Melvin Gordon Fantasy Outlook Climbs Following Phillip Lindsay Injury Update

When Melvin Gordon signed with the Denver Broncos this offseason, the only thing holding back his fantasy football value seemed to be the presence of Phillip Lindsay.

Now Lindsay is dealing with a turf toe injury, leaving Gordon as the clear workhorse in the Denver backfield. That give his fantasy football outlook a huge boost.

Melvin Gordon Fantasy Outlook

Even "mild" turf toe is bad new for a running back, and it's hard to imagine Lindsay not missing one game at the very least.

In Monday's four drives before Lindsay was sidelined, he racked up 7 carries and saw 1 target. Those 8 opportunities were actually more than Gordon had (6 carries and 1 target) to that point.

Following Lindsay's departure, Gordon saw another 9 carries and 1 target, compared to just 1 carry and 1 target for Royce Freeman, who was on the field for only 6 snaps. Expect Gordon to be a true bell-cow with Freeman as his only competition.

Unfortunately for fantasy managers, the excitement of this workhorse role is diminished some by a tough matchup with an elite Pittsburgh Steelers defense, which just held Saquon Barkley to 6 rushing yards on 15 carries.

Still, the potential for huge volume is enough to make Gordon the RB18 in our Week 2 fantasy football rankings.

GET AN INSTANT DEPOSIT BONUS UP TO 500! We'll match 20% of your first deposit on FanDuel Fantasy Sports. Max bonus $500

Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.