Are we avoiding Keenan Allen in fantasy drafts in 2020?

Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Kennan Allen took to Twitter to argue he was the best wideout in the division over the weekend. Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don debate his fantasy value on the latest Yahoo Fantasy Football podcast.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: I've got to tell you, Dalton, I have started to kind of come around on the LA Chargers in general. I feel like the market has overcorrected on some of these guys because of the Tyrod Taylor effect. And I've kind of found-- I found myself sort of warming back up to Keenan Allen now.

DALTON DEL DON: OK, so a couple things. You can talk real life, Mr. Perception, because I am more down on him in fantasy but not in the sense that I think he's a bad real life player. And I think you're going to come at me with some really good stats because he is good in real life. But, no, I am on the down crowd here. I looked at our rankings.

I had them wide receiver 27, which is definitely lowest among us Yahooers. But surprisingly, [INAUDIBLE] it's about similar. So my thinking is, Rivers threw a ton of picks last year. I get it. But he was, whatever, top 10 in the nerd stats as far as percentage-wise, his accuracy. There's Mike Williams there, a healthy Hunter Henry, the best receiving back in the NFL.

That's just a lot of mouths to feed with possibly Tyrod Taylor or a rookie quarterback I'm very down on. I can't see them spending the number six pick and not starting Herbert half the season. And first, Keenan Allen-- let's not forget the first four years of his career was very injury prone. Now, three straight 16-plus gains, maybe that's nothing. But something to put in the back of your mind.

Last three years, you can't ask for more than 159, 136, and 149 targets-- never scored more than six touchdowns. And that was with Philip Rivers throwing to him. So I just don't even see the upside there. And I know with aging and with all those mouths to feed and a different quarterback, yeah, I will have zero, zero Keenan Allen on my fantasy team this here.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, I definitely get it. It's a lot to parse out there in terms of the targets. I think Mike Williams-- we could talk about him a little bit later. But I don't think Mike Williams is ever going to be one of those like, high target guys. I think he's just somebody that-- man, but there was nobody last year that was thrown into more contested situations by Philip Rivers' lollipop arm.

And Mike Williams to his credit-- a really, really good 50 ball receiver-- 50-50 ball receiver. But I don't know if that is always going to be-- you know, that that's a guy you want to throw 120 passes to just because those passes are so low percentage. So I think Allen can still command 120-plus looks. And like, Tyrod Taylor is not a bad quarterback. He had a awful-- a couple awful games with the Browns last year. They pulled the cord really quickly because Mayfield was the number one overall pick.

I think Herbert because of the COVID-adjusted off-season is going to be even more behind the eight ball than I expected. And, you know, like I said, Tyrod, he was the Bills starter. They were never high-volume passing offense. But they were pretty careful. He kept drives moving because he can run a little bit.

I do think that somebody's going to be a big loser here in this Chargers passing offense. But I could definitely see it being Hunter Henry. I could definitely see it being Mike Williams, like guys they just almost do next to nothing, whereas, like Austin Ekeler and I think Keenan Allen probably still get theirs in the passing game.

DALTON DEL DON: And also, Hunter Henry. What if he stays healthy? But the thing that's-- it's interesting you say that about Mike Williams and how tough, you know, the level of difficulty his targets arc because he's still very impressive yards per route run. He could be a monster with the right quarterback.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he had more fantasy value than Allen. Allen is definitely a safe pick, especially in PPR that maybe you're right about the [INAUDIBLE]. I mean, why take him away from him? He is their most established and best receiver. So, yeah, Probably the crazy guy will draft the Michael Gallup with upside or someone around there.

MATT HARMON: I definitely agree with you. Keenan Allen not a lot of upside. But one more point I'll make on this. And, you know, his reception perception stud route running is incredible. But like a lot of the routes he runs-- slant, curl, dig, those intermediate in-breaking routes-- I remember the biggest criticism with Tyrod Taylor when he was the Bills' starting quarterback was that he just, you know, could never-- he never really mastered the middle of the field that so much was he went outside the numbers or whatever.

And obviously that could be a problematic fit there for that reason. So just something to keep in mind on. I think that Allen is a little bit of a value in fantasy. But and then in real life, I mean, it's tough. It's tough to parse between these guys because they all do things so differently.

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