Fantasy Football: Melvin Gordon Will Bounce Back in 2016

Melvin Gordon was one of the biggest busts in fantasy football last season. However, I believe that he has the ability to bounce back in 2016.

The San Diego Chargers selected running back Melvin Gordon with the 15th pick in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Many fantasy football owners expected the 23-year-old to post strong numbers out of the gate, but that simply wasn’t the case. The young runner struggled to find his legs for a majority of his rookie season, finishing 29th in the league in rushing yards on the year.

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He finished his introductory campaign with 184 carries for 641 yards and zero touchdowns. He averaged a paltry 3.5 yards per carry, while averaging a mere 45.8 yards per game for the season. Perhaps what put the icing on the cake, though, is the fact that Gordon failed to secure a single 100-yard game last year – his best outing came in the second week of the season, when he carried the ball 16 times for 88 yards with an average of 5.5 yards per attempt.

Perhaps the best word to describe his rookie season is discouraging. That being said, Gordon did show flashes of potential, particularly as a pass-catcher out of the backfield. In 14 games, he recorded 33 receptions for 192 yards, compiling 5.8 yards per catch. In addition to catching a high volume of passes, he also boasted an impressive catch percentage, hauling in 89.2 percent of the balls thrown his way (he caught 33 of his 37 targets).

While his receiving totals were certainly solid, his overall production as a pass-catcher may be limited by the presence of Danny Woodhead, a veteran running back that registered 80 catches for 755 yards and six receiving touchdowns in 2015.

However, with Gordon handling a majority of the first and second down action, he should still get plenty of opportunities to succeed in the passing game, especially when you consider the fact that the Chargers tied for second in the league in passing attempts with 667 tries last year.

The sophomore player will get his fair share of targets on passing plays, and, as the team’s starting halfback, will undoubtedly receive a bulk of the carries in the rushing game. Thus far into the 2016 NFL preseason, it appears as if he is ready to take the next step in his career in terms of production.

We’ve only been provided with a small sample size of Melvin Gordon in the preseason, but, from what I can tell, he’s done a great job of improving his game over the offseason. In minimal action in three exhibition contests, the Wisconsin product has carried the ball 13 times for 81 yards a touchdown. His lone rushing score came on the heels of a 39-yard run, one in which the defense failed to lay as much as a finger on him.

It appears as if things have finally slowed down for Gordon, and not only in the rushing aspect of the game. In the first game of the preseason, he caught a pass and took it 44 yards to pay dirt. And while it’s only the preseason and the games don’t count, the amount of growth that he has shown is promising.

In just three preseason contests, he has managed to score more touchdowns than he did all of last year. His rookie season was extremely disappointing, but I am convinced that, with a full year of play and a second offseason under his belt, he possesses the ability to bounce back from his weak rookie debut.

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I firmly believe that he will improve upon his campaign from a year ago, and, in doing so, will provide fantasy football owners with a capable starter at running back.