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2024 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Indianapolis Colts player outlooks, schedule, depth chart and more to know
If the Colts want to keep pace in the AFC South, they’ll need 2023 No. 1 draft pick Anthony Richardson to find a way to stay on the field. He suffered a concussion in Week 2, then sustained a season-ending injury to his throwing shoulder in Week 5. He’s expected to be a full participant in the offseason program, and being that Richardson missed the bulk of last year, he’ll need reps so he can develop chemistry with his wide receiver corps.
Below the CBS Sports Fantasy staff will take a look into the Colts’ entire team outlook including changes to the top of the depth chart that matter for Fantasy, a burning question for Fantasy Football managers that needs to be answered, a review of their draft class, strength of schedule, and individual player outlooks for all of the notable Colts players who may end up on your Fantasy rosters.
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Colts 2024 lineup changes
Burning question: Will the coaching staff help Anthony Richardson to better protect himself?
Following the Colts’ 31-21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1, Trevor Lawrence told Richardson that he needs to “protect himself.” Just four weeks later, Richardson was sidelined for the remainder of his rookie season. At 6-foot-4, 244 pounds, Richardson is ultra-athletic. He’s run as fast as 4.43 in the 40-yard dash, and he has an absolute rocket for a right arm. Head coach Shane Steichen initially leaned on Richardson’s athleticism, but to ensure a full season, Steichen must limit designed quarterback runs. Richardson, too, must avoid leaving the pocket unnecessarily. Equipped with wide receivers who are capable of consistently winning against man coverage and running back Jonathan Taylor who is a viable checkdown option, Richardson should take considerably less punishment in 2024.
Colts 2024 schedule
| WK | DATE | OPP | TIME | TV | VENUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 8, 2024 | vsHouston | 1:00 pm | CBS | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 2 | Sep 15, 2024 | @Green Bay | 1:00 pm | FOX | Lambeau Field |
| 3 | Sep 22, 2024 | vsChicago | 1:00 pm | CBS | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 4 | Sep 29, 2024 | vsPittsburgh | 1:00 pm | CBS | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 5 | Oct 6, 2024 | @Jacksonville | 1:00 pm | CBS | EverBank Stadium |
| 6 | Oct 13, 2024 | @Tennessee | 1:00 pm | CBS | Nissan Stadium |
| 7 | Oct 20, 2024 | vsMiami | 1:00 pm | FOX | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 8 | Oct 27, 2024 | @Houston | 1:00 pm | CBS | NRG Stadium |
| 9 | Nov 3, 2024 | @Minnesota | 1:00 pm | CBS | U.S. Bank Stadium |
| 10 | Nov 10, 2024 | vsBuffalo | 1:00 pm | CBS | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 11 | Nov 17, 2024 | @N.Y. Jets | 8:20 pm | NBC | MetLife Stadium |
| 12 | Nov 24, 2024 | vsDetroit | 1:00 pm | FOX | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 13 | Dec 1, 2024 | @New England | 1:00 pm | CBS | Gillette Stadium |
| 14 | — | BYE | — | — | — |
| 15 | Dec 15, 2024 | @Denver | 4:25 pm | CBS | Empower Field at Mile High |
| 16 | Dec 22, 2024 | vsTennessee | 1:00 pm | CBS | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| 17 | Dec 29, 2024 | @N.Y. Giants | TBA | — | MetLife Stadium |
| 18 | Jan 5, 2025 | vsJacksonville | TBA | — | Lucas Oil Stadium |
Colts 2024 player outlooks
By Dan Schneier and CBS Fantasy staff
QB Anthony Richardson
Richardson’s combination of arm strength, arm talent, and rushing upside earned him a top-10 ranking across the board from our experts heading into his first NFL season. Richardson was a Fantasy superstar immediately, averaging 25.9 points per game in his two full starts. This would put him on pace to be the QB1 overall over a full season. Of course, Richardson didn’t play a full season and instead suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 5. In 2024, Richardson will once again be one of the highest-upside QBs in Fantasy Football, but he will carry a boom-or-bust profile due to his injury profile. The Colts added Adonai Mitchell at WR in the draft and Richardson will get the benefit of playing with Jonathan Taylor in 2024. If he stays healthy, Richardson will be a league-winning player who you can grab in the sixth round of your one-QB leagues.
