This article continues our team outlook series where we will breakdown each NFL team from a fantasy football perspective. We will cover the major changes on each roster from this off season and project what the team will do in the upcoming year.
This edition focuses on the Indianapolis Colts, a team that is in desperate need of a bounce back year in 2016.
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Offseason Moves
Offseason Acquisitions: RB Jordan Todman, RB Robert Turbin
Offseason Departures: WR Andre Johnson, TE Coby Fleener
Player to Avoid: WR T.Y. Hilton
Player to Reach For: RB Frank Gore, WR Donte Moncrief
Quarterback
My condolences if you owned Andrew Luck last year. Not only was Luck riddled with injuries all season, he also struggled immensely whenever he even took the field. Sure, his poor play could be directly attributed to his laundry list of injuries but the reasoning is kind of moot. Owning him hurt you last year regardless, even more so if you were one of the folks who took him at his super early price point. Luckily, quarterback value has normalized a bit so Luck can be had at a much more reasonable rate in 2016.
I'm willing to chalk up Luck's lost 2015 campaign to lingering injuries that must have started earlier than the Colts made public. After all, he already had two solid years under his belt prior to the recent disappointment. Heading into 2016, Luck's ADP is on the border of the fourth/fifth round, a bit higher than the likes of Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger. (ADP courtesy of FantasyFootballCalculator.com) Personally, I think Brees is the best bet of that bunch but I'm ok with the idea of banking on Luck rebounding in the fifth round. I wouldn't expect him to match his career highs of 40 touchdowns and 4,761 yards from 2014. Instead, pencil him in for 32 touchdowns and 4,600 yards. That stat line would have solidified him as the sixth-best fantasy QB in 2015.
Running Backs
Another year, another season of waiting for the demise of Frank Gore. Frank "Goonies Never Say Die" Gore (a nickname that I will continue to force until I'm blue in the face) is one of the most durable and reliable running backs in all of football. In fact, Gore hasn't missed a single game in five straight seasons. For some added perspective, the average NFL career lasts for 3.3 years. Think about that for a second; Frank Gore has played more consecutive games than most players play in their entire careers combined. That's some seriously next level durability.
I bring all of that up to point out how high Gore's floor is year-in and year-out. Seemingly every single season Gore gets written off as being old and done yet he still manages to churn out respectable performances at running back. Even at 32 years old, Gore still racked up 967 rushing yards and six touchdowns, numbers that earned him the 12th best fantasy season among running backs in 2015. That's a higher than Mark Ingram, LeSean McCoy, Jonathan Stewart, and Jeremy Hill. Throw in the fact that the Colts were, well, bad last year, and Gore's touchdowns should have been even higher. He should have had at least two more scores if it weren't for rare fumbles and who knows what more he could have done if the offense was clicking with Luck under center.
Gore's sixth round ADP might actually be undervalued at this point which is why I'm willing to take him a little earlier, ahead of the likes of Melvin Gordon and DeAngelo Williams (unless I already own Le'Veon Bell). He's a low-end RB2 in standard scoring but takes a fairly big hit in PPR formats.
Even with the additions of Jordan Todman and Robert Turbin, there isn't really a clear handcuff to Frank Gore right now yet I don't really think it matters. No one playing behind Gore will match his productivity so I'm totally fine with waiting until something flares up in the regular season before snagging another player in this backfield. It's a wait and see approach beyond Frank Gore at the top.
Wide Receivers
Considering the aforementioned quarterback situation last year, we can safely dismiss the numbers from T.Y. Hilton and Donte Moncrief from 2015. Instead, it makes a lot more sense to project forward into the upcoming season.
I have to be honest here, relying on a T.Y. Hilton rebound scares me. Hilton has always been a bit of a boom-or-bust playmaker and the expectations that he's the "top target" in Indy seem a bit exaggerated. Not only is Donte Moncrief closing in on Hilton in terms of both targets and ability, but Phillip Dorsett is no pushover either. I think this situation has the potential to be a three-headed Cerberus at wide receiver with each player getting solid looks from quarterback Andrew Luck. To me, that means two things. First, that hurts Hilton's fantasy value but perhaps even more significantly, it helps Moncrief and Dorsett immensely.
I don't think there's anyway I could bring myself to take Hilton in round three over guys like Demaryius Thomas, Kelvin Benjamin, Sammy Watkins, and Randall Cobb. Go even further down the list and I even like Julian Edelman more than Hilton. There's just too many mouths to feed in Indy and I don't think relying on a hit-or-miss wideout is something I'm willing to do that early in the draft.
On the contrary, I love both Moncrief and Dorsett's values in the 6th and 13th rounds respectively, particularly the former. Moncrief looks like a rock solid WR3/flex play in 2016 and Dorsett is worth a flier toward the end of your draft. Even though I'm not a big Hilton fan, I do still think this is an offense that can support multiple fantasy assets at once. Unfortunately, that means someone has to take a hit and for the Colts that means shaving a little off the top and capping Hilton's upside.
Tight End
Now that Coby Fleener is off to New Orleans, Dwayne Allen has the starting gig in Indianapolis all to himself. If it were any other position, the prospect of starting someone who has never been a reliable fantasy asset would concern me but tight end is a whole different animal. With so much sameness from about TE 6-15, Allen is certainly worth consideration at the back end of that tier. Unfortunately, Allen hasn't played all 16 games since his rookie year in 2012. And if we're concerned about the "too many mouths to feed" dilemma with T.Y. Hilton, it's not crazy to apply that logic to the tight end position as well. Overall, I'm fine with being the last person in my draft to grab a tight end and even though there are several players I would prefer, I'm ok if I end up with Dwayne Allen.
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