Indianapolis Colts RB Trey Sermon has started back-to-back games with All-Pro Jonathan Taylor (high ankle sprain) sidelined. Now, Sermon has an injury of his own. What’s the latest on Sermon, and will he play in Week 7 when the Colts face the Miami Dolphins? Let’s examine the latest news and what this means for fantasy football managers.
The Latest on Trey Sermon’s Injury
On Wednesday, head coach Shane Steichen revealed that Sermon is dealing with a knee injury.
Although he was initially held out of practice, he returned as a limited participant on Thursday and full participant on Friday. As such, Sermon was not given an injury designation on the final injury report. That puts him in position to play against the Dolphins.
Fantasy Outlook for Jonathan Taylor, Trey Sermon, and the Colts
Taylor will miss his third straight game with a high-ankle sprain, as he was declared out for the Dolphins game on Friday. That leaves Indy’s backfield in a state of flux for at least one more week.
Taylor’s situation is pretty cut-and-dry: When the Colts activate him, I’m doing the same. There is the Rhamondre Stevenson class of running back where I’m willing to wait and see, but Taylor is comfortably ahead of that range since he was a top-12 running back in his last two games.
The Dolphins have allowed at least 18 fantasy points to a running back four times in five games this season (and the one instance where that wasn’t the case was a game against the Jaguars in which Travis Etienne Jr. and Tank Bigsby combined for 19.2 points).
Trey Sermon makes it a one-score game!
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/hRuHz2Ca5y
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) October 6, 2024
With Taylor out, Trey Sermon is a bail-me-out-of-trouble Flex option at best, checking in slightly ahead of Tyler Goodson in my Week 7 rankings.
Sermon had a terrific opportunity to show what he could do with an increased workload over the last two weeks, but he turned 28 carries into just 67 yards, while Goodson’s 13 attempts netted 77 yards.
Last week, Sermon rushed 18 times for just 29 yards, averaging 1.6 yards per attempt. Goodson outplayed Sermon, rushing eight times for 51 yards (6.4 yards per attempt) while catching four passes for 14 yards.
The deeper you dive into Sermon’s rushing profile, the worse it gets. Across his two starts, 41.8% of his rushing yards came on two carries, and 37.8% of his attempts this season have failed to gain yardage.
I’ll be tracking the usage in the passing game for the running backs this week. Indy’s upcoming schedule is full of explosive offenses that should create negative game scripts for their running game.
Upcoming Colts Schedule
- Week 8 at Houston Texans
- Week 9 at Minnesota Vikings
- Week 10 vs. Buffalo Bills
- Week 11 at New York Jets
- Week 12 vs. Detroit Lions
We have one week of heavy receiver usage from Sermon and another from Goodson. If one of them can establish himself as the trusted option in that regard, he will have the cleanest path to being the most valuable RB in the Colts’ backfield while their star is sidelined.