Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor (ankle) is expected to remain with the Colts after a trade was not reached. Although two teams reportedly had shown serious interest, he was kept on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list, which means Taylor will miss at least the first four games. There’s no guarantee he returns once players are first eligible to come off the PUP in Week 5.
This is pretty close to the worst-case scenario for fantasy football purposes. While a trade would could have only slightly raised or lowered his fantasy outlook for the upcoming season, missing the first month is a tough pill to swallow for gamers who drafted before this news broke.
Assuming he is not eventually traded, Taylor should return to face a brutal run defense at home vs. Tennessee, followed by a trip to Jacksonville, a return home for Cleveland, and then a Week 8 meeting with New Orleans at Lucas Oil Stadium. Not great, not terrible. If healthy, Taylor is elite and capable of exploiting even poor matchups, but he’ll have an uphill climb.
Owners who have already rostered Taylor will need to gut it out for a month. Luckily, we don’t have bye weeks during that time to further tax your roster depth. Don’t dump him for nothing to another owner looking to exploit your tough situation.
For anyone who has yet to draft, it’s best to leave him for someone else, barring a total free fall by Taylor in your draft. His ceiling is fringe RB1 in the best of situations, which is improbable at this point, and low-end No. 2 finish is much more reasonable given what we currently know.
Indianapolis should turn to some combination of Zack Moss and Deon Jackson, once the former is able to return from a fractured arm. With a run-minded rookie quarterback under center, none of these backs will be better than an RB3 most weeks and shouldn’t be rostered as higher than your fourth.
