Indianapolis Colts Team Preview for the 26-27 Fantasy Football Season

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  • By Jon Mosales

    Last Updated on June 1, 2026 9:47 am by Jon Mosales | Published: June 1, 2026

     

    If you have been following along with some of these previews, you might have noticed that some of the themes repeat.  The one that seems to loom largest is the tale of two seasons and I don’t care who you think went Jekyll Hyde, no one did it more dramatically then the Indianapolis Colts.  They scored the second-most points in franchise history, started 8-2 and somehow finished 8-9 and missed the playoffs.  Now, sure losing Daniel Jones to a season-ending Achilles injury hurts, but no one would have predicted last August that Jones going down would doom their.  If anything, they might have said him getting hurt might have been the catalyst for the offense taking off.  New year, new Colts and with Jones rehabbing his way back and Anthony Richardson hoping to save his career, hope remains eternal for one of the more talented teams in the NFL.  If the voters voted after Week 10, Jonathan Taylor might have won every single award.  He had 15 TDs and was a threat to score a hat trick every Sunday, but instead the offense spiraled and he only scored three TDs over the final seven games.  As great as Taylor is/was behind a top-10 o-line, the Colts offense was hardly a one-trick pony.  They were 13th in WR FPPG and 11th at TE as a deep WR room and a rookie phenom gave the IND offense versatility and unpredictability which remains priceless even in the modern NFL.  a 43/57 run/pass split was fairly middle of the pack and they were only 9th in FPPG at RB, possibly due to being 24th in RB targets.  Taylor remains one of the last run-heavy bell cows, but he did have a career-high 46 receptions for 378 yards.  The QB situation is murky at best and a complete freak show at worst, but that’s a story that will tell itself.  The real question is the receivers as they IND had the deepest stable of WRs in the NFL until they traded Michael Pittman and Adonai Mitchell.  Pittman was their best WR and Mitchell is a future star, but the cupboard isn’t dry with Josh Downs and Alec Pierce.  Pierce had led the league in YPC two seasons in a row and Downs might have been the most popular WR sleeper in fantasy last summer.  Now the field has been cleared of Pittman’s 111 targets and Downs can hopefully fulfil his destiny to be a top-20 WR.  The combo of Pierce and Downs is perfect even if neither of them profiles as a true alpha, this team is when firing is about as dangerous as any offense in the league.  

     

    Player most likely to beat ADP: QB Josh Downs (ADP 114, WR48)

    I regretfully ignored the depth at WR for IND last season and thought Downs would simply rise to the occasion.  The problem wasn’t the other WRs, it was the emergence of Tyler Warren, reducing Downs to a paltry 16.5% TS.  With Mitchell and Pittman gone, it clears the path for Downs to have a 20% TS and finally break out after three straight seasons of finishing between the WR35 and WR44.  Downs is very close to must-draft.

    Player most likely to fade based on ADP: RB Jonathan Taylor (ADP 9, RB4)

    Taylor is a tank and was on pace to break fantasy records last season, but every new season is a full reset.  Taylor has played more than 15 games once in the last four seasons and has finishes of RB34, RB33, RB9 and RB2.  The volatility is too extreme for me to take him with my first pick.

    Late-round Flier that could blow up: QB Anthony Richardson (ADP ?, QB41)

    There is a good chance Richardson never pops, never figures out how to play QB and certainly never does it on the Colts, but even the small chance that he figures it out is worth a flier.  He had a lost season last campaign, so assuming he’s actually healthy and Daniel Jones needs a ramp up, Richardson should the green light to start Week 1 and possibly steal the job.  He doesn’t need to be great, he just needs to run the ball and occasionally complete a pass that isn’t a go route. I love betting on running QBs to figure out the passing angle, re Malik Willis this season and Richardson costs nothing and could win you everything.