QB Joe Flacco
Flacco signed with Indianapolis this offseason, and he will be the No. 2 quarterback for the Colts behind Anthony Richardson. Flacco is only worth drafting with a late-round pick in deep Superflex and two-quarterback leagues as insurance for Richardson, but Flacco shouldn’t play much if Richardson is healthy all season. That said, Richardson couldn’t finish his rookie campaign with a shoulder injury, and he also missed time with a concussion in 2023. Last year, Flacco was a hero for the Browns and Fantasy managers when he came off his couch to replace Deshaun Watson (shoulder) in Week 13, and Flacco scored at least 20.2 Fantasy points in five games in a row while leading Cleveland to the playoffs, including four outings with at least 309 passing yards. If Flacco, 39, does play this season then add him off the waiver wire, but it will likely take an injury for Flacco to be Fantasy relevant this year.
RB Jonathan Taylor
Taylor had a murky 2023 season due to injuries and a contract dispute, but he found his stride from Week 7 on when he earned the featured role in the Colts offense. Over that final stretch, Taylor averaged just fewer than 100 total yards per game (99.4) despite missing a three-game stretch from Weeks 13-15. With Anthony Richardson back at QB, Taylor should see more open run lanes with defenses accounting for the QB’s rushing ability. He should also see more red zone opportunities. Taylor is a locked-in RB1 and will be selected in the back half of Round 1 in most Fantasy leagues.
RB Trey Sermon
Sermon has been running as the Colts RB2 early in 2024 OTAs after a strong showing during his limited opportunities in 2023. Given Taylor’s injury history, Sermon will make for an excellent handcuff option should he maintain the RB2 role through training camp and the preseason. Sermon is worth allocating a pick in the final rounds of your drafts.
WR Michael Pittman
Pittman became the go-to target for Gardner Minshew in 2023. He earned 156 targets and turned them into 109 receptions and 1,110 receiving yards. His 30% target share ranked him among the league leaders. In 2024, his outlook changes with the Colts moving on from Minshew and Anthony Richardson returning to the lineup as the starter. There is more variance in Pittman’s profile after the team added Adonai Mitchell at WR in the draft and because it’s unknown how Richardson will distribute the football. Pittman is a third-round pick in Fantasy drafts but he has a lower floor than most WRs coming off the board in this range.
WR Josh Downs
Downs displayed an immediate rapport with Anthony Richardson in 2023, but Richardson’s time as the starter was short-lived. Downs still managed to create separation and rack up 68 receptions and 771 receiving yards with Gardner Minshew. Downs only cashed in on two touchdowns all season long and is a better fit in full-point PPR leagues. In all PPR formats, Downs is worth selecting as early as the 12th round. In standard scoring, he should come off the board a round or two later.
WR Adonai Mitchell
Mitchell enters the NFL with a lacking production profile, but he draws the praise of those who studied his game film due to his freakish combination of size, speed, and footwork. He will have the opportunity to immediately win one-on-one matchups in the red zone and should have blow-up weeks where he scores one or multiple touchdowns. Mitchell is a high-upside swing in Rounds 11-13 of your drafts due to his athletic profile and the upside of how that fits with Anthony Richardson and his plus arm strength and arm talent.
K Matt Gay
Gay finished with the fifth-most Fantasy points overall in 2023 and the fifth-most field goals made. With Anthony Richardson returning to the lineup, it could mean fewer field goal opportunities but more scoring opportunities for Gay in 2024. He is a fine target as your starting kicker and should remain in the K1 mix in 2024.
Colts DST
The Colts DST scored the 11th-most Fantasy points per game in large part due to their five combined defensive and special teams touchdowns. The defensive scheme puts the players in a position to create turnovers but there will be regression coming on the touchdown front. With the majority of the team’s offseason investments spent to improve the offense around Anthony Richardson, you might want to pass on the Colts and opt for a higher-upside DST in that fringe DST1/2 range at the end of drafts.
Robert “RJ” Williams Jr.’s aunt speaks after his body recovered in White River
Patricia Madison, who identified herself as Robert “RJ” Williams’ aunt, speaks to media near where her nephew was recovered from the White River on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Broad Ripple.
