5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 17

Los Angeles Chargers' Passing Offense

With Melvin Gordon looking unlikely to play in Week 17 due to an ankle injury, people are going to flock to Branden Oliver. And why wouldn't they? He could be the lone ranger on a decent team that needs to win to make the playoffs. He's a tremendous play for this week, assuming Gordon sits.

But if people are rostering Oliver, they're not likely to load up on his high-priced teammates in the passing game. That gives us an incentive to do exactly that.

This is nearly the ideal situation for the Los Angeles Chargers' passing offense. Not only are the Oakland Raiders out of it with nothing to play for, but they're also 30th against the pass, according to our metrics. They were able to hold the Philadelphia Eagles largely in check in Week 16, but that team was missing its quarterback and left tackle. While the Chargers are far from full health, they're sitting much prettier than that.

It's not even just the Eagles that have slanted the way we view the Raiders, either. Their run of facing teams in wretched conditions stretches all the way back to the last time these two teams faced in Week 6.

Since then, the Raiders have played nine games. One was against Paxton Lynch, who got hurt and gave way to an impressive outing by Trevor Siemian. Then it was Geno Smith in Week 13. Dak Prescott lost his left tackle, Tyron Smith, midway through their bout in Week 15. They wrapped up the stretch in that strugglefest with the Eagles on Christmas Day.

Within the other games since the first meeting, the Raiders have allowed 342 yards and 3 touchdowns to Alex Smith, 339 yards and 3 touchdowns to Tom Brady, and -- impressively -- 311 yards and 3 touchdowns to Jay Cutler. It's possible the Raiders have improved, but good teams have still managed to shred them when given the chance. The Chargers absolutely fit in this classification.

That sets things up well for Philip Rivers and company for Week 17. Rivers certainly didn't light it up in their first meeting, but he's still fifth in the league in Passing NEP per drop back among quarterbacks with at least 100 drop backs. Dude has balled out this year, and he's the reason they're still pushing for a playoff spot. He can absolutely take advantage of this matchup.

Rivers is $8,300 on FanDuel, making him the fifth-most expensive quarterback on the slate. He's not cheap. But we won't be scrambling for value this week, meaning he needs to be on our radar.

As far as stacking with Rivers, you can make things a bit easier on yourself. It does make sense to pair him with Oliver in some lineups.

The last time that Oliver was in the limelight for the Chargers was 2014 after Donald Brown got hurt. From Week 4 through Week 11, Oliver averaged four targets per game. Austin Ekeler could be limited to special teams again, so he's not likely to suck away usage (though he did practice in full on Wednesday). Using Oliver and Rivers would also likely get you exposure to each touchdown the Chargers would score, so don't hesitate to pair him with his signal caller, again assuming that Gordon and Ekeler remain limited.

The more contrarian option, though, would be to go with one of the true pass catchers. That discussion will always start with Keenan Allen.

Allen has cooled considerably from his scorched-Earth campaign of a few weeks ago, combining for just 117 yards the past two weeks. The Raiders held him to 3 catches for 41 yards in Week 7. But he's still a can't-miss option.

Even when you include the two recent down games, Allen has had simply filthy usage the past six weeks. Here's a breakdown of the team's target distribution profile in this span with a "deep" target being classified as any throw that goes at least 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Allen gets a ton of targets, and most of them carry a good bit of juice. The dude is a saint from a usage perspective. The game logs aren't as flowery as they used to be, and people will be flooding their lineups with exposure to Oliver. Both of those forces should combine to put at least somewhat of a lid on Allen's ownership, making him superbly attractive at $8,600.

That said, the season-ending injury to Hunter Henry did open up some targets in Week 16 for both Tyrell Williams and Antonio Gates. You could do a lot worse than them if you're looking to spend down.

Gates and Williams each topped a 75% snap rate in Week 16, which is exactly what we need. And their usage was pretty spicy.

Ol' man Gates can still boogie. He had two deep targets in Week 15, too, so this wasn't a fluke.

The problem with Gates is that his price jumped to $5,700, and he will carry ownership in Week 17. He makes sense from a process perspective, meaning it's fine to plug him in here. However, Williams may be the better play for tournaments due to the volatility that Gates carries by being a tight end. Regardless, these guys are both in play if you decide not to rock with Oliver or Allen.