Jonathan Taylor led the NFL in rushing attempts last season by a wide margin. The Indianapolis Colts running back finished with 332 attempts, which was 25 more than second-place Najee Harris — or more than another full game’s worth of carries.
In the last seven years, only Derrick Henry in 2020 had more rushing attempts in a season. As fantasy football players are well aware, it helped lead to a monster season for Taylor, who led all running backs in fantasy points while winning the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
However, Colts head coach Frank Reich wants Taylor to have fewer touches in 2022, which may cause some concern for those taking Taylor early in fantasy drafts.
“The goal is not to lead the league in rushing,” Reich said, via ESPN. “The goal is not to make [Taylor] the MVP of the league. The goal is to win championships. He knows that, and we all know that. That’s what we’re all about.”
Allow me to ease your angst: I wouldn’t worry too much about Taylor’s fantasy value taking a dip.
Even with his large workload a season ago, Taylor’s 5.5 yards per carry led all running backs with at least 120 carries. He led the league in rushing by more than 500 yards, and he also had a league-best 18 rushing touchdowns. If the Colts do somehow find a way to reduce his workload, he’ll still have a pretty good shot at leading the league in rushing and maybe even fantasy points.
In fact, before Taylor and Henry the last two years, the player with the most rushing attempts hadn’t been the top fantasy player since DeMarco Murray in 2014. The quality of carries will always matter more than the quantity, and while it helped that Taylor saw a heavy dose of both last season, he’ll still see more than his fair share of quality touches (touchdowns!) even with a reduced workload.
Then, there’s also no guarantee the Colts can actually stick to this plan. They surely didn’t want him to run as much as he did last season, but that was often their best option. While I believe Matt Ryan is an upgrade over Carson Wentz at quarterback, he has a mostly unproven group of receivers to work with. When all else fails, Taylor behind that offensive line will remain Indy’s best weapon.
At most, a reduced workload drops Taylor to fantasy’s RB2 behind Henry. But I wouldn’t consider drafting any other running back ahead of him.
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