Keenan Allen's Fantasy Trade Value, Updated Outlook Heading into Week 7

The time may have arrived for fantasy football owners to strongly consider cutting ties with Keenan Allen.

The San Diego Chargers wide receiver entered this year as one of the top 15 and maybe even top 10 at his position, having impressed in his rookie season (71 receptions, 1,046 yards, 8 TDs). On ESPN.com, he had an average draft position of 51.4, which ranked him as the 18th-highest WR selected.

With a full year in the NFL under his belt and a resurgent Philip Rivers throwing him passes, everything looked to be in place for Allen to become a bona fide star.

However, the end product has been quite the opposite. Through six games, Allen has 28 receptions for 296 yards. Those numbers are somewhat deceiving, since he had 10 receptions and 135 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 4.

Sigmund Bloom of FootballGuys.com labeled Allen as one of the biggest WR busts this year:

NFL.com's Marcas Grant thinks that owners might be smart to cast aside Allen for teammate Malcom Floyd:

"

Time for another mea culpa: I was wrong about Keenan Allen. After last season, it seemed only natural to believe that Allen would take another step forward in his second season.

But we never took into account that Allen might have had the element of surprise working in his favor last year. We also didn't factor in how much Philip Rivers trusts Malcom Floyd.

Here's the crazy part -- Allen leads San Diego in targets and receptions, but he's fourth on the team in receiving yards and hasn't scored a touchdown since Week 16 of last season. Allen might be getting the ball, but he's not making plays. Floyd is. He's your man.

"

According to NFL.com, the 22-year-old has been the 60th-best fantasy wideout, yet he is still owned in 93.5 percent of leagues on the site. It appears that many owners are still holding onto the hope that he fulfills his preseason potential.

Possibly concerning for those expecting Allen to turn things around is that the rapport between Floyd and Rivers grows with every week.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

"I think Philip has a lot of confidence that when there are certain opportunities to put the ball downfield that (Floyd's) going to go up and high-point it," said Chargers head coach Mike McCoy, per Ricky Henne of Chargers.com. "With a big target like that and the history they have together, (there's) a lot of confidence there in certain situations to be able to give him an opportunity."

The more Rivers trusts Floyd, the more he'll continue targeting him, which will mean less attention paid to Allen. All you have to do is look at Allen and Floyd's numbers to see which player is making the most of his chances this season.

	Rec.	Targets	Yards	Avg.	Y/G	TDs
Keenan Allen	28	41	296	10.6	49.3	0
Malcom Floyd	17	25	362	21.3	60.3	3

The trouble with Allen is that he's only in his second year, so it's harder to know when or if he'll get out of this funk. Some might scoff at the notion to completely drop him altogether, but this isn't A.J. Green or Calvin Johnson we're talking about—two of the game's best receivers who have both performed below expectations.

You're going to stick with guys like Green and Johnson no matter what because they have a proven track record in the league. Allen had one really good season, and that's it. It's quite possible that he's not going to turn things around and simply stink for the rest of the season.

Those who continue to cling to the hope that Allen is just one good game away from a breakthrough possess a faith bordering on irrational confidence the longer the season goes on. It is too early to drop him from your team, but he's one or two bad games away from that territory.

Until then, you certainly shouldn't start Allen unless he begins to show some signs of consistency. You might get burned by him having a great game one of these weeks, but the chances of that happening continue to dwindle.

Here's his fantasy output week by week on NFL.com:

Week	Yards	TDs	Points
1	37	-	3.70
2	55	-	5.50
3	17	-	1.70
4	135	-	13.50
5	25	-	2.50
6	27	-	2.70

In terms of trade value, you'd be lucky to get much in return if you dealt him now. The market for Allen will be pretty thin, so you might as well keep him and pray that he turns things around.

Conversely, if you're looking for a nice buy-low candidate, Allen could be your guy. A desperate and frustrated owner could be tempted with a solid WR2 or flex player.

Last year illustrates how high Allen's ceiling can be. Depending on what you give up, he could be a nice risk-reward pursuit.