Fantasy Football 2017: Colts Re-Sign Jack Doyle, Trade Dwayne Allen
By Dan Thomas
Jack Doyle re-signed with the Colts on Tuesday and for a moment, hurt his fantasy football stock. That was until Dwayne Allen was traded to the Patriots.
Before I dive into the world of fantasy football, let me say this: Congratulations Jack Doyle. Anytime a former undrafted free agent can grind his way to a superior contract, it makes me happy. According to Colts reporter Stephen Holder, Doyle will now be earning over $6 million per year. That’s a lot better than the $1.67 million he made in 2016.
Must Read: Fantasy Football 2017: Time to Move on From Gronkowski
We got that out of the way? Good. Now let’s get back to things that really matter in this world like fantasy football.
For almost a day, I was frustrated with Jack Doyle re-signing with the Indianapolis Colts. To use a line from Kelly Kapoor from The Office, I wanted to say to Mr. Doyle, “I have a lot of questions. No. 1: How dare you?”
You were arguably the third-best tight end on the free agent market behind Martellus Bennett and Jared Cook. You are in the prime of your career at the soon-to-be age of 27. Last season, you finished as a top-12 fantasy football tight end despite splitting tight end duties with Dwayne Allen. You had all the makings of a 2017 TE1 if you signed with a team where you’d be the clear-cut starting tight end.
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Instead, you re-signed with the Indianapolis Colts. As a fantasy football owner, this upset me greatly. (How do I get a sad face emjoi on this thing?)
Doyle set career highs across the board last year with 59 receptions, 584 yards and five touchdowns on 75 targets. He was second on the Colts in targets, receptions and receiving yards. The Colts other starting tight end, Dwayne Allen, finished with 35 receptions, 406 yards and six touchdowns.
By returning to Indianapolis, Doyle was set up to split time with Allen who signed a four-year contract worth nearly $30 million last off-eason. Doyle was never going to reach his fantasy ceiling with Allen snagging two-to-four receptions per game and catching a handful of touchdowns throughout the year. Both of them were ready to enter 2017 as TE2s in fantasy football.
That was until the New England Patriots traded for Dwayne Allen.
According to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, the Patriots received Allen and a sixth-round draft pick while sending a fourth-round draft pick to the Colts. This trade instantly makes Doyle the Colts starting tight end and a TE1 in the 8-10 range in fantasy football. Allen’s stock, on the other hand, takes a hit.
Allen will go to New England and be the backup to Rob Gronkowski. New England does run two tight end formations but Allen is not as talented as a pass-catcher as Aaron Hernandez was in 2011 or Martellus Bennett was last season.
Gronkowski should enter next season 100 percent healthy after going on IR in December. Despite going to a better offense, Allen becomes less reliable in fantasy than he was in Indianapolis anytime Gronk is active.
Think about this: Gronk missed eight games and played on less than 32 percent of the team’s offensive snaps in 2016. Even though Gronk missed all that time, Martellus Bennett still only finished as the seventh-best tight end in fantasy football.
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The only chance Allen can be considered valuable is if Gronkowski misses time with an injury. That situation very well could happen considering Gronk has missed 24 regular season games over the last five seasons. Then again, Allen has missed 23 games over the last four seasons.