Colts 2021 Fantasy Preview: TE Jack Doyle
Every team wishes they had a Jack Doyle.
The local kid heading into his ninth year with the Indianapolis Colts does all the little things well. He's one of the better blocking tight ends in the NFL, he can play special teams, and he moves the chains as a receiver.
His reliability has led to him being a fan favorite, but his statistics on the field have been in decline.
Appreciating Doyle is a perfect example of separating fantasy football from reality.
Average draft position and positional rankings from FantasyPros. Projections are based on traditional lineups with PPR scoring.
Relevant to all Colts fantasy players, quarterback Carson Wentz underwent a procedure on his foot on Mon., Aug. 2 and is expected to be out anywhere from 5-12 weeks, which puts his return in the regular season roughly between Week 1-Week 8. Although the team will have a better idea of his approximate timetable for return a few weeks post-op, they believe his return will be on the quicker side of the range.
TE Jack Doyle
- Current ADP — 266.0
- Current Positional Rank — TBD
- 2021 Strength of Schedule — 10th hardest
- 2018 — 6 games, 26 receptions (33 targets), 245 yards (9.4 avg.), 2 TD
- 2019 — 16 games, 43 receptions (72 targets), 448 yards (10.4 avg.), 4 TD
- 2020 — 14 games, 23 receptions (33 targets), 251 yards (10.9 avg.), 3 TD
- Average per game — 2.6 receptions (3.8 targets), 26.2 yards (10.3 avg.), 0.3 TD
© Jenna Watson/IndyStar, Indianapolis Star via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Despite starting 12-of-14 regular-season games in 2020, the 31-year-old Doyle finished third among Colts tight ends in fantasy points, scoring 52.6 and finishing as fantasy's TE38 while Trey Burton was TE24 with 69.3 points and Mo Alie-Cox was directly behind as TE25 with 65.9.
While Burton is no longer with the Colts, they replaced him with a younger model with more potential in Kylen Granson this year in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Alie-Cox continues to garner more playing time as he continues developing, as he too blocks very well with his terrific frame and is a tremendous 50-50 ball receiver. Granson, meanwhile, is essentially the model for the modern-day yards-accumulating move tight end.
The presence of Alie-Cox and Granson is a big deal for Doyle's fantasy value, or what's left of it.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time convincing you because if you kept Doyle around on your fantasy roster all of 2020, you probably either love to have insurance on your bench or you're a die-hard Colts homer. Either way is fine.
Doyle has always been a bit touchdown-dependent as a fantasy starter since he only averages 21.3 receiving yards per game for his career, but he at least had the receptions to help, as he had 59 of them in 2016, 80 in 2017, and 43 in 2019.
However, in 14 games last year, he had just 23 catches on 33 targets for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Coming off of his least productive fantasy season as a starter while flanked by two younger, more athletic players has me avoiding Doyle as nothing more than bye week/injury filler.
Are you planning on targeting Doyle in your fantasy drafts? Drop your thoughts below in the comment section!
See Below for More in This Series:
- QB Carson Wentz
- RB Jonathan Taylor
- RB Nyheim Hines
- WR T.Y. Hilton
- WR Michael Pittman Jr.
- WR Parris Campbell
- TE Mo Alie-Cox
