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RB Jonathan Taylor, IND (2 Viewers)

just glad taylor has come around. top 5 RB when 6 weeks ago he wasn't even in top 3 of his rookie class

 
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Well crap I'll eat my crow here. I did get the 1.03 back in return and some QB depth that I needed inseason. I'd rather have Taylor, though. But, I need another stud WR more than I need another stud RB and I'll likely come out ahead from a roster POV, even though I'm acknowledging I sold early. If I wasn't already stacked at RB I wouldn't have even considered it. 

I'm also publicly changing my call from the "Would you rather" post that @socrates had on Robinson vs Taylor. I *do* think Robinson is special and that it is close to a coinflip, but no I would go Taylor here. Even though I said otherwise before. Also said that I like a Trevor Lawrence JAX offense better than a post-Rivers IND offense, and I probably stand by that but I can't deny Taylor looks awesome. If there was a corner turned, he turned it.

 
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Well crap I'll eat my crow here. I did get the 1.03 back in return and some QB depth that I needed inseason. I'd rather have Taylor, though. But, I need another stud WR more than I need another stud RB and I'll likely come out ahead from a roster POV, even though I'm acknowledging I sold early. If I wasn't already stacked at RB I wouldn't have even considered it. 

I'm also publicly changing my call from the "Would you rather" post that @socrates had on Robinson vs Taylor. I *do* think Robinson is special and that it is close to a coinflip, but no I would go Taylor here. Even though I said otherwise before. Also said that I like a Trevor Lawrence JAX offense better than a post-Rivers IND offense, and I probably stand by that but I can't deny Taylor looks awesome. If there was a corner turned, he turned it.
We have certainly all eaten crow many times lol.  I actually included that specific comparison (Robinson vs. Taylor) in part because back in November, I traded away Robinson to acquire Taylor in my dynasty league.  I had about an equal number of those supporting the move as opposing it.  In fairness, for those who play in redraft leagues, player values are different; trends are more significant.  I would suppose some of those who were offering their opinions at the time were being influenced by redraft valuation.  Even now, while I would undoubtedly favor Taylor, the gap is not really so wide.  Robinson has significant value of his own.  As you say, a Trevor Lawrence-led offense has some nice potential, and it is uncertain who will be leading the Indy offense.

Part of the goal with the "Would you Rather" polls is to look back next season, and even beyond, and re-evaluate.  The point of the exercise isn't to point out anyone's failed predictions or take a victory lap for any correct predictions, but I am always looking for trends we can learn from.  Sometimes, the things which we feel quite certain about one season (or even one week), become much less certain in short order, and, as a dynasty manager, I am always seeking to gain any advantage.

 
Fantasy Football Week 17 Recap: Derrick Henry tops 2,000 rushing yards and Jonathan Taylor cements himself as a 2021 first-rounder

Excerpt:

Jonathan Taylor ARE U KIDDING ME!? The rookie running back rushed for over 250 yards on 30 carries in the team’s must-win game. He played an 81% snap share, which was by far his highest on the season. 

The Colts unleashed their most talented player when they needed him the most, and that usage should continue into the playoffs in a plus-matchup versus the Bills. 

As for 2021 fantasy drafts, it will be hard to not view Taylor as a locked-and-loaded top-five pick. 

 
Jonathan Taylor was "limited" in Tuesday's practice with a shoulder issue.

It's a new issue for Taylor, but there is no indication it is a serious one. Taylor does have one less day to prepare for the Wild Card Round with the Colts playing Saturday at 1:05 PM ET. He will be facing a Bills defense that coughed 4.6 yards per run during the regular season, surrendering the 12th most running back fantasy points. 

Jan 5, 2021, 4:18 PM ET

 
Jonathan Taylor had 21 rushes for 78 yards and a touchdown in the Colts' Wild Card Weekend loss to the Bills, adding two catches for six yards. 

Taylor uncharacteristically dropped two passes against Buffalo, but once again dominated the backfield workload. The rookie emerged as the unquestioned workhorse back after the team's bye week, finishing his season with 1,169 yards and 11 touchdowns. He capped his hot end-of-season run by decimating the Jaguars in Week 17 with 253 rushing yards and two scores on the ground. Taylor should be the centerpiece of the Colts' offense in 2021 and will likely be drafted in the late first and early second round of fantasy drafts. 

Jan 9, 2021, 6:16 PM ET

 
I would think so since the coaches were giving him the ball and more offensive snaps towards the end of the season, which is something I think they should have been doing from jump street.

Here is a split to consider. Prior to the game Taylor missed due to Covid he averaged 45% of the offensive snaps. After that missed game Taylor played on 62% of the snaps.

Ergo if Taylor plays 62% of the snaps or more per game for the 2021 season he should get the ball more and produce more points for fantasy and it looks like he will.

