NFL Fantasy Football Backfield Battle: Colts’ Marlon Mack or Jonathan Taylor?

The Indianapolis Colts drafted Jonathan Taylor in the second round, but will 1,000-yard rusher Marlon Mack still be the main running back, for fantasy purposes?

NFL fantasy football owners will have a decision to make when choosing between the Indianapolis Colts’ top two running backs, incumbent starter Marlon Mack or rookie second-round selection Jonathan Taylor.

Well, make that three backs, because third-down specialist Nyheim Hines is an excellent pass catcher with 107 receptions for 745 yards and two TDs in addition to 137 rushes for 513 yards and four rushing scores in two years.

But back to Mack and Taylor, who are expected to share the “Run The Damn Ball” workload in an offense that ranked seventh in rushing in 2019.

Mack enters his fourth NFL season after rushing for a career-best 1,091 yards last year. He 908 yards in 2018. What catches fantasy eyes are his 20 rushing TDs in three seasons.

The Colts' Marlon Mack has 2,357 rushing yards and 20 rush TDs in three NFL seasons :: Matt Kryger/USA TODAY Sports

Enter Taylor, selected 41th overall out of Wisconsin, where he ran for 6,174 yards and 50 TDs on 926 carries in three college seasons. The Colts are enthused about how Taylor brings power, speed, and big-play capability to the offensive equation.

Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor, a Colts' second-round pick, is a popular fantasy option :: Rick Wood/USA TODAY Sports

So which is the best fantasy pick?

The Colts obviously don’t think in terms of fantasy football, but head coach Frank Reich discussed his backfield options on a Monday Zoom video conference call with media.

First things first, Mack should be considered the starter for now.

“There’s definitely inherent respect for the starting returner in my mind,” Reich said. “That’s the way that I see this. Although, I think I used the phrase – I’d like to think that I used the phrase, when I said it or if I didn’t say it, I heard someone else say it and I thought it was a good phrase so I was taking ownership of it — that it was not the one-two punch but the one-one punch.

“I’d like to think I coined that phrase when I was talking about Marlon and Jonathan. I probably didn’t, but in my own mind, I did. I see it as a one-one (punch) and I see that on many fronts. The way the league has gone and the way role-playing has been elevated in our league, it’s made it prominent like – we use to say in San Diego that when we had for instance Danny Woodhead, he was not our starter, but he was a role-playing starter. He played such a significant role. He had 80 catches in a year.”

That’s why Reich is convinced Hines will have his moments, too.

“We’re talking about Marlon and Jonathan, what about Nyheim?” the coach said. “Nyheim is such a good third-down back. He’ll play a prominent part. In some ways he’s a starter, he’s a role-playing starter. Your second tight end, your third receiver, those guys – the way our offense roles and even defensively, the way we substitute and get everybody involved, the role-playing thing is really accentuated, very important.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)