Don't fear Jonathan Taylor in 2025

He still has Top 5 potential

Just like my post yesterday on the soon to be top dog in Miami, I wanted to cover a RB that has become out of sight, out of mind for many fantasy drafters, a guy I definitely think should not be overlooked in 2025.

That man is Indianapolis’s Jonathan Taylor, you know, the guy that was the #1 RB in all of fantasy just 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 22. In 2021 Taylor would finish the season with 1811 yards rushing on 332 carries, 18 TDs, 40 receptions for 360 yards and another 2 TDs.

He was the consensus top pick in 2022 drafts and many expected him to challenge for the single season rushing record.

Instead, he missed a large chunk of the season, playing in just 11 games and finished with a disappointing 861 yards and 4 TDs.

Ditto 2023.

And 2024.

Sadly, Taylor has not managed to play more than 11 games since his league leading season. And so far every single year he’s still been a relatively high draft pick, 2nd round give or take, because everyone knew he was young and athletic and just needed to stay healthy.

And the same is going to be true in 2025.

Next year though I suspect many drafters are finally going to avoid him after 3 seasons of getting injured.

But not me. Especially if he’s going in the 3rd or 4th round of drafts. There is massive value to be had in that scenario.

Let’s examine the record.

In 2022 Taylor played in 10 healthy games, missing 3 along the way, before going down for good with an injury very early in his week 14 game against the Vikings. In those 10 games he rushed for 861 yards, 4 TDs, and had 27 receptions for 130 yards. That equates to 15 ppg in PPR. Not great but not terrible either. For a full season that would have been 1463 yards and 7 TDs.

That season was particularly tough for Taylor because he was dealing with some nagging injuries, the offensive line was rotating starters for the first 2 months of the season and struggled, Matt Ryan was on his last legs as a starter, and to top it all off, someone decided Jeff Saturday, who had never coached a team previously, should be the head coach.

Taylor had a lot working against him that season and still performed admirably while healthy. What was the injury that knocked him out? A high ankle sprain he picked up in October and tried to play through which obvious severely hampered his play before finally ending his season.

The start of the 2023 season saw Taylor missing the first 4 games of the season as he was still recovering from off-season surgery on the ankle he injured the season before, surgery that he and team insisted was minor.

He finally returned week 5 and played the next 7 games but still seemed limited athletically.

He was injured again against the Bucs, tearing a ligament in his thumb, an injury that would cost him the next 3 games.

Taylor would return for the final 3 games of the season and finish on a high note with 30 carries for 188 yards and a TD against the Texans.

In the 8 games he played more than 50% of the snaps in 2023, Taylor put up 155 carries for 704 yards and 7 TDs, a full season pace of 329 carries for 1496 yards and 15 TDs.

In 2024 Taylor has once again missed 3 games, hasn’t scored a TD since week 8, and his YPC average is down to a paltry 4.3.

Even still, Taylor has amassed 186 carries for 804 yards and 5 TDs, a full year pace of 316 carries for 1367 yards and 8 TDs.

The injury he sustained? Another high ankle sprain which explains his low YPC and lack of efficiency so far. Don’t be surprised if he gets knocked out for the rest of the season again soon. High ankle sprains are no joke.

Anthony Richardson’s lack of passing skills isn’t helping his cause either as defenses feel safe to stack the box against the run.

So just like with Waddle yesterday, we see that Taylor has had a lot of things working against him to keep his fantasy numbers down, things outside of his control.

The biggest thing he needs to avoid is just injuries.

The term “injury prone” gets thrown around too often these days in my opinion. It usually happens after a player gets unlucky and suffers repeated injuries within a short period during a season or in repeated seasons. The law of averages says that’s going to happen, and happen a lot, even if injuries were totally random.

Again, the only type of injury that I ever get concerned about repeating is soft tissue injuries like ACLs and hamstrings. Julio Jones was notorious for dealing with the same exact injury constantly.

A high ankle sprain can happen to anyone. I have seen no evidence that it is in any way the type of injury you have to be careful not to repeat. It’s just bad luck.

So at the end of the analysis we are left with a RB that has finished #1 at his position before, will be just 26 years old in 2025 (still a prime age for RBs), has produced when healthy, and simply been unlucky as far as injuries and outside circumstances go.

When you step back and take in all the available information, it is clear that Taylor is still one of the prime candidates to lead his position in fantasy points next season, and if he is not being drafted by the middle of the 2nd round at latest, he is a clearly undervalued and should be a priority target.