The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 9 matchup between the Jets and Chargers on Monday Night Football.
Find a breakdown of every Week 9 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.
| LA Chargers | Rank | @ | NY Jets | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -3.0 | Spread | 3.0 | ||
| 22.25 | Implied Total | 19.25 | ||
| 24.9 | 9 | Points/Gm | 18.0 | 26 |
| 24.0 | 24 | Points All./Gm | 18.4 | 8 |
| 65.0 | 11 | Plays/Gm | 57.1 | 30 |
| 66.1 | 26 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 68.9 | 30 |
| 5.6 | 8 | Off. Yards/Play | 4.8 | 25 |
| 5.9 | 30 | Def. Yards/Play | 4.8 | 4 |
| 41.10% | 20 | Rush% | 39.25% | 25 |
| 58.90% | 13 | Pass% | 60.75% | 8 |
| 37.37% | 6 | Opp. Rush % | 49.17% | 31 |
| 62.63% | 27 | Opp. Pass % | 50.83% | 2 |
- The Jets have scored before their opponent just once this season, the fewest times for any team in the league.
- The Jets have converted a league-low 23.0% of their third downs. The league average is 39.4%.
- The Jets have converted just 18.8% (3-of-16) of their third and short plays (needing three or fewer yards). The next closest team has converted 46.4%. The league average is 59.4%.
- 58.3% of the New York set of downs result in a new set of downs or a touchdown, the lowest rate in the league. The league average is 70.0%.
- The Chargers have scored a touchdown on 37.8% of their drives in the first half, second to only Miami (45.2%).
- The Chargers have scored a touchdown on 66.7% of the red zone possessions, fourth in the league.
- The Jets have scored a touchdown on 26.3% of their red zone possessions, the lowest rate in the league.
- The Jets have led for 11.5% of their offensive snaps, the lowest rate for any team with a winning record and the lowest rate in the league.
- The Chargers have led for 38.0% of their snaps, 10th in the league and the highest rate of any team with a losing record.
Trust = spike production for that player
Quarterback
Justin Herbert: Herbert cashed in on a great spot last week, ending as the QB7 (24.0 points).
He completed 31-of-40 (77.5%) for 298 yards with three touchdowns against the Bears.
He got there the old-school Herbert way.
Herbert had the fewest air yards per attempt (4.5 yards) and the most yards after the catch (205) in Week 8.
The Jets provide a test here.
Jalen Hurts is the only quarterback to finish inside of the top 10 against them, and Hurts needed 10.7 rushing points to get there.
All of Josh Allen (QB23), Dak Prescott (QB17), and Patrick Mahomes (QB19) have scored well below their seasonal averages against the Jets. Even Hurts scored fewer points than what he was averaging entering the game with the Jets.
The Jets are allowing 6.0 yards per pass attempt (third) and 10.2 passing points per game (second).
Herbert has faced two other strong defenses this season in the Cowboys and Chiefs. In those weeks, he had one good fantasy outing against Dallas (QB5) and one lackluster outing against the Chiefs (QB21).
Outside of the Kansas City game, Herbert has been a top-10 quarterback in his six other games.
It is hard to get away from Herbert as a starter and streaming for him, but this is not a spot where I would anticipate a spike week.
Zach Wilson: Closing out as QB25 (12.1 points) last week against the Giants, Wilson has yet to register a QB1 scoring week this season.
Wilson has built up some goodwill with the Jets winning three games in a row, but he still has completed just 57.6% and 47.2% of his passes the past two games.
Wilson has one or fewer passing touchdowns in six of his seven games.
We know what we have in Wilson as a back-end QB2.
If you want to let the matchup steer the cart (which did not work for Tyson Bagent), the Chargers are still 30th in passing points allowed per game (17.9) even tacking in Bagent’s production.
Running Back
Austin Ekeler: Ekeler struggled to find room to run again on Sunday, rushing 15 times for 29 yards.
Going back to last season, Ekeler has now rushed for fewer than 50 yards in 15 games.
This season, he is ahead of only Josh Jacobs in rate of runs to gain 10 or more yards (3.4%) among backs to have 50 or more carries.
Despite the lack of rushing production, Ekeler finally smashes in the receiving game, catching 7-of-8 targets for 94 yards and a touchdown.
We will need that receiving work here.
The Jets are allowing running backs to rush for 3.9 YPC (13th) and have allowed just one rushing touchdown to a running back.
But the Jets have allowed running backs to get there through the air.
They are allowing 12.7 receiving points per game (29th) to backfields.
Running backs have 30.6% of the receptions against the Jets, the highest rate in the league.
Ekeler gets more juice as an RB1 in full-PPR formats this week.
Breece Hall: Hall rushed 12 times for just 17 yards on Sunday but turned his day around with six catches for 76 yards, which included a 50-yard catch and run.
Hall has been an all-or-nothing rusher.
26.9% of his carries have failed to gain yardage, ahead of only Jerome Ford (28.7%) and Cam Akers (28.8%).
He is 33rd in success rate (29.5%) as a rusher.
But Hall has 270 yards on explosive runs, which is fourth in the NFL. Those runs have accounted for 60.9% of his yards. Only Jerome Ford (61.9%) has a higher dependency on long runs.
The good news is that Hall is capable of those explosive plays to save bad games on any given touch.
We have also seen that Hall has completely taken over this backfield. Over the past three games, Hall has 71.4%, 77.3%, and 81.8% of backfield touches.
Hall is a boom-or-bust RB1.
The Chargers have been stronger against the run this season than previous iterations under Brandon Staley.
They are allowing 3.66 YPC to running backs (10th) and 10.9 rushing points per game (14th) to backs.
They are another team that has been vulnerable through the air to backs, allowing 12.9 receiving points (30th) to backs.
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Wide Receiver
Keenan Allen: Catching 8-of-10 targets for 69 yards on Sunday night, Allen has now been a WR2 or better in just one of his past four games.
The floor has remained high. Allen has 27.1% of the targets since the Chargers lost Mike Williams.
With Williams on the field, Allen was averaging 3.21 yards per route run.
That total was not sustainable, but his yards per route run have dropped to 1.84 with Williams off the field, which is lower than Josh Palmer (1.99).
Allen runs into a tough spot here.
Wide receivers have accounted for 36.6% of the fantasy points allowed by the Jets, the lowest rate in the league.
They have allowed one touchdown to a wide receiver all season.
The positives here are that the Jets do not move their corners around and they are better on the outside.
Allen is playing 62.3% of his snaps in the slot, where can avoid Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed.
Earlier in the season, the Cowboys deployed CeeDee Lamb away from Gardner all game, with him catching six passes for 67 yards in the slot and four catches for 61 yards wide left.
That is what we are looking for here from Allen as a floor-based WR2.