Police recovered the body of a missing 16-year-old with autism Jan. 3 in the White River, a few hundred feet from the Broad Ripple McDonald’s, where he was last seen.
Emergency personnel loaded the body of Robert “RJ” Williams Jr., shielded by baby blue sheets, into the coroner’s van Saturday afternoon. Family members stood nearby, grasping each other in hugs. A ‘missing’ poster for Williams was taped to the wooden steps leading down to the water where his body was found.
“RJ was a good kid. He didn’t bother nobody,” Williams’ aunt Patricia Madison said through tears. “He loved his family, and now he’s gone.”
Police had been searching for Williams after he was last seen between a McDonald’s and a bus stop on Dec. 17 in the 1100 block of Broad Ripple Avenue, according to a missing person’s flyer. It also stated that he suffered from mood disorders and had a history of psychosis. The flier also said he had the “mentality of a 10 or 11-year-old.”
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Capt. William Carter said they do not suspect any foul play. Cameras in the area caught footage of Williams walking toward the river dock, he said. They also obtained the last message he sent, he said, where he said he was walking on the ice and sent a picture.
Around 1 p.m. on Jan. 3, an officer identified what looked to be a person under the water’s surface while conducting a drone search. A dive team and first responders then recovered the body, and family members identified him as Williams.
Capt. William Carter speaks after Robert “RJ” Williams Jr. found in White River
Capt. William Carter speaks on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Broad Ripple.
“That’s obviously a heartbreaking development in a case that has deeply affected our community. It’s not the outcome we had hoped for,” Carter said. “We do extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.”
The discovery ended over three weeks of police and community search efforts. On Jan. 2, IMPD confirmed it was shifting to a recovery process, believing he fell into the river. Detectives and IMPD’s K9s searched the area and located a backpack and gym bag belonging to the teen on a dock along White River, police said previously.
Steps away from the river, Madison said it was difficult to know they had been searching for weeks, but he was so close. She said he loved video games and was close with her son. She stressed how close she and Williams were, being both his caregiver and basketball coach, and how she was more than an aunt.
“RJ was loving, caring, and he would do anything for anybody. He didn’t like people to be bullied,” she said. “He loved his dad and his mom and his sisters, all his family very much. RJ was loved by everybody that he came in contact with.”
Now, with closure that he was found, Madison said his family will try to move on. She asked that people with relatives who have mental disabilities keep them close and make sure they are aware of their surroundings.
The case rallied many in the community. Dozens of neighbors have gathered on multiple occasions to search the area and put up posters.
“It means a lot to us because people just came out of nowhere asking to help look for him,” she said. “People we didn’t even know, never met, that was willing to help. They have literally been helping us every single day, looking for him.”
Several of those who sought to find Williams showed up to pray and give support Saturday as police retrieved his body. Debra Porter, who knew the family through school, said the neighborhood came out to uplift the family, and she said she hopes this tragedy brings the community closer.
“Our heart goes out to another mother. Our heart goes out to another family. Our hearts go out to those that are suffering. That’s where our hearts are,” she said. “We come together as one another, just embracing one another and supporting.”
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Have a story to tell? Reach Cate Charron by email at ccharron@indystar.com, on X at @CateCharron or Signal at @cate.charron.28.
INDIANAPOLIS — Philip Rivers wasn’t able to change the course of this Colts season.
A promising campaign that seemed lost when Daniel Jones tore his Achilles tendon in Jacksonville effectively ended when the team was eliminated from the playoffs before Rivers led the Colts onto the field against the Jaguars again.
The collapse, the kind that hasn’t been seen in the NFL in thirty years, prompts big questions about the future of the franchise, questions that can only be answered definitively by Carlie Irsay-Gordon in her first year as principal owner.
Those answers will come later.
For the moment, it is OK to appreciate what Rivers brought to Indianapolis, the NFL and the sport at large at the age of 44, even though he wasn’t able to make the Colts’ wildest dreams come true by leading the team to the playoffs.
“If this was the last one … shoot,” Rivers said. “I told you guys I wouldn’t have any regrets about coming back and I don’t. Other than us not winning, right – us not winning. It’s been an absolute blast for three weeks.”
