday night game against the Giants. Terrence Ferguson got nine targets for a 29% share that night, caught six balls, 54 yards and a touchdown. As Evan mentioned, Terrence Ferguson is expected back in week eight. And then I also thought Tyler Higbee continues to play well. In this game, Tyler Higbee ran 30 routes on 36 drop backs. I mean, I'd have more faith in Tyler Higbee producing than Kanata Mumfield, Jordan Whittington, Tutu Atwell types. Those guys will get to play, but it's going to be rotation. It's really hard to project them for a lot of targets. I know I've seen people out there, Evan, be like, this is it for the Rams. They should go to Ty Simpson. You can't do that, man. They're all in on this season. They're only two and four. They're far from dead. They're not going to be packing it in. And along those lines, maybe you have to trade for a wide receiver.