2024 NBA Draft Liveblog
FTN
Finally, you can turn your sports knowledge into real cash by investing in an athlete’s entire career. Prices rise and fall with every hit, huddle, and headline — and you can buy and sell instantly or hold for as long as you want. Three times a week, FTN will feature a player and his Mojo value — is it time to buy, sell, hold or short? Click here to get in on the Mojo action.
No one ever roots for injury. But when the unfortunate does happen, opportunities arise. Case in point: The Atlanta Falcons placed RB Cordarrelle Patterson on injured reserve after the team’s Week 4 game with a knee injury. Patterson will miss at least the next four games, and with backup Damien Williams already on IR (he can’t return until Week 6 at the earliest), that opens up one of those aforementioned opportunities.
The biggest beneficiary of that opportunity? It should be rookie fifth-rounder Tyler Allgeier. With Patterson hampered Sunday, Allgeier put up 84 yards on 10 carries, including a very pretty 42-yarder around the edge. Can he build on that while the veterans are sidelined? And does that mean he’s a strong investment in Mojo?
Tyler Allgeier History
Tyler Allgeier improved every year of his college career at BYU. After 1,304 scrimmage yards and 13 touchdowns in 2020, he put up 1,800 and 23 in a dominant 2021. He didn’t do much as a receiver (46 receptions, 1 touchdown in 39 career college games), but he has the size (5-foot-11, 220 pounds) and production (6.4 yards per carry across 452 college carries) to be an early-down workhorse.
Allgeier fell to the fifth round of this year’s draft amid some concerns about fumble issues and worries that his speed wouldn’t translate to the NFL level, and he was the 12th running back off the board. Working in his favor, though, was a relatively shallow depth chart in Atlanta, with only Patterson (31, only one season of over 70 carries) and Williams (30, only one season of over 50) ahead of him. After some preseason buzz, though, Allgeier was a healthy scratch in Week 1. That made his Mojo price, which had hovered within a few cents above and below $3.60 all summer, plummet down to $2.95.
It rose back to a just about $3 in Week 2 after the Williams injury, but with only 16 carries for 55 yards in those two games, the interest wasn’t very high. But after an impressive Week 4, and with Patterson now sidelined, it’s back all the way up to $3.40. What is $3.40? Well, it’s 20-ish cents below what it was a month ago, when Allgeier was the No. 3 in a bad offense.
Going Forward
Caleb Huntley also looked good with Patterson injured in Week 4 (10 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown), but Allgeier is expected to be the starter while Patterson is out. Unfortunately, he finds himself in a miserable point in the schedule, facing the Buccaneers (third-fewest PPR points allowed to opposing running backs) and 49ers (fourth) the next two weeks. If Allgeier can get through that stretch without the underwhelming Huntley and/or Williams usurping him, the Falcons get the Bengals-Panthers-Chargers-Panthers-Bears in Weeks 7-11, a stretch that could offer him big fantasy numbers.
What does that mean for Mojo? Allgeier’s price spiked last week, but there’s room for it to grow further, to where it was before the season or even higher. It might fall over the next week or two in tough matchups, but after that there’s a real chance it takes a leap. If you invest now, you’d want to hold through the next two weeks to reap the eventual benefits. If you want to hold off and try to buy at a low point, take a long, hard look at Allgeier in the post-Week 6 range.
Summary
If we look back at Tyler Allgeier in, say, Week 8 or 9, there’s a very real chance we see him 30, 40, 50 cents more expensive than he is right now. The “problem” is that it might dip a bit over the next week or two before it starts to rise. Feel free to invest now, and then just don’t look at the stock price for the next couple weeks, because this is a long-term investment.