The author does make a fair point about Rivers throwing it to RB more than most QB but that is not the way that Taylor produced most of his points anyways as he only averaged 2 targets per game. Regardless of the QB I would hope that increases at least a little bit. Taylor had a 92% catch rate on his opportunities, so why not more of them?

Of course Wentz might just bring the whole team down and that would not be good for Taylor.

 
Of course Wentz might just bring the whole team down and that would not be good for Taylor.
Fitzpatrick goes to Washington and everyone is excited. Hurts starting for the eagles behind the same crappy offensive line and he’s projected in the top 10 by some. Wentz goes to a loaded Colts team and he could bring them all down. I don’t get it.

 
Fitzpatrick goes to Washington and everyone is excited. Hurts starting for the eagles behind the same crappy offensive line and he’s projected in the top 10 by some. Wentz goes to a loaded Colts team and he could bring them all down. I don’t get it.
I am not very optimistic about Hurts or the Eagles either.

Fitzmagic is always exciting for fantasy.

Wentz was terrible last season. What is so hard to understand about that? Maybe he plays better for Reich maybe he just isn't good. I am not sure which is the case but I am leaning toward him not being good.

eta - When I say Wentz was terrible I mean that he completed less than 60% of his passes he threw almost as many interceptions as TD and his QBR was very bad. Basically any metric you might look at shows he played bad and much worse than he had played since his rookie season.

Now perhaps the offensive line play had an effect on Wentz last year. He was sacked 50 trimes which is 10 more than he had been sacked in previous seasons. The Colts have a good offensive line so maybe that helps him play like his former self again?

 
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I am not very optimistic about Hurts or the Eagles either.

Fitzmagic is always exciting for fantasy.

Wentz was terrible last season. What is so hard to understand about that? Maybe he plays better for Reich maybe he just isn't good. I am not sure which is the case but I am leaning toward him not being good.
The eagles couldn’t block a high school D-line last year. He was under a ton of pressure all the time. The colts are much better, and I think Reich is a great coach. He has a better line, netter run game, and better wrs. He was a MVP candidate before his injury, playing for frank reich. He could stink, but I’m not going to ignore how bad the line was last year or discount his previous success. 

 
The eagles couldn’t block a high school D-line last year. He was under a ton of pressure all the time. The colts are much better, and I think Reich is a great coach. He has a better line, netter run game, and better wrs. He was a MVP candidate before his injury, playing for frank reich. He could stink, but I’m not going to ignore how bad the line was last year or discount his previous success. 
Well we will see.

What I saw from Wentz last year was a guy with crappy mechanics he throws from too wide of a platform and it makes him very inaccurate. He also holds the ball too long, I think he has always done that. He needs a clean pocket. He isn't a anticipation thrower.

 
Well we will see.

What I saw from Wentz last year was a guy with crappy mechanics he throws from too wide of a platform and it makes him very inaccurate. He also holds the ball too long, I think he has always done that. He needs a clean pocket. He isn't a anticipation thrower.
He plays hero ball, possibly attributed in part to his insecurities as a result of Foles’ success. Last year was hero ball, with terrible mechanics behind a terrible line with terrible WRs resulting in a disaster.  Maybe Reich can coach the hero ball thing out of him. 

 
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He plays hero ball, possibly attributed in part to his insecurities as a result of Foles’ success. Last year was hero ball, with terrible mechanics behind a terrible line with terrible WRs resulting in a disaster.  Maybe Reich can coach the hero ball thing out of him. 
Yep, he definitely has gotten into a bad habit of treating every play like it's 4th and 10, down 7 with a minute left. 

 
Coach Frank Reich acknowledged the run game will go through Jonathan Taylor, who has "earned the right to be the main guy" in the Colts' backfield.

This is our first offseason update on Taylor after his monster finish to his rookie season. From Week 11 forward, Taylor was the overall RB8 in half-PPR points per game, averaging 22.2 touches in that span and scoring six touchdowns. Marlon Mack missed all but one game last season with a torn Achilles' and was re-signed to a one-year deal this offseason, but Taylor is expected to handle the lion's share of the carries. Beat writer Zak Keefer of The Athletic predicts Taylor will get 60% of the carries for Indy. He's being drafted as the RB8 in the middle of the first round for fantasy at the moment.

SOURCE: The Athletic

Jun 30, 2021, 2:18 PM ET

 
It's interesting to me that the narrative around David Montgomery is that he took advantage of poor defenses in the second half of the season and we should be skeptical as a result (FYI, I own zero shares of Montgomery) but we don't hear anything similar about Taylor.  He put up 30/250/2 in a week 17 home game against the Jaguars where the Colts had a ton at stake (a playoff spot, to be exact) and the Jaguars had absolutely nothing to play for.  I know Taylor carried many owners to championships in the fantasy playoffs.  This is who he  played in the last 5 weeks, along with their rank against the run (average rushing yards allowed per game) -- 

HOU #32 13/91/0, 3/44/1

LVR #24 20/150/2, 2/15/0

HOU #32 16/83/1, 4/12/0

PIT #11 18/74/2, 0/0/0

JAX #30 30/253/2, 1/1/0

On the season, he went over 100 yards 3 times - against the Vikings (#27 against the run), Raiders, and the aforementioned game against the Jaguars.  He had 8 games under 70 yards rushing. 

