Per 506 Sports, here’s the late FOX early map for Week 1:
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- Los Angeles Rams at Carolina Panthers (green)
- Atlanta Falcons at Minnesota Vikings (blue)
- Washington Season Openers at Philadelphia Eagles (red)
Non-pictured market coverage: Anchorage, AK - Rams at Panthers; Fairbanks, AK - Rams at Panthers; Honolulu, HI - Rams at Panthers
So the Rams are carrying a ton of markets this week.
The home market coverage spreads into all of NFC West territory taking up all of Washington, Oregon, California and nearly all of Arizona . Throw in all of Nevada, Idaho and Utah and most of Colorado and Wyoming. That’s a TON of Rams coverage west of the Rockies.
The Panthers’ home markets mean nearly all of North and South Carolina are in as well as the Knoxville, Tennessee, market.
The Rams’ former home market in St. Louis as well as the Kansas City market means most of Missouri with slivers in Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois carry the Rams this weekend.
Confusingly, Baton Rouge and Alexandria, Louisiana, have the game. I suppose that’s for the NFC South tie-in with the Panthers...but the New Orleans Saints home market has NFC South rival Atlanta on. Louisiana...confusing! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers markets throughout Florida have the NFC South tie-in as well.
The Rams also carry Hawaii and Alaska.
Only three games available in the slot, so we’ll have to see how the map looks in Weeks 7 and 8 to get a better sense of how the Rams are carrying as a draw specifically, but at least for the season opener it’s a pretty big patch of the US getting the game.