Everyone has a favorite shirt. It might not stay your favorite forever, but when you first get it, it immediately becomes the garment you are most eager to wear.
Maybe it is a trendy polo, a sweatshirt representing your favorite team or a T-shirt with a funny saying. But after you excitedly purchased it, the gear never is as satisfying to don as you hoped. Quickly, there is a new trend, or that saying just isn’t as funny as you thought initially.
Then you spill some coffee on it. Now it is stained. And turns out, no amount of washing or trips to the cleaner is going to fix it. Your once-favorite shirt now can’t be worn. It is ruined.
Well, the subpar fantasy season of Jonathan Taylor now has a permanent stain. He left Sunday’s game early with what has since been diagnosed as a high ankle sprain. For fantasy managers who are still alive in the playoffs, that means losing your likely No. 1 overall draft pick for the final couple weeks of your fantasy postseason.
Man, that will be hard to overcome, right? I mean, that is as difficult as trying to get dressed for the big date only to find that stain on your favorite shirt right as you’re leaving the house.
There is, hopefully, some good news for those fantasy managers with a newfound metaphorical laundry problem: Johnathan Taylor probably hasn’t been your favorite shirt for quite some time.
If you have Taylor on your roster and you’re in the fantasy playoffs, you likely did it despite him rather than because of him. After all, he already has missed three games, so you’ve had to sporadically find different fantasy solutions already.
Then there is the matter of his production. Taylor’s 13.3 average in PPR formats ranks just 19th among running backs. In terms of total fantasy points, that ranking drops to 26th thanks to his previous games missed. That is not what you expect out of the No. 1 overall pick.
Just like you often need to replace a shirt when it gets ruined, even if it isn’t your favorite, you’ll want to replace Taylor with a usable option if your league still allows transactions.
Week 16 NFL fantasy football waiver wire adds: Running backs
Zack Moss got 30 percent more carries than Deon Jackson in Taylor’s absence, so we like him as the better option in the Colts’ backfield. But remember: That is the same offense that delivered a suboptimal Taylor season.
Atlanta’s Tyler Allgeier has one really big game this year, but it came this past week. You could take the chance the Falcons just learned something new about him this late in the season.
Jerick McKinnon — who has five touchdowns for the Chiefs in the past three games — might still be available. That scoring rate is unsustainable, but you only need another big game or two.
You’re not going to find a style-setting running back fashion this late in the season. The best you can hope for is to grab something that covers up that new stain.