The Rams have made a swap at their starting tight end spot over the last few weeks with Davis Allen ($2,500) taking over for Colby Parkinson ($3,600). Allen is still almost universally available in season-long fantasy football leagues and has the minimum salary in DFS contests this week. He brings a lot of upside in his new role, making him a great stash if you need tight end depth in season-long formats and a great DFS play this week.
The overview
Allen was a fifth-round pick out of Clemson last season and had ten catches for 95 yards and a touchdown as a rookie while playing behind Tyler Higbee. Higbee missed two gamesm and Allen stepped up with four catches in each game. He had 50 yards and a touchdown vs. the Ravens on Dec. 10, and four catches for 25 yards in the Week 18 season finale.
Higbee tore his ACL and MCL in last year’s wildcard round loss to the Lions, and the team brought in Parkinson to help fill the gap while he was sidelined. Parkinson has been a disappointment, though, and only played 11 snaps on Monday.
Earlier this year, Allen was sidelined by back spasms, so he couldn’t help step up while wide receivers Puka Nacua ($7,300) and Cooper Kupp ($7,500) were sidelined. He’s worked his way back from that injury, though, and played 80% of snaps last week vs. the Dolphins. He caught five of his six targtes for 34 yards and 8.5 fantasy points.
Since the salaries for this week’s DFS contests are released before Monday Night Football, he’s still the minimum salary of just $2,500 in contests like the NFL $2.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st]. Even if you go another way in your TE spot, using him at the FLEX spot is basically a cheat code this week that gives you more to spend at other positions.
It was clear on Monday that Matthew Stafford ($5,800) was working to get Allen involved as another option in the passing game as a complement to their two star receivers.
Davis Allen’s outlook
The Rams are in New England this week to face the Patriots and then face the Eagles, Saints and Bills over the next three weeks. Down the road, Higbee could return and take over as starter, but he is still multiple weeks away, according to Sean McVay and will presumably need time to ramp up.
From now until Higbee returns, Allen should be a serviceable tight end just outside the top 10 options but valuable for depth and DFS with the potential to work his way into a better ranking.
The Rams are 4.5-point road favorites for their Week 11 matchup with the Patriots and Allen is +340 to score a touchdown. The Patriots gave up at least six catches and a tight end touchdown in each of their previous two games before shutting down Cole Kmet last week.
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