Three starts in December at the age of 44 were not going to change Rivers’ Hall of Fame credentials. Not unless he somehow led the Colts to a Super Bowl, the sort of fairy-tale ending that would have been in production at Disney before the halftime show began in Santa Clara.
But the three starts Rivers made in December gave the NFL world a chance to fully appreciate what made Rivers great, on the field and off, as a representative of the game.
Rivers wasn’t the same player he’d been in 2020.
Far from it. The old shotput motion was still there, but he clearly had less velocity on his throws, leading to misses that Rivers could have made in his sleep the last time he took the field. After a surprising performance against San Francisco on Monday Night, Rivers fell back to Earth on Sunday.
“I thought this was probably the worst game I’ve had of the three,” Rivers said. “Just couldn’t get in really any sync or rhythm.”
The game-changing interception Rivers threw in the fourth quarter brought home his diminished physical ability. Rivers fluttered an out route to slot receiver Josh Downs, leaving plenty of time for Jacksonville cornerback Jarrian Jones to undercut it for a pick.
“I wasn’t fooled by any means,” Rivers said. “It was just a bad throw.”
The throws shouldn’t be the takeaway from these three starts.
Rivers wasn’t fooled. By just about anything. Five seasons after he last started in the NFL, Rivers flew back into Indianapolis on the whim of Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard, stepped back into a quarterback meeting room and immediately knew more than almost anybody else in the league.
In the history of the NFL, for that matter. Only a few quarterbacks have ever been able to process information at the line of scrimmage like Rivers, a 44-year-old who kept shocking the Colts with his ability to see what was coming.
Wide receiver Alec Pierce got a taste in Rivers’ first start. When Pierce looked at Seattle’s defense, he saw the Seahawks in a pressure look the Colts had seen on tape, and he told Rivers the blitz was coming.
Rivers shrugged it off, told Pierce the Seahawks were bluffing.
The 44-year-old was right, just like he was right on Monday night, when San Francisco showed a look that offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter was sure indicated a blitz from the right, leaving him shocked when Rivers shuffled the protection to the left.
Rivers was right again. He’s almost always right, looking across the line at defenses like Keanu Reeves looking into the lines of the matrix.
“It’s really just that he’s probably seen it before, so it’s probably not even a matrix,” Colts running back Jonathan Taylor said. “I’ve seen this a couple years ago, and he’ll probably tell you the exact game, the drive, the actual down it was. So, he’s seen a lot of ball, so it’s not much you can throw at him at all.”
Taylor’s right. Rivers never forgets anything.
What makes him special is that he can access all of that information in a split second. When a coach talks about a quarterback going through his progressions, he’s often talking about a decision the quarterback makes after the snap.
Rivers goes through his progressions before he’s even finished calling the cadence.
That’s how a 44-year-old quarterback with diminished arm strength can complete 63% of his passes over three games, throwing four touchdowns and three interceptions to post an 80.2 quarterback rating, numbers that aren’t impressive for a 30-year-old starting quarterback but take on new meaning for a man who’s been calling plays at the high school level for five years.
“For Philip to come off the couch with a couple days of practice, go into Seattle and take them down to the wire, then come in here, and the past two weeks, I’ve thought he played well,” wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. “That just says a lot about him, that he can still go toe-to-toe with some of the best teams at, what is he, 40-something? Phil’s up there.”
Rivers’ genius on the field is something only a handful of quarterbacks have ever been able to replicate.
The quarterback’s love of the game, and the way he approached these three starts in December, is something that can inspire anybody.
Rivers had plenty of reasons to rebuff the Colts, namely the tidal wave of public opinion that started flowing as soon as his decision to fly to Indianapolis became public.
But few people have ever loved anything as much as Rivers loves football, and as he’s said plenty of times since answering the Colts’ call, he wasn’t about to let the negative possibilities of what might happen affect his decision to play, even after Indianapolis was eliminated from the playoffs by Houston’s win on Saturday night.
“The message amongst all of us was like, ‘Hey, we get to play in an NFL football game. We signed up for all of them. They pay you for all of them, and you go out there and play,’” Rivers said. “The thought of meaningless games — which I know that gets thrown around, and it is in the sense of it doesn’t affect the postseason, there’s no impact on the postseason — but to say a game is meaningless is not in my DNA.”
