Indianapolis Colts Fantasy Football Team Preview For 2026

The Colts stormed out of the gates in 2025 and managed to win eight of their first 10 games on the back of weekly Jonathan Taylor eruptions and Daniel Jones easily playing the best football of his career. Indy boasted the NFL's No. 1-ranked scoring offense heading into their Week 11 bye with efficiency numbers that were getting lumped in with the 1999 Rams.

And then tragedy struck: Daniel Jones initially fractured his leg leading into Week 12 before sadly tearing his Achilles shortly into Week 14. This led to literal grandpa Philip Rivers coming out of retirement in an attempt to salvage the team's playoff chances, but it was too late. Indy lost its final seven games and missed the playoffs after boasting the league's sixth-best Super Bowl odds halfway through the season.

2026 Fantasy Football Team Preview For The Indianapolis Colts

It was this early-season success, and a massive midseason trade to land stud CB Sauce Gardner, that led to them not making too big of a splash in free agency or the draft. The biggest moves were simply retaining Jones (2 years, $88 million) and 2024/2025 receiving leader Alec Pierce (4 years, $114 million), moves that seemingly helped result in guys like WR Michael Pittman (traded to the Steelers) and EDGE Kwity Paye (3-year, $48 million with the Raiders) going elsewhere.

It'll be up to HC Shane Steichen to get the most out of his returning group in his fourth year leading the Colts. He's proven capable of engineering a legit top-10 offense, but can Jones and company really keep the magic going in 2026?

What follows is a fantasy-focused team preview of the Indianapolis Colts ahead of the 2026 season. Make sure to check out Fantasy Life's rankings hub for updated player ranks all year long.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

Is Daniel Jones (again) a great late-round QB option?

QB1: Daniel Jones (QB25)
QB2: Anthony Richardson
QB3: Riley Leonard

Jones' aforementioned fractured fibula and torn Achilles sadly put an end to what was easily the seventh-year veteran's best season of his career.

And it wasn't even like Jones just hit a few big plays to juice his number. Somehow, his 52% success rate (accounts for down and distance) trailed only Matthew Stafford (54.4%) and Drake Maye (54.7%) in 2025.

Here's the thing: It seems a bit unrealistic to simply expect Jones to be anywhere near 100% coming back from a December Achilles tear to his RIGHT leg. This fact is important because right-handed quarterbacks push off this leg. Jones could be looking at a recovery more similar to Dan Marino, who noted, “It was a very tedious rehab. It didn’t actually heal all the way, so I had to deal with not being able to get up on my toe for the rest of my career.”

Will Jones return to health and pick up where he left off last season?

Can Jonathan Taylor get back to partying like the first half of last season?

RB1: Jonathan Taylor (RB4)
RB2: Seth McGowan (RB71)
RB3: DJ Giddens (RB79)
RB4: Ulysses Bentley IV

Jonathan Taylor averaged 27 PPR points per game (RB1) in Weeks 1-10 … and 12.6 (RB23) in Weeks 12-18 once Jones was injured. This featured four separate three-touchdown performances in the first 10 weeks of the season! The associated 21.3 PPR points per game were his most in a season since his overall RB1 finish back in 2021 (21.95!).

And hey, why not? Those are the only two seasons that he's managed to stay healthy for his entire career:

2022: Grade 2 ankle sprain in Week 4, suffered season-ending high-ankle sprain in Week 15.
2023: Started year on IR with back (contract?) injury, torn thumb ligament in Week 12.
2024: Grade 3 high-ankle sprain in Week 4.

The concern is whether or not 2026 looks more like the first half of 2025, or the second. Sure, his dropoff in yards per carry (5.7 vs. 4.2) was substantial, but the real issue was the Colts' scoring offense going from first in Weeks 1-9 (31.4 points per game) to 14th in Weeks 10-18 (22). JT had 13 carries inside the 5-yard line in the former stretch compared to just six in the latter!

JT will deliver on his first-round draft capital

Are Alec Pierce and Josh Downs both great clicks at cost?

WR1: Alec Pierce (WR36)
WR2: Josh Downs (WR43)
WR3: Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
WR4: Ashton Dulin
WR5: Deion Burks
WR6: Anthony Gould

Pierce's field-stretching speed is a superpower that literally every offense in the NFL would love to have. This man constantly creates separation downfield and is good enough at the catch point to turn 50/50 situations into 70/30 propositions in his favor. Credit to Pierce for leading the NFL in yards per reception *and* yards per target in each of the past two seasons.

The question is can he be more? The Colts are certainly paying him to be, and the departure of Michael Pittman could lead to Pierce pushing for a new career-high mark in targets. Fantasy managers depending on Pierce will need this to be the case—his absurdly efficient 2024 (PPR WR49) and 2025 (WR24) didn't exactly lead to fantasy fireworks due to his lack of consistent volume. Also note that unlike pretty much everyone else in this offense, Pierce actually averaged more PPR points per game after Jones' injury (14.1) than before (11.5).

And then there's the newfound ankle issue. Pierce had ankle surgery in April and, per Stephen Holder, could be out "well into" training camp and past the preseason. Not exactly ideal—especially when finding out that Pierce tried to initially avoid surgery, but initial treatment attempts didn't fix the problem. Learned doctors aren't exactly feeling great about Pierce's early-season upside in 2026.

And then there's Downs, who more cleanly profiles as the main beneficiary of Pittman's departure. It's not a coincidence Downs racked up 19 targets in his only two career games with Pittman sidelined, and it'd also make sense if a less-mobile Daniel Jones is more willing to get the ball out quickly coming off the Achilles.

Pierce and Downs both aim to be fantasy contributors?

Could Tyler Warren push for 150 targets in Year 2?

TE1: Tyler Warren (TE4 in Fantasy Life ranks)
TE2: Mo Alie-Cox
TE3: Drew Ogletree
TE4: Will Mallory

In case you missed it: Tyler Warren was really good as a rookie.

And the returns would have been even better if Warren wasn't forced to, you know, spend his December catching passes from a literal Grandpa. Even still: Warren stands as one of just six tight ends to post top-12 PPR per-game numbers as a rookie over the last decade!

So why the optimism that even bigger and better things are on the way? Mostly due to the departure of Michael Pittman, who regularly ate in the same underneath and intermediate areas of the field as Mr. Warren last season.

Warren is a darkhorse candidate for TE1 overall in fantasy

Predictions For The 2026 Indianapolis Colts

Win total prediction: The Colts boast an 8.5 win total after winning nine, eight and most recently eight games under the leadership of Shane Steichen. On the one hand, we could see some positive regression here in the one-score game category (3-7 last year). On the other hand, this offense looks worse on paper than it did a year ago, and so much hinges on Jones immediately getting back to playing at a career-best level that was previously unseen. Inside an improving AFC South, give me UNDER 8.5 wins for a team that realistically has most people's idea of a below-average offense and defense.

Bold fantasy call: While everyone looks to the wide receiver room, it's actually Tyler Warren who emerges as the team's leading receiver. He scores more PPR points than any TE other than Brock Bowers and emerges as the best position's best pick at cost.

Last season predictions: UNDER 7.5 wins (whoops), and Jonathan Taylor returns a top-5 half-PPR finish to his loyal fantasy managers (*best Mike Breen impression* BANG).