The Los Angeles Chargers (yes, they moved to LA on Thursday) made another pretty big splash, hiring former Buffalo Bills interim head coach Anthony Lynn to be the team's full-time head coach.
Lynn, a former running back for the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers, opened the 2016 season as the Bills' running back coach. He would then be promoted early in the year to offensive coordinator when Greg Roman was fired. Then, with one game left, Lynn took over the head coaching job in Western New York when Rex Ryan was fired.
Prior to this past season, Lynn worked as a running back coach for multiple teams, including the Jets, Browns, Cowboys and Jaguars. Needless to say, that's where his expertise is.
Let's take a look at this hiring from a fantasy perspective and what it means for the Los Angeles Chargers (still weird) moving forward.
The first thing we must note here is just how much the addition of Lynn means for Melvin Gordon, who was special as a sophomore for the Chargers this past regular season. Despite missing the final three games to injury, Gordon finished with over 1,400 total yards and 12 touchdowns. This enabled him to finish as a top-10 fantasy running back.
With Lynn now in the mix, Gordon's ADP and value is set to explode. With that will come continued excellence from a fantasy perspective.
Lynn oversaw a Bills' rushing attack that finished No. 1 in the NFL during the regular season. All said, Buffalo put up 2,630 rushing yards and 29 scores on the ground while averaging an absurd 5.3 yards per carry. This came on the heels of Buffalo finishing first in that category in 2015 as well.
When all was said and done, Buffalo went away from the trend of today's pass-first NFL in 2016. It actually put up a 50-50 run/pass mix ... an absurd stat in a league that's trending way from the run in a big way.
If we're going to sit here and call that a fluke, it would be a major mistake. Just look at how his former teams fared rushing the ball with him as their position coach in the past.
Rushing Offense | Year | Team | Rank |
| 2003 | Jaguars | 8th |
| 2004 | Jaguars | 16th |
| 2005 | Cowboys | 13th |
| 2006 | Cowboys | 13th |
| 2007 | Browns | 10th |
| 2008 | Browns | 26th |
| 2009 | Jets | 1st |
| 2010 | Jets | 4th |
| 2011 | Jets | 22nd |
| 2012 | Jets | 12th |
| 2013 | Jets | 6th |
| 2014 | Jets | 3rd |
This surely tells us a story of a head coach that knows how to dominate on the ground. Based on what we saw from Gordon last season, there's no reason to believe he won't take the next step to elite fantasy status. As of right now, we wouldn't be afraid to mention Gordon as a top-five fantasy running back heading into the offseason. Lynn's hiring only magnified that further.