https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/article/an-ode-to-jonathan-taylor-and-more-fantasy-football-league-winners-past-and-present-210324416.html
Jonathan Taylor probably can’t win the NFL MVP Award, in part because that award is kinda broken these days. It’s become the Best Quarterback Award. Consider that no receiver has ever won the trophy, although Jerry Rice had a strong case in 1987 and Cooper Kupp probably should have won in 2021. J.J. Watt had a stacked resume in 2014 but Aaron Rodgers still beat him easily. In the past 18 seasons, Adrian Peterson (2012) is the only non-QB to get the hardware.
Remember when Randy Moss broke football in 2007, scoring 23 times? He didn’t receive a single MVP vote. I totally understand Tom Brady winning that year (and he was breaking football, too), but this reflects the voting habits of the award.
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But you wanna talk fantasy football MVP? That’s where Jonathan Taylor is threatening a runaway.
Taylor leads the NFL in so many key stats. He’s collected the most carries, rushing yards and touchdowns, and he’s averaging a silly 5.9 yards per carry. His receiving volume (25-206-2) has never been better, and he’s secured 92.6% of his targets. Barring injury, he’ll probably win Offensive Player of the Year, which often goes to the best non-QB in the league.
But again, this is a fantasy football article. And we need to tell you that Taylor’s on a staggering 90.2% of the best Yahoo teams (surveying the top 500 public teams). Go to your Yahoo league, click research and then select MVPs — that’s where you’ll see the list.
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There are other right answers this year, of course. Top receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is on 47.6% of the best teams. Patrick Mahomes checks in at 39.8%, back in the high life again. Christian McCaffrey (29.8%), George Pickens (28.0) and Tucker Kraft (27.8%) make us happy on a regular basis. Along with Taylor, they complete the Super Six. But obviously, Taylor is so far ahead in this race, he can’t hear any footsteps.
I wanted to see how Taylor’s first eight games stacked up historically, so I went over to Pro-Football Reference and fired up their excellent Stathead tool. I ran a query for the best RB performers in the first eight games of a season, drawing from the Super Bowl era. PFR offers standard and full-point PPR scoring, not half-point PPR, so I decided to use standard as my measuring piece.
Taylor’s ballistic run ranks 12th, with 191.6 fantasy points (standard scoring). And consider the royalty in front of him:
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2000 Marshall Faulk, 220.6 points
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2002 Priest Holmes, 217
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1998 Terrell Davis, 209.1
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2018 Todd Gurley, 209.1
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1983 Eric Dickerson, 207.5
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2019 Christian McCaffrey, 204.4
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2006 LaDainian Tomlinson, 102.14
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1995 Emmitt Smith, 198.1
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2020 Dalvin Cook, 196.3
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1975 O.J. Simpson, 196.0
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2004 Priest Holmes, 193.9
That’s some list, isn’t it? A bunch of Hall of Famers. I suppose Dalvin Cook’s career was a little underappreciated. The Simpson year wasn’t his 2,003-yard season — it was the one year Buffalo unlocked him as a receiver. Simpson, incidentally, did win MVP in 1973, despite being on a non-playoff team. That’s a vote that could never happen again (not that I’d be against it; I wish the award were Most Outstanding Player, anyway, so it didn’t turn into a personal view of what “valuable” means).
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Taylor has always been a great player, but what’s led to him smashing the game this year? It’s a perfect storm of good fortune.
The Colts have the best offensive line in football, that’s a great start. Shane Steichen has been a wizard with the play sheet. And it helps that he has a plus quarterback again — Daniel Jones has proven to be a notable improvement over what Joe Flacco and overmatched Anthony Richardson Sr. did last year.
The Colts almost never punt — just twice a game, easily the least in the league. Indianapolis also cranks out 385.3 yards of offense per week, the best in football. It’s a blast rewatching their tape every week, a reward, my Monday morning routine.
Taylor is the rare bell cow in the NFL these days. He’s at 850 yards rushing — no other back in Naptown has made it to 70 yards. Jones does have four rushing scores, but 12 of the other 13 rushing spikes have gone to Taylor.
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And we need to note Taylor getting utilized properly as a receiver. He’s always had that club in his bag, but often the Colts didn’t want to swing it. This year, Taylor has become a proactive pass-catcher again. And look at the historical list we noted earlier; it’s usually combo backs with high-TD equity who dominate our fantasy games. Taylor’s checking all those boxes.
Taylor’s schedule gets harder from this point forward; we need to underscore that. Here’s what’s left and how those teams stack up for RB points allowed:
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At Steelers (22nd)
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Falcons (11th)
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At Chiefs (27th)
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Texans (24th)
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At Jaguars (25th)
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At Seahawks (23rd)
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49ers (17th)
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Jaguars (25th)
Nope, that’s not a fun schedule. If you prefer to consider those defenses merely in an overall strength spectrum, the Seahawks are third in defensive DVOA, the Texans are fourth (they’ve been No. 1 in my observation), and the Chiefs, Falcons and Jaguars slot 9-10-11. Some Taylor regression is inevitable. Even if the schedule were easy, we’d still probably lean into that conclusion.
But when does a great start become a great season? I say that not really for Taylor, but for Jones. Are we past worrying about Jones turning into a pumpkin? Has Steichen fully rebuilt our trust after a couple of middling years? Is Taylor’s receiving work enough to make us think he’s game-script proof? Are the Colts going to be a juggernaut offense all year, even when the competition gets more difficult?
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I know 90.2% of you are screaming “Yes!” at the top of your lungs right now. And I’m joining that chorus, too.
Before we check out, let’s check in with the other 2025 Fantasy MVPs that we mentioned at the top of this piece.
Smith-Njigba has immediately clicked with Sam Darnold, and it doesn’t hurt drawing a 38% market share. JSN now runs a more compliant route tree and he’s turned into a breakout player who might land in the first round next year. We remember how Ohio State talked about him being perhaps the best receiver in his overlapping time there, and that doesn’t sound out of place now.
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The only thing that’s going to hurt Mahomes going forward is that the Kansas City defense is very good. So when they play some overmatched opponents, the Chiefs will control the clock late and won’t have to throw that much in the fourth quarter. But I expect Kansas City to be proactively throwing in the first three quarters against everyone, and now Mahomes has his full complement of receivers. It’s just nice to see a player this great reclaim his throne in the fantasy space.
McCaffrey hasn’t been efficient as a runner, and his timed speed will reflect that he’s lost a step. But he’s on a historic pace as a pass catcher and we always trust Kyle Shanahan to put him in positions to succeed. All CMC needs to do to dominate is stay on the field. Give him a pass for that game against Houston, the Texans can do it to anybody.
Pickens obviously doesn’t have the same ceiling now that CeeDee Lamb is back, but he’s a very strong WR2. The genie is out of the bottle. And obviously, the Dallas offense has to chase the game regularly, trying to offset the lousy defense on the other side.
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It’s a shame Kraft is only on pace to be around 100 targets because he would be an absolute monster if only Green Bay would steer into him. Then again, his market share has risen in recent weeks and perhaps we could see a little bit more from the third-year tight end. But even if he has to live with the current workload, he’s athletic enough to get deep and he’s built to win in tight spaces. Kraft reminds me so much of George Kittle, and that’s the highest compliment I can give.
https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/article/an-ode-to-jonathan-taylor-and-more-fantasy-football-league-winners-past-and-present-210324416.html
