NFL Week 16 Fantasy Football Recap: Los Angeles Chargers vs. Indianapolis Colts

• The Los Angeles Chargers win utilizing their best players: Keenan Allen and Mike Williams led the team in yards while Austin Ekeler scored both touchdowns in a Los Angeles victory.
• Zack Moss becomes the Indianapolis Colts’ preferred running back: Moss started in the first game since Jonathan Taylor’s season-ending injury. 
• Colts still don’t have an answer at quarterback: Nick Foles made his first start for Indianapolis, but he threw three interceptions and only reached 100 yards in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.

Los Angeles Chargers @ Indianapolis Colts

• Austin Ekeler: 18 carries, 67 yards, 2 touchdowns, 4 receptions, 12 receiving yards
• Keenan Allen: 11 receptions, 104 yards

Zack Moss leads the Colts backfield: Moss played the majority of snaps and touches out of the Colts running backs in their first full back without Jonathan Taylor.

• Moss and Deon Jackson rotated every few snaps immediately after Taylor’s injury last week, but Moss started to take over their backfield in the second half.
• This led Moss to start the game and take each of the first seven snaps.
• Jordan Wilkins was signed to the active roster on Tuesday. He’s traditionally been a third-down back but served as the general backup for this game.
• This pushed Deon Jackson down to third on the depth chart. Jackson’s first catch went for a nine-yard loss, and he didn’t touch the ball again until the last five minutes of the game.
• It’s safe to assume Moss will be the Colts' primary running back next week.
• Indianapolis plays the New York Giants next week. Each of the last seven teams to face New York registered at least 80 rushing yards by their running backs.
• This will make Moss a borderline fantasy starter and a big waiver wire option for a second-straight week.

Monitor Ashton Dulin’s health: Dulin took a hit from Derwin James in the second quarter, which led to James’ ejection. Dulin was placed in the concussion protocol and was quickly ruled out.

• Dulin has served as the Colts' fourth wide receiver over their last six games, playing between 20-35% of the team's offensive snaps each week.
• His snaps typically came at both Parris Campbell and Alec Pierce‘s expense.
• Michael Strachan was active — he’s played 124 offensive snaps this season — but he didn’t play any offensive snaps in this game.
• Dulin’s injury led to a slight increase in snaps by both Campbell and Pierce.
• This didn’t necessarily lead to more fantasy production by either receiver due to the ineffective play of the Colts' passing game in general.
• Even if Dulin misses next week’s game, Campbell nor Pierce is probably worth consideration, but they will have a slightly higher upside.

Colts tight end room without Kylen Granson: Granson was inactive due to an ankle injury, leading to the Colts' other tight ends seeing more playing time.

• Granson also missed Week 12 — the game Jelani Woods caught eight passes for 98 yards.
• The Colts were more balanced between Woods and Mo Alie-Cox this time around.
• Woods played slightly more on early downs, but Alie-Cox was consistently in for third downs.
• Woods took over in the fourth quarter playing in all 13 snaps. Alie-Cox played only one snap in the fourth quarter in a two-tight end set.
• He ended up leading the team in receiving yards by catching three passes for 43 yards.
• Nick Foles has a history of throwing to tight ends, so as long as he’s the quarterback, the tight ends have a slightly higher upside than usual.
• This won’t be enough to trust any tight end from the Colts in fantasy championships, but they could be high-upside cheap DFS plays.

Chargers switch to a four-man tight end rotation: Los Angeles used all four of its active tight ends at various points in the game.

• Gerald Everett already started running fewer routes due to Donald Parham‘s return, but Parham became even more involved.
• Everett had run 33 or more routes in over half of his games, but he wasn’t close to that number in this game.
• He has primarily played in 11 personnel in the past, but both Parham and Tre’ McKitty took significant snaps from that personnel group.
• All four tight ends played at least one snap from 11 personnel on third downs in this game.
• McKitty and Parham both caught a pass, but Everett was held without a target.
• Everett was already a borderline fantasy starter at this point, but he might be more of a sit than a start in Week 17.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.