Fortunately for Taylor, the AFC South is light against the run, and he gets the Jaguars and Texans twice each again. But he also gets the Rams, Bucs, 49ers, and Seahawks, among others.

It's not say that Taylor isn't very talented or that he won't continue to rack of touchdowns in bunches but I don't see him as having the upside of other backs taken in the middle to end of the first.  I don't necessarily think that Marlon Mack will steal meaningful carries from him, which I've heard here and there, although Reich will sometimes ride the hot hand at RB. But I do have real concerns about how prolific of a pass catcher he'll be.  Rivers has always been excellent at dumping off to his backs, partially because he was a statue.  That's not Wentz's game, however. For better or worse, he tends to look for the intermediate to deep routes.  Unless Reich can rewire him, I don't think he'll check down to his backs nearly as often as Rivers did. And, when he does, I think they'll likely be in situations where Hines is on the field.

Again, Taylor is very talented and he's running behind an excellent line. I think he's a solid bet for double digit TD's, despite the fact that  Wentz will likely steal 3-5 TD's this year. But I'm surprised to see him going as early as 6 or 7 and rarely after #10.  I can't see taking him in front of someone like Nick Chubb.

 
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I dunno I think its somewhat apples to oranges as far as Taylor vs Montgomery goes.

For one Montgomery had a not so great rookie season, in comparison to Taylor.

Montgomerys value last season was in large part because of how he was used as a receiver, which is something the Bears were not doing with him in his rookie year, and they might not do as much with him this year, because of Tarik Cohen being back healthy, meanwhile Taylors role in the offense looks to be expanding based on the coach saying he has earned the right to be their feature RB based on his play last season.

As far as the SOS Im not concerned about that. The game vs the Steelers, one of the better defenses in the league was difficult but he still scored 2 TD.

No QB throws to their RBs as much as Rivers has been. Hard to say how Wentz may affect Taylors opportunity by comparison. Even though RIvers was washed up, I don't know that Wentz will be better than Rivers was.

 
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I’ve seen this argued both ways. I personally don’t see it helping Taylor as they’re just gonna dare Eason to throw it by stacking the box. I’d say slight downgrade to Taylor. But I’m a moron, so
I wouldn’t call you a moron. Lawes no. 

 
It's interesting to me that the narrative around David Montgomery is that he took advantage of poor defenses in the second half of the season and we should be skeptical as a result (FYI, I own zero shares of Montgomery) but we don't hear anything similar about Taylor.  He put up 30/250/2 in a week 17 home game against the Jaguars where the Colts had a ton at stake (a playoff spot, to be exact) and the Jaguars had absolutely nothing to play for.  I know Taylor carried many owners to championships in the fantasy playoffs.  This is who he  played in the last 5 weeks, along with their rank against the run (average rushing yards allowed per game) -- 

HOU #32 13/91/0, 3/44/1

LVR #24 20/150/2, 2/15/0

HOU #32 16/83/1, 4/12/0

PIT #11 18/74/2, 0/0/0

JAX #30 30/253/2, 1/1/0

On the season, he went over 100 yards 3 times - against the Vikings (#27 against the run), Raiders, and the aforementioned game against the Jaguars.  He had 8 games under 70 yards rushing. 

Fortunately for Taylor, the AFC South is light against the run, and he gets the Jaguars and Texans twice each again. But he also gets the Rams, Bucs, 49ers, and Seahawks, among others.

It's not say that Taylor isn't very talented or that he won't continue to rack of touchdowns in bunches but I don't see him as having the upside of other backs taken in the middle to end of the first.  I don't necessarily think that Marlon Mack will steal meaningful carries from him, which I've heard here and there, although Reich will sometimes ride the hot hand at RB. But I do have real concerns about how prolific of a pass catcher he'll be.  Rivers has always been excellent at dumping off to his backs, partially because he was a statue.  That's not Wentz's game, however. For better or worse, he tends to look for the intermediate to deep routes.  Unless Reich can rewire him, I don't think he'll check down to his backs nearly as often as Rivers did. And, when he does, I think they'll likely be in situations where Hines is on the field.

Again, Taylor is very talented and he's running behind an excellent line. I think he's a solid bet for double digit TD's, despite the fact that  Wentz will likely steal 3-5 TD's this year. But I'm surprised to see him going as early as 6 or 7 and rarely after #10.  I can't see taking him in front of someone like Nick Chubb.