That’s what draws people to sports, why so many keep playing pickup basketball or city-league softball long after their actual playing days or over, or why they start taking golf lessons to get that handicap down into single digits.
Win or lose, Rivers loves playing.
For the sake of playing itself, even though Sunday’s loss to Jacksonville might have been the last NFL game he starts.
“If I’d go back and say, ‘All right, now you know everything that is going to happen. What are you going to do?’ I’d do it all again,” Rivers said. “It’s been absolutely awesome. I mean, if it’s the last one, it’s the last one. … If it is, I got three bonus games that I never saw coming.”
Three games in December that should only make the NFL world appreciate Rivers more.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
Jarrian Jones, Antonio Johnson pulled down interceptions, Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen logged crucial late-game sacks
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The Jacksonville Jaguars defense rewrote a few narratives on Dec. 28 in their 23-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The most important flip of the script happened in-game: After yielding 10 points and 112 yards on the Colts’ first two possessions, the Jaguars gave up only one more score (aided by a 55-yard kickoff return by Ashton Dulin in the third quarter) and 92 total yards the rest of the game, forcing four punts, two turnovers and a turnover on downs.
After gaining 48 yards on 11 carries on the Colts’ first two possessions, running back Jonathan Taylor had only 32 yards on 10 carries the rest of the game for 70 yards on 21 carries, the first time he’s failed to gain 100 or more yards against the Jaguars at home.
Phillip Rivers, the 44-year-old grandfather who returned to play this year after retiring in 2021, completed 7 of 11 passes for 52 yards on his first two turns with the ball, then went 10 of 19 for 95 yards.
Jarrian Jones and Antonio Johnson pulled down interceptions, with Jones’ second pick in two weeks leading to Cam Little’s tie-breaking field goal with 6:58 left. Johnson’s pick came in the end zone on a desperation heave by Riley Leonard, brought into the game for the final play from the Jaguars’48 because there are limits to a 44-year-old arm.
Jaguars finally got to Phillip Rivers
Because the Colts’ game plan was obvious ― get the ball out of Rivers’ hand as quickly as possible to keep him from being a sitting duck for the Jaguars pass rush ― it took some time for the Jaguars to get to him.
It finally happened in the second half. Travon Walker twisted out of a double team by two tight ends lined up on the same side, Tyler Warren and Mo Alie-Cox, and got to Rivers for a 6-yard loss in the third quarter on the final play of the third quarter, which led to a punt. Walker now has 3.5 sacks for the season.
Walker also figured in the second sack. Battling through another double-team against right guard Matt Goncalves and right tackle Jalen Travis, Walker forced Rivers to his left. Rivers ran into his own left tackle, Bernhard Raimann, who was in the process of being thrown backwards by Josh Hines-Allen.
Raimann knocked Rivers down, and Hines-Allen got credited for his team-high eighth sack of the season.
Walker had another tackle for a loss against Taylor, with the Jaguars getting four in the game. The secondary (without Jourdan Lewis for the rest of the season), was led by cornerback Montaric Brown with five tackles and two pass deflections. Six other Jaguar players had at least one pass defensed.
Safety Eric Murray had four tackles and deflected the ball that Jones intercepted.
Jaguars shackled Colts Big Three
The other narratives the Jaguars changed were long-term frustrations with three Colts players in particular, Rivers, Taylor and wide receiver Alec Pierce.
Rivers entered the game 8-2 versus the Jaguars as a starter, but two of the three losses have come when he was in a Colts’ uniform.
Taylor has been a monster against the Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium. In three previous starts at home, he ran for 546 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 6.4 yards per carry. His lowest production against the Jaguars was 116 yards in a 2021 game.
Pierce had 17 receptions for 350 yards and four touchdowns (20.6 per catch) in eight career games against the Jaguars and had 10 for 271 yards and two scores in his last three games against the Jags. But Pierce was blanked this time: no receptions on five targets.
The Jaguars also played stout on third down after the first two possessions, when the Colts converted two third downs and scored on Taylor’s third-and-goal run from the 2.
From then on, the Colts converted only two of 11 on third down and failed on a fourth-down attempt.
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