Gross Bombs: NFL Props for Week 16
Josh Gross
The interminable Cam Akers saga has apparently ended in Los Angeles, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting late Wednesday that the Rams had agreed to trade their fourth-year back to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a 2026 pick swap.
The 24-year-old Akers had 29 yards and a touchdown in Week 1 before being a healthy scratch in Week 2, as the Rams committed to Kyren Williams as the team’s RB1. It was the second straight year Akers and Rams head coach Sean McVay apparently didn’t see eye to eye, with Akers being scratched a few times in 2022 as well.
Cam Akers Traded to Vikings, Fantasy Reaction
Akers tore his Achilles in the offseason before the 2021 season, returning for the last game of the season and the Rams’ Super Bowl run. He wasn’t very explosive in his quick return to action, and that carried over to 2022, where he averaged only 3.3 yards per carry over his first 11 games. Something clicked over the season’s final month, though, with Akers running for 410 yards on 75 carries (5.5 YPC) and 3 touchdowns. In Weeks 16-18, Akers was the PPR RB3, behind only Austin Ekeler.
Even at his peak, Akers has never been much of a receiver. He has 27 receptions on 35 targets in 30 career games. In Minnesota, he’s likely to serve as the primary backup to Alexander Mattison who took over as the starter this season after Dalvin Cook’s release and has been similarly underwhelming to start the season, fantasy’s RB32 through two weeks, with 62 yards on 19 carries (3.3 YPC). The depth chart behind Mattison is thin, with only Ty Chandler and fullback C.J. Ham, plus former Dolphin Myles Gaskin on the practice squad.
For fantasy, this move isn’t exactly going to move the needle. Mattison now has a potential threat to his workload, albeit one that doesn’t offer much in the way of excitement. Still, he’s a low-end starting running back without an obvious committee situation, which gives him fantasy value, at least as a flex option. Akers, meanwhile, slots in as his No. 2, but considering he doesn’t offer much as a receiver and has struggled with explosiveness since his Achilles tear, he has very little standalone value and wouldn’t be that exciting even if Mattison were to go down. This move might give the Vikings some reinforcements, but it’s fairly blah for fantasy football.