Or maybe the staff realized Taylor deserved it and good things happened when he got the ball more. Would go along with them saying this off season who has earned it and will see the bulk of the carries. Perhaps WHO he played was just coincidence. ??   

 
No Wentz, now no Nelson. Coming into July, I thought there was a case for Taylor as RB2 overall, now I'm wondering if I'd even take him in round 2.

 
No Wentz, now no Nelson. Coming into July, I thought there was a case for Taylor as RB2 overall, now I'm wondering if I'd even take him in round 2.
This. 

Loved him in college.  Thought he was set for an insane season.  Now...meh.  

 
Anyone think this creates a buy low window in dynasty?  Unlikely I'm sure.  But I'll send a few feelers out.

 
I literally just picked Taylor at 1.2 in a new startup dynasty league. Still bullish on his career but this certainly puts a damper on the beginning of this season. Either way, I’m on the train! 

 
Anyone think this creates a buy low window in dynasty?  Unlikely I'm sure.  But I'll send a few feelers out.
No, the owners will hold out.  Nelson may even be ready by week 1.  Dynasty owners shouldn't discount him at all.  

In redraft, I think he would drop a few slots, but not much.

 
Wentz and Nelson both back at practice. Hope some of y'all with early drafts were able to capitalize. My anticipation is that we won't see him rise back up to his mid July ADP, but I could see him moving ahead of Aaron Jones.

 
Can someone help me unpack this nugget from the following ESPN article today?

"What to know for fantasy: Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has a touchdown -- or the fantasy equivalent of a touchdown (six points) -- as a pass-catcher in each of his past seven games."

Shocked me.  Didn't realize he had been that involved as a receiver, so I took a quick look. 

  • 2021 (Week 1)  --  6 catches for 60 yards, 0 TDs (check, that's six points standard or 12 points in ppr)
  • 2021 (Wildcard game) --  2 catches for 6 yards, 0 TDs (2.6 < 6...one nope)
  • 2021 (Week 17) --  1 catch for 1 yard, 0 TDs (pretty sure 1.1 points is a second nope)
  • 2021 (Week 16) --  0 catches for 0 yards (quite a bit less than 6 points, so there's a third nope) 
  • 2021 (Week 15) -- 4 catches for 12 yards, 0 TDs (5.2!  close!  but make that four consecutive nopes)
  • 2021 (Week 14) -- 2 catches for 14 yards, 0 TDs (Nope City for five straight)
Honestly, did Taylor play in some offseason XFL games or something?  What in the hell were they even looking at to populate this information?  Baffling.  Also, I checked Hines thinking maybe they just botched which Colts running back they referenced.  Also a nope.   

 
Correction issued by ESPN:

"What to know for fantasy: Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has a touchdown -- or the fantasy equivalent of a touchdown (six points) -- as a pass-catcher in each of his past one games."

 
Correction issued by ESPN:

"What to know for fantasy: Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has a touchdown -- or the fantasy equivalent of a touchdown (six points) -- as a pass-catcher in each of his past one games."
I think it is just bad writing. He had TDs in each of his last 5 games in 2020 (only one was a receiving TD) and 6 catches last week.

I am not sure why the article was worded that way other than the fact that ESPN is the McDonald's of sports analysis, lots of people served but very little substance to each serving.

 
He is sharing touches with Hines but I was really encouraged by his usage in the passing game last week.  That was a pleasant surprise.  Mack looks like a non-factor too.  Had a one yard TD called back by a holding penalty too.  

 
He is sharing touches with Hines but I was really encouraged by his usage in the passing game last week.  That was a pleasant surprise.  Mack looks like a non-factor too.  Had a one yard TD called back by a holding penalty too.  
18-22 touches a game with 3-5 receptions and Goal Line is close to Cook territory 

 
Is he not good? They got away from him again, this time nothing in the receiving department. He got stuffed so many times at the goal line but don’t think it was his fault,

either way, for a top dynasty asset today’s Performance was upsetting 

 
TampaMike19 said:
Is he not good? They got away from him again, this time nothing in the receiving department. He got stuffed so many times at the goal line but don’t think it was his fault,

either way, for a top dynasty asset today’s Performance was upsetting 
That Rams D is tough, but there's no excuse for getting stopped three straight times at the goal line. Hopefully they get that worked out.

 
That Rams D is tough, but there's no excuse for getting stopped three straight times at the goal line. Hopefully they get that worked out.
Not sure why you run three dives on the goal line against that Rams DL when the Indy OL wasn't getting any push.

 
I saw a headline, paraphrasing, that he leads the league in touches inside the 20.

It's been two weeks - bad luck so far. Totally different conversation if he has 2 TDs, isn't it?

 

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