    Writer’s Season Win Prediction: 10-7

    When Taylor is running downhill, there might not be anyone as dominant in him in the entire NFL and for the first 10 games there wasn’t.   With Daniel Jones (Weeks 1-13), he was the RB2 in fantasy points per game, averaging 21.7 touches and 132.1 total yards and although the offense fell off when Jones went down, it shouldn’t have affected Taylor as much as it did.  He was still getting 20+ carries, but he didn’t average over 4.0 YPC in any single game after the Week 11 bye.  Taylor has his own built in volatility with injuries and if you add in another layer with the offense itself, it’s very tough to draft him early.  There is no guarantee Jones comes back sooner rather than later and if Richardson hasn’t progressed or vultures the red zone rushing TDs, Taylor is being drafted at his ceiling and the floor is a lot scarier.  The good news is that the IND backfield is one of the few where the RB1 stands alone.  Taylor led the league in carries and while that is scary for the follow up season, there is little risk of a timeshare coming down the pipe.  The top-five RBs are all dual-threat and while Taylor is elite enough to live on the ground, it shrinks his overall ability to contribute points for fantasy.  As we saw when the rushing TDs dried up, the weekly finishes did as well, with zero top-10 finishes after the bye week.  I like the IND roster and while I’m out on Taylor, I do think they will be the team from the first half but the variance between having Jones under center and Richardson is night and day that’s not kind of variance I want to bet on unless I’m taking a flier later in my draft.

    Can consistency be a weakness? The Colts did the right thing by moving on from Pittman and Mitchell, at least on paper because there was no reason to have that many weapons.  They might have traded the two best WRs on the team, but time will tell.  Jones is planning on playing Week 1, but I remain skeptical that that is true and that he can stay healthy.  If you told me Jones was playing 17 games, I would draft every Colt on the board even if Jones isn’t even an above average QB.  I just don’t want to have Downs and Warren on my team in Week 5 when Richardson is in and he goes 8/17 for 126 yards.  It’s all about value on draft day and I don’t see myself using any top-50 picks on IND when I have zero confidence they will have the same QB under center for more than half the season.

     

    Usually, it’s the QB who is key focus as that’s the straw that stirs the offense.  While the QB situation might be more important on this IND team than anywhere else in the league outside of the obvious KC or BUF, it’s just not as intriguing as the trajectory of Tyler Warren.  I used to bang the drum about the rookie TE wall and then Sam LaPorta smashed it and Brock Bowers walked through it.  Warren and Colston Loveland were the latest rookie TEs to break through and destroy their ADP.  The only problem is that Warren peaked early and Loveland late and neither had a complete season.  Warren finished as the TE4, but he was unplayable after Jones went down, posting zero top-12 finishes after the bye.  Now Warren is clearly tied to Jones and while the risk is obvious, the reward is tantalizing.  The only problem is I love precedents and both LaPorta and Bowers both had letdown sophomore campaigns.  Now, while that doesn’t mean Warren will, maybe he already had his letdown with the back half of the season, but either way is he worth a top-60 pick with.  I love going elite TE and Warren definitely fits the bill, so if I don’t go all-in on Bowers or Trey McBride, Warren is a great consolation prize for a fantasy GM who always overvalues the TE position. 

    Colts Strength of Schedule Rank: 9th

    Fantasy Playoff : Titans, Bengals, Browns

    Opposition Opposition Home/Away
    Week 1 Ravens Home Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 2 Chiefs Away Sun. 8:15pm
    Week 3 Texans Home Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 4 Commanders Home Sun. 9:30am
    Week 5 Steelers Away Sun 1:00pm
    Week 6 Titans Home Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 7 Vikings Away Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 8 Jaguars Away Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 9 Cowboys Home Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 10 Dolphins Home Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 11 Texans Away Thurs. 8:15pm
    Week 12 Giants Home Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 13 Bye
    Week 14 Eagles Away Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 15 Titans Away Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 16 Bengals
    Week 17 Browns Away Sun. 1:00pm
    Week 18 Jaguars TBD

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    June 1, 2026, 9:47 am