Melvin Gordon is staying in the AFC West. He says he’s signing a contract with Kansas City – his fourth city in that division.
Kansas City is looking for depth at running back after placing Clyde Edwards-Helaire on injured reserve. They’ve been using rookie Isiah Pacheco as their primary runner, with Jerick McKinnon handling most of the running back work in passing situations.
Per Gordon, he’s signing with the practice squad, with the hope of working his way onto the 53-man roster. Whether he can actually get on the field remains to be seen. Gordon was not particularly impressive in his 10 games with the Broncos, averaging 3.5 yards per carry. He fumbled 5 times there, and while they lost only two of those fumbles, both were crucial – one at the goal line in their opener at Seattle, and one that was returned for a touchdown by the Raiders.
Andy Reid has signed other veteran running backs who’ve failed to get much traction, including LeVeon Bell and LeSean McCoy. The current roster includes Ronald Jones, who’s been inactive most weeks.
Gordon was originally a first-round pick by the San Diego Chargers in 2015, traveling with that team to Los Angeles in 2017. He went over 1,376 run-rec yards, with 12-plus touchdowns, in three straight seasons there. He signed with the Broncos and in both of his seasons there put up over 1,100 combined yards, with 10 TDs.
Gordon is 29. He averaged 4.5 yards per carry as recently as last year, when he was sharing time with Javonte Williams.
I don’t mind Gordon to be particularly interesting for fantasy purposes. In a typical league, I think he’s probably just short of getting on a roster. But I do notice that Kansas City has a bunch of softer run defenses coming up on the schedule. They’ve got Cincinnati this week; nothing easy about that matchup. But their remaining games are all against teams that have had some problems stopping the run, especially recently.
Houston ranks last in run defense. Seattle just allowed Josh Jacobs to run for 229 yards, and was similarly overrun by the Bucs in its previous game. The Raiders have broken down at times. And there are two games against the Broncos, who let Carolina run all over them yesterday.
The chart below shows average rushing production since Week 7 (so six games for many teams, but 5 for others). Teams that Kansas City will play are tagged with black dots.
| RUSHING PRODUCTION (Weeks 7-12) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | G | Att | Yards | Avg | TD | Pts/G |
| Tennessee | 6 | 21.0 | 69.0 | 3.3 | .33 | 8.9 |
| Baltimore | 5 | 18.2 | 55.8 | 3.1 | .60 | 9.2 |
| Pittsburgh | 4 | 21.5 | 78.3 | 3.6 | .25 | 9.3 |
| Washington | 6 | 21.3 | 85.2 | 4.0 | .50 | 11.5 |
| New England | 5 | 26.4 | 97.6 | 3.7 | .40 | 12.2 |
| San Francisco | 5 | 20.8 | 69.8 | 3.4 | 1.00 | 13.0 |
| LA Rams | 5 | 24.6 | 89.0 | 3.6 | .80 | 13.7 |
| Indianapolis | 5 | 29.6 | 104.4 | 3.5 | .60 | 14.0 |
| Kansas City | 5 | 24.8 | 115.8 | 4.7 | .60 | 15.2 |
| NY Jets | 5 | 27.8 | 118.4 | 4.3 | .60 | 15.4 |
| Minnesota | 5 | 26.4 | 117.2 | 4.4 | .80 | 16.5 |
| Miami | 5 | 24.0 | 115.4 | 4.8 | 1.00 | 17.5 |
| ••Denver | 5 | 29.8 | 140.6 | 4.7 | .60 | 17.7 |
| Philadelphia | 5 | 30.4 | 133.8 | 4.4 | .80 | 18.2 |
| •Cincinnati | 5 | 27.2 | 101.6 | 3.7 | 1.40 | 18.6 |
| Arizona | 6 | 24.3 | 117.7 | 4.8 | 1.17 | 18.8 |
| Tampa Bay | 5 | 26.4 | 140.0 | 5.3 | .80 | 18.8 |
| Buffalo | 5 | 28.8 | 141.0 | 4.9 | .80 | 18.9 |
| Cleveland | 5 | 28.0 | 131.6 | 4.7 | 1.00 | 19.2 |
| Dallas | 5 | 29.0 | 145.4 | 5.0 | .80 | 19.3 |
| Jacksonville | 5 | 29.6 | 145.4 | 4.9 | .80 | 19.3 |
| New Orleans | 6 | 30.7 | 137.3 | 4.5 | 1.00 | 19.7 |
| Carolina | 6 | 27.7 | 138.0 | 5.0 | 1.00 | 19.8 |
| •Seattle | 5 | 29.6 | 139.4 | 4.7 | 1.00 | 19.9 |
| •Las Vegas | 6 | 28.8 | 129.7 | 4.5 | 1.33 | 21.0 |
| Detroit | 6 | 28.8 | 143.8 | 5.0 | 1.33 | 22.4 |
| Chicago | 6 | 27.8 | 124.8 | 4.5 | 1.67 | 22.5 |
| Green Bay | 6 | 34.7 | 174.3 | 5.0 | 1.00 | 23.4 |
| NY Giants | 5 | 28.2 | 131.8 | 4.7 | 1.80 | 24.0 |
| Atlanta | 6 | 34.3 | 151.0 | 4.4 | 1.67 | 25.1 |
| LA Chargers | 5 | 34.2 | 183.0 | 5.4 | 1.40 | 26.7 |
| •Houston | 6 | 36.0 | 171.8 | 4.8 | 1.67 | 27.2 |
—Ian Allan