The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Los Angeles Chargers players heading into their matchup with the Denver Broncos to help you craft a winning lineup.
Justin Herbert, QB
Justin Herbert’s fantasy points per pass are down from where they finished last season, but the fact that 20.1% of his production has come on the ground (career: 13.4%) is what has me prepared to rank him with optimism for 2026.
We know he has the confidence of his head coach, and that’s huge. The rushing took a step that I didn’t expect this season (nine games with a 15+ yard dash), and if he can give us 500 yards on the ground in addition to 4,000 through the air in an efficient manner, there’s a real path to him being a top-5 performer in our game.
They need to sort some things out to optimize him (only eight games with multiple passing scores this season), but if Omarion Hampton can build on the promise we saw this season, why can’t Herbert put all the best of him into a single season?
Take the 38 passing scores for 2021 and add them to the rushing we saw this season: why can’t he be a better version of what Patrick Mahomes was this season?
Omarion Hampton, RB
The 2025 rookie class of running backs is going to be special, and the Year 2 production could be the first real step from them being labeled as good to great.
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Omarion Hampton has had a weird first season with the Najee Harris presence and his injury, but he played 83.1% of the snaps against Houston on Saturday and handled 14 of 15 running back carries for the day.
CJ Stroud hit on a pair of bombs early, and to a lesser talent, that’d result in limited production, but the versatile Hampton hauled in all eight of his targets and gave us plenty. He’s cleared eight fantasy points as a receiver in five of his past seven games, and with over 280 touches in each of his final two collegiate seasons, I have no problem projecting him for 300+ touches in 2026.
I’m not saying he’s Jahmy Gibbs, but we saw similar potential in Detroit’s star, and he blessed us with a 300+ touch, 1900+ yard second season. He also scored 20 times, and that feels optimistic, but you get the idea: Hampton has the potential to produce as a top-10 running back as soon as 2026, and I don’t think he’ll be drafted as such.
Quentin Johnston, WR
Quentin Johnston had 90 yards on a 38.5% target share against the Texans on Saturday in the first half and eight yards in the second half.
If that’s not the QJ profile, I don’t know what is. The Kyle Pitts of the receiver position routinely does enough to keep us interested, but not enough to get us confident. He’s produced +10% over expectations in consecutive seasons, and his PPR points per target have increased each season, so am I complaining just to complain?
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For his career, he has 41 games with 20+ routes run, and he’s been nearly three times as likely to score under five fantasy points (14 occurrences) as to reach 29 (five). This year alone, he has followed a 23.8 point effort with 6.9, an 11.0 one with a goose egg, a 9.2 with another goose egg, and an 11.3 with a 2.8.
I’m conservative in how I build rosters, and that’s how I like to play. I value consistency and choose my spots to take chances on a week-to-week basis. So Johnston isn’t for me.
If you are more of a YOLO manager who is willing to take the good with the bad when it comes to players like this, Johnston is your speed. The overarching profile looks OK, and the Chargers have a top-10 QB calling the shots.
It wouldn’t shock me if we see Johnston’s first 1,000-yard season in 2026, and it could come with double-digit touchdowns. That could be the case, and he could still cost you three weeks at an inopportune time with air balls.
Oronde Gadsden, TE
Oronde Gadsden scored his third touchdown of the season and has looked like a difference-maker at times, but get this … a 22-year-old project looked raw and inconsistent.
Crazy, I know.
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In general, I like this profile. He averaged 13.6 yards per catch this season (13.9 during his four seasons at Syracuse), showed target-earning potential, and has a franchise QB to develop with. This is a player whose stock I’d buy for the next five years, but I would have said the same thing for Isaiah Likely (another toolsy prospect with a QB capable of putting points on the board).
These situations don’t always work out, but they carry more upside than all but a handful of players at the position, and that demands he be drafted as a TE1 in 2026 and see how things play out.
