Los Angeles Rams Start-Sit: Week 12 Fantasy Advice for Matthew Stafford, Blake Corum, Davante Adams, Puka Nacua, and Others
The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight into key Los Angeles Rams players heading into their matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to help you craft a winning lineup.
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Matthew Stafford, QB
Asking the Bucs to go from chasing Josh Allen all over the place to defending the precision-based Matthew Stafford is an interesting dynamic, but not all that new.
In Week 4, Tampa Bay faced Hurts, and they got Sam Darnold the next week: Darnold went 28-of-34 for 341 yards and four scores.
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I’m not projecting that stat line for Stafford this week. But with 12 red zone TD passes over his past four games and 59.3% of his targets being funneled to Puka Nacua or Davante Adams, the floor is plenty high enough to justify starting this statue in all formats.
Stafford has multiple touchdown tosses in eight of his last nine games, and I think he makes it nine of 10, potentially in the first half against a defense that is much stronger against the run than the pass.
Blake Corum, RB
Blake Corum’s work is trending up, but this feels like more of a subtraction from Kyren Williams’ note than it does an actionable one around Corum himself.
The backup RB played 32% of the snaps last week, his third-highest of the season, and a second straight week of growth. In deeper leagues, I’m intrigued by his 17 red zone snaps over the past month, but asking him to get a cheap touchdown in an offense that has Williams and Adams, not to mention Nacua and the TE of the week, who always seems to get dangerous looks, is a lot.
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There are only a handful of handcuff running backs, and Corum is on that list, but he’s not in the standalone bucket, and I don’t expect him to be.
Kyren Williams, RB
With a rushing score in three straight games, Williams is rounding into the best version of himself at the optimal time.
His 34-yard gain last week against the Seahawks was his longest rush of the season, and if we get a hint of explosive potential, we are talking about a safe top-10 back the rest of the way.
Even if that doesn’t stick, Williams has 38 red zone touches this season (six games with at least four touches inside the opposition’s 20). His pre- and post-contact numbers are better this season than last, so while the Corum fans will mention his recent usage, I wouldn’t sweat it in a major way.
The Bucs are the NFL’s best rush rate in terms of success rate against the running back position, and that’s why Williams is on the outside looking in at my top 10 for this singular week. However, you’re still playing him and understanding that better days are ahead as the season nears its conclusion.
Davante Adams, WR
Adams caught one of eight targets last week against the Seahawks, and while he hasn’t been the most efficient receiver this season (50% catch rate), that’s a bit extreme.
But because he’s Adams, the one reception was a one-yard touchdown (his 1,000th career catch). At worst, he’s a TD vulture that is on the field plenty, and at best, he’s the most feared red zone threat in the league.
It sounds like the veteran is physically OK, so I’m starting him with confidence against a much more favorable opponent.
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All 10 of his touchdowns this season have come on end zone targets, and they have an average depth of 8.4 yards, a number that is heavily influenced by the 44-yarder in Week 3’s loss to the Eagles.
This is a unique player filling a unique role, and we have no choice but to embrace it at this point.
Puka Nacua, WR
Nacua is so inevitable that a 7-75-0 game on eight targets against one of the best defenses in the NFL feels like a letdown.
Los Angeles’ star has caught 83.9% of his targets this season and has had at least seven looks in seven of nine games (14+ expected points in all seven of those contests). In a huge game, the Rams elected to hand the ball to Nacua multiple times for the first time this year, further proof that they want him dictating their outcome every single week.
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Is it ideal that he has just two end zone targets this season? It’s not, but Nacua’s profile and skill set are immune to a usage wart like that, something that could sink other top 15 receivers.
You’re getting a solid return on your investment this year, and he’ll be a first-round pick this summer as we look ahead to 2026.
