Titans at Colts
Tennessee Titans (7–3) at Indianapolis Colts (7–3)
Ryan Tannehill and company head to Indianapolis to try and regain control of the AFC South. Both teams are coming off incredible wins against good teams, the Titans broke through the tough defense of the Ravens and the Colts managed to hold off Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. This game is going to be a blast to watch and has a massive playoff impact.
Fantasy Impact
Let’s start with the Titans. Derrick Henry is someone in play every week no matter what. The matchup is rough and if the Titans fall behind big (big if) he can get game scripted out. However I’m not gonna get cute and bench a stud for my big playoff push. A.J. Brown is also in play as a flex option. He’s seeing about seven targets a game and has monster yards after catch ability. He’s not someone I feel super comfortable about in this matchup, but remember he was one dropped pass away from a long touchdown the last time these two teams played. The final player in this game in consideration to me is Jonnu Smith. He hasn’t been as great as his off-season boosters would have liked, but he’s good enough considering how bad the tight end position is this year.
As far as the Colts go, I’m probably looking elsewhere. No receiver had more than four catches last week. Michael Pittman, Jr. had the touchdown, which you like but only three targets. Again, 11 different guys saw a look from Rivers last week and Rivers himself is too mistake prone for me to want to trust in a tough divisional game. I don’t think you can safely rely on the passing game here.
The real drama here is the running back rotation. It looks like the Colts want Jonathan Taylor to be the guy and for Hines to provide third down support. The problem is that the team is clearly willing to ride with a hot hand and to give someone else a shot if JT is ineffective. Last week against the Packers JT saw the lion’s share of the workload with 22 carries and four targets compared to six carries and four targets for Hines and four carries and just one target for Wilkins. I want so badly to say feel good about Jonathan Taylor. However, this big share comes after two back to week weeks of less than nine total opportunities. Not just carries, but less than 10 carries and targets combined. Since he had that elevated draft price I would start him as a FLEX or RB 1 if you need him, but honestly I’m not confident about it. All it takes is a few bad runs and/or a really strong series from Wilkins or Hines and JT is relegated to the bench again. The same can be said for Hines and Wilkins. These guys should be viewed as high risk high reward. I know, very strange to say for running backs, but, the fact of the matter is that whoever the team decides is the lead dog will have significant fantasy value. We just don’t know for sure who that will be on any given week or if the game script/efficiency of the backs will completely alter that as the game goes on.
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