Fantasy Football Player Notes

This time last year, I was much higher on Taylor than the consensus. I like Taylor, but did everyone forget about what happened the first 10 weeks of the season? Taylor was the RB19 and David Montgomery was the RB20. Taylor finished the year as the RB6 while Montgomery was the RB4. Many will talk about Montgomery's schedule as the reason for his production, hence why he's ranked at RB20 in ECR right now, but are they ignoring Taylor's schedule? He played against the Texans TWICE, Packers, Raiders, Jaguars, and the Steelers (who were decimated by injuries in that game). That's a large reason for his jump in production. I still like Taylor, just not nearly as much as the consensus.

He finished as the RB20 in half PPR formats last year. Crazy, right? While that's firm RB2 territory, he finished as an RB2 or better in just 43.8 percent of his games, tied with Chase Edmonds. He clearly has a role in this offense, though it's a bit reliant on gamescript, as Jonathan Taylor is the clear early-down back, while Hines is the preferred back in passing situations. If they give Taylor more work in the passing game this year, it's coming at the expense of Hines, and knowing Taylor's ADP, drafters expect that increase for Taylor. Even going back to 2019, Hines was an RB3 or better just 43.8 percent of the time, which is more in line for how you should feel about him in 2021. He's just an emergency flex option.

Mack is going to be a tough one to project in 2021, as he's returning from an Achilles injury, which used to be a career killer. It still might be, and it's not like Mack was lighting the world on fire before he suffered that injury. Jonathan Taylor is the lead back and Nyheim Hines will cap upside as the receiving back, so Mack is arguably just a second-tier handcuff who also has question marks about his health.