Fantasy Football Week 3: Melvin Gordon or Charles Sims?

Injuries have piled up heading into fantasy football Week 3, so who is the real top running back? Which new stud gets the start, Melvin Gordon or Charles Sims?

Injuries are piling up in fantasy football, despite us being just two weeks into the new season. Before a bye week has even hit, a number of premium starting players have been lost for the year. That influx of change to lineups means value is shifting tremendously week to week. Players who would ordinarily be on the sidelines or in timeshares are now featured players. This is especially true at the running back position.

Subsequently, fantasy owners are left running trying to find quality replacement options. There are several out there, but determining who the best of those options is could cost you an early-season advantage in your league.

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, discuss Fantasy Football Week 3 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

The dynamic seems to have gotten a bit out of control for Week 3. Fantasy rankings are overly inflating one player with a semi-new role while tremendously undervaluing another. Sports Illustrated ranks Melvin Gordon as its second-highest running back this week. Even expert consensus rankings have him no lower than fifth at his position. Meanwhile, Charles Sims checks in way down at 18th on the big board (or 23rd on the consensus rankings).

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Now, Gordon’s role isn’t actually altering in terms of him being San Diego’s No. 1 back. However, with the season-ending injury to Danny Woodhead, suddenly there is no competition for Gordon. Woodhead had been getting carries as well as tons of snaps on passing downs. He was far superior to Gordon in regards to the latter. Everyone now expects Gordon to get those extra snaps. The problem is he isn’t very valuable running the route tree.

Gordon looks like an all-around better player this season thanks to his own improvements as well as better health along the team’s offensive line. However, catching passes and being an asset out of the backfield has never been his forte, even in college. So it is hard to imagine that adding these chances to his game will increase his production all that much. Instead, it’s more likely San Diego attempts to find an alternative, such as using the newly signed Dexter McCluster in part of that role.

Sims, on the other hand, is finding his chances altered in nearly the opposite direction. He has always been a great option in the passing game for Tampa Bay and good change-up in the running game. With Doug Martin likely sidelined at least one week and probably longer with his hamstring injury, starting duties fall to Sims. He is perfectly capable of remaining on the field every single offensive snap if the team so desires. There will be no situation in which he needs to be spelled.

The Buccaneers play the highly thought of defense of the Los Angeles Rams. But thus far, LA has been hardly better than average against the run, according to Football Outsiders DVOA. The 49ers ran for 150 yards in Week 1, and Christine Michael had a splendid game in his chances in Week 2. It’s super early, but there will be holes to exploit for Sims.

I liked Gordon entering this year, as we discussed during the preseason. But this is about opportunity in relation to skill set. I like Sims’ situation better, at least for Week 3. He is the better all-around contributor, especially in PPR leagues.

Dan Salem:

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While I agree that Charles Sims is being undervalued, I can’t agree with your sentiments about Melvin Gordon in Week 3. He is not being overvalued. Have you looked at who the Chargers are playing against? How about their offensive tendencies thus far this season?

San Diego faces an Indianapolis Colts team that has surrendered over 30 points in every game this year, good for second worst in the entire NFL. The Chargers themselves destroyed Jacksonville last weekend and nearly beat Kansas City, if not for a late game meltdown. They are averaging 32.5 points a game, good for second in the league. Guess who’s scoring a lot of points this week: the Charges, that’s who. They also love to run the football, ranking third in the NFL with an average of 152.5 yards per game over the first two weeks.

All of this is great news for Melvin Gordon and his fantasy owners. While he may not get the looks in the passing game, he is certain to dominate in the run game as the bonafide number one option in San Diego. You can bet Philip Rivers will be relying on him heavily versus the Colts.

I can’t say the same for Sims and the Buccaneers. He may be in luck, because his opponent has been much better at stopping the pass than the run thus far this season. Tampa itself looked like a very different team against a stout Arizona defense, after dominating against the Falcons. As for their Week 3 opponent, its a toss up right now if the Los Angeles Rams actually have a good defense, or if the Seattle Seahawks are just really bad on offense.

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The Rams looked awful versus the 49ers on the road, yet extremely stingy versus Seattle at home. With Tampa Bay getting LA at home, I lean towards the Bucs owning their defense. I don’t believe Seattle is particularly good, but Tampa is much better than their road loss to the Cardinals would indicate. Sims will get his chances versus a much weaker team.

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