Wyatt: Spears ‘has a chance’ for bigger role

As usual, Washington was far more efficient than lead back Ashton Jeanty, who had 15 yards on eight carries while catching eight passes for 61 yards and a touchdown. Washington can be stashed for now in case Jeanty misses time in the second half of the season. Washington likely won’t get the pass-catching work if Jeanty misses time, however.

It was Davis Allen who caught two of Matthew Stafford’s three touchdown tosses as the Rams leaned into heavy three tight end-set usage with Davante Adams sidelined indefinitely with a hamstring injury. Though Higbee led Rams tight ends in pass routes, his lack of red zone involvement left him out in the statistical cold. Trying to figure out which LA tight end is going to go off in a given week is going to be a continual headache for fantasy gamers in the coming weeks.

Fantasy managers won’t balk at what was an overall solid performance, but they probably would have liked to see Gibbs rush in a touchdown; the Packers were more than willing to give him late in the fourth quarter. Gibbs fell short of the end zone twice on the Lions’ final drive to ensure Jake Bates’ game-winning field goal attempt would be the final play in regulation, which worked to the Lions’ advantage in the 20-17 win. Gibbs ripped off multiple chunk gains in this one, with 13 of his 29 carries going for five or more yards. He did lose a fumble deep inside Packers territory near the end of the second quarter, which likely cost his team at least three points, but as usual, Gibbs was a big reason why the Lions constantly found themselves in position to win. It’s worth noting that on his final play of the game, Gibbs appeared to suffer a knee injury when his left leg bent awkwardly as he attempted to stop and fall to the turf to keep the clock running, but he was able to jog off under his own power. We would ultimately expect him to be fine, but his practice status will be one to monitor this week as the Lions prepare to take on the Vikings. Assuming he is good to go, Gibbs will be an obvious RB1 candidate next week.

It was a fairly clean game for Stafford against a Raiders defense that rarely pressures the passer and has proven vulnerable in the intermediate and deep areas of the field. Stafford picked apart the Vegas secondary in the first half, with heavy three tight end-set usage and a more run-heavy game plan than usual with Davante Adams (hamstring) sidelined. The Rams had 35 rushing attempts to 29 passes on the day. Stafford connected with Puka Nacua for one score and Davis Allen for two others. Though Stafford’s ceiling is going to be lower with Adams out, he profiles as a safe option in Week 8 against the Chargers. He now has six multi-touchdown games this season.

Among the least efficient rushers in the game, Jeanty again struggled to get anything going on the ground behind a middling Vegas offensive line. He did almost all of his damage through the air, turning eight targets into 61 yards and a late score in garbage time. He ran a route on 20 of the team’s 35 drop backs against the Rams and ranked second among Raiders pass catchers in targets. Mike Washington had six carries on the day. Jeanty, with at least six targets in six of his seven games this season, can maintain RB2 status as long as he’s catching passes out of the backfield. He gets the Jets in Week 8.

It was a quiet day for Tucker until the Raiders once again found themselves down by three scores in the fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins — as he did last week against Buffalo — let it rip and peppered Tucker with late downfield targets, one of them resulting in an impressive 37-yard touchdown. Tucker led all Vegas pass catchers with a dozen targets and dominated air yards as usual. Last week against the Bills, Tucker went for 97 yards and two scores on five receptions. The miserable Raiders defense should lead to plenty of runaway negative game script for the team’s offense in the coming weeks, and Tucker’s role as the team’s lone deep ball option gives him weekly upside. He’ll be a WR3 option in Week 8 against the Jets.