Fantasy options to trust: Commanders vs. Chargers
Yahoo Sports’ Fantasy Football Live crew looks ahead to Sunday’s matchup between Washington and Los Angeles and which players could help fantasy managers the most.
Video Transcript
The Chargers are here minus 3, with the over under 47 on this one.
Jayden is back at quarterback, so it's a fantasy feast.
Chris, what do you have your eyes on for this one?
So for this one, I'm looking at Justin Herbert, and I'm just gonna put my, my tinfoil hat on real quick and say, is this going to be the game where we see the Chargers pass less?
Over the past couple of weeks, Justin Herbert has been under pressure on over 45% of his dropbacks.
Quarterback hits, fellas, 14 in week 3, 12 hits just this past week in week 4, there's no way that they're going to continue to have him operate behind that, behind that offensive line that's now going to be without Joe Alt here in week 5.
So my question is, is it going to be more of Amarian Hampton against this Commanders defensive front?
I mean, yes, I was just talking earlier about the optimism for somebody like Lad McConkie or a Keenan Allen, but do they try and switch things up, ask for more 12 personnel, more max protect to keep Justin Herbert upright, because this is the face of the franchise, fellas.
So I do have some general concerns about this passing game, and this would benefit a guy like Amarian Hampton if they try and feature the running game versus the passing game moving forward.
You have concerns, but my friend, that's why I see it as a beautiful, wonderful thing for anybody that actually has the Commanders' defense play.
Look, I know we don't talk about our defense.
It doesn't do much good, but in this game particularly, there's gonna be opportunity.
I'm not sure because Hampton has said every week, and I think you're right that this has become such the identity of this team has become so much about passing, but the way that they're shuffling the offensive line is just a disrupter, right?
So now what you've got is a head coach and Dan Quinn, and I think he's gonna be able to put a lot on front of front at the Chargers.
I think this is an opportunity for the Commanders' defense to feast again against an offensive line that's just a shell of itself.
And frankly, as much as we talk about everything else in football, that's, I think the biggest concern that the Chargers are gonna have to figure out moving forward.
Without their offensive line playing well, they can't protect the quarterback.
They can, uh, on a certain level, I should say, actually protect their offense.
I wonder what it's gonna look like.
I think this is a real opportunity for the Commanders to feast.
Look at me turning it into a positive horn.
I'm trying to be optimistic.
What do you got for me?
Yeah, I'll talk about the team on the other side here, the Washington Commanders offense.
All eyes will be on Jaden Daniels' return, but I want to talk about the backfield here for Washington, which is no question split three ways.
In weeks 3 and 4, the workload is Chris Rodriguez leads the way with 39% of the snaps.
Uh, everybody's favorite running back, Bill Crosby Merritt, 36.2%, and passing down specialist Jeremy McNichols, 29.5%.
So the reality is, as long as it stays like that in terms of the opportunities to get on the field, you really just can't play any of these guys outside of a desperation flex, like a touchdown or bust type of option.
However, a little silver lining here: the fact that Washington ranks third in overall rushing success rate on their running back runs so far this season, that shows us that if and when chaos hits, and remember, chaos and change are the only true constants of this league, that this backfield, if it ever gets whittled down to two members, by injury or something else, whatever it is, someone could be a really big hit here, because guys, this is the staple of Cliff Kingsbury's offense.
You can say what you want about some of the passing game designs, and people have criticized the horizontal raid over the years.
Every time this guy calls an offense, it's an efficient play.
It's an efficient run game, and so far this year we've seen that.
So if Bill Crosby Merritt ever just suddenly ascends here, there's a lot of opportunity for someone to be really good in this backfield.