The San Diego Chargers' offense was one I was heavily targeting in my fantasy football drafts heading into the 2016 season. Unfortunately, the prospects for that offense are looking a lot more bleak than it did a few days ago.
With an unfortunate twist of fate, the Chargers' lost their number-one receiver Keenan Allen in the middle of Week 1 to a torn ACL, leaving him sidelined for the rest of the season. The ripple effects of the loss of Allen cannot be understated.
Looking at the game splits -- using Rotoviz's Game Splits app -- of some of the key Chargers' personnel from the 2015 season before and after Allen's lacerated kidney injury tells a frightening story about Allen's importance to the fantasy output of his teammates in PPR scoring.
| Teammate | With Allen | Without Allen |
|---|---|---|
| Phillip Rivers | 26.74 | 18.44 |
| Melvin Gordon | 8.19 | 8.47 |
| Danny Woodhead | 16 | 14.51 |
| Antonio Gates | 19.43 | 11.34 |
| Steve Johnson | 10.72 | 16.13 |
| Malcom Floyd | 9.99 | 3.46 |
As is to be expected, Philip Rivers took a major hit without Allen, as he lost 25.5% of his total target share in one fell swoop. One would think that the running back production would increase with Allen out of the lineup, but Melvin Gordon only managed to pick up an additional 0.26 PPR points per game sans Allen, and Danny Woodhead's production actually dipped by 1.49 PPR points per game.
Antonio Gates fared the worst in 2015 without Allen in the lineup, though his sample size of games with Allen was smaller due to his four-game suspension to start the season. And Malcom Floyd was essentially a ghost without Allen around.
Stevie Johnson was the only player with significantly increased production without Allen's presence, and that's because he was able to fill some of the holes in the short and intermediate pass game that Rivers so desperately needed given the team's offensive line woes. But with Johnson on injured reserve, it remains to be seen whether Travis Benjamin, typically deployed as a deep threat during his tenure with the Cleveland Browns can effectively soak up some of those shorter targets, or whether that role will need to be filled by another receiver farther down the depth chart such as Dontrelle Inman or Tyrell Williams.
In any case, if past is prose, most of the Chargers' players sitting on your fantasy football rosters may be about to take a serious hit in production with Allen gone for the season.