Keenan Allen is the latest in a long line of tricenarian (30-something) WRs to join the Super Bowl-contending 49ers. What does it mean for fantasy?
First, this would be devastatingly comical if the Niners weren't so good. Imagine a team whose primary skill players (Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Mike Evans, and Deebo Samuel) are all 30+. Then imagine injuries force the team to get even more 30+ year-olds (Demarcus Robinson, KhaDarel Hodge, and Brandin Cooks). Then those players get hurt...
I discussed this during the preseason, and then again right after Week 2, describing the historical absurdity of 30-somethings catching 93% of the team's passes. So adding 34-year-old Allen is what we might see in a Hollywood script: predictable, yet hard
to ignore.
Allen is still a really good football player. He's reeled in 40 of 58 throws this year with zero drops. Last year, he exceeded all fantasy expectations on the Chargers. Even at his advanced age, Allen fits right in on a team with plenty of talented, older skill players.
In the short term, Allen should be viewed as a top 35-45 fantasy WR with a little more pop than he had in the Colts' stodgy offense. If/when the Niners get healthy, Allen will struggle to carve out a consistent role. But for now, it's a great landing spot for managers who were expecting almost nothing from a guy who was barely draftable this summer.
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This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: The 49ers: Where old WRs help fantasy managers before getting hurt
