Getty Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich sent fantasy football owners a message on May 25.
Statistics for fantasy football aren’t often on the minds of NFL head coaches.
But it apparently was on the mind of Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich on May 25 when he talked about running back Nyheim Hines during a press conference.
Reich sent a clear message to fantasy football managers that, despite playing behind the NFL’s reigning leader in rushing, Hines is a guy to have on the radar.
“I was just laughing with [Matt] Conti (Colts senior director of football communications) coming in here, talking about Nyheim,” Reich said. “I said, ‘If I was a fantasy owner, if I was going to be in a fantasy league, I think I’d pick Nyheim this year. I think I’d consider drafting Nyheim. I think it’s worth to consider drafting him.’”
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Colts’ Desire to Involve Nyheim Hines in the Passing Game
Reich sent his message to fantasy managers about Hines with a bit of a smile. That’s probably because, deep down, he doesn’t care at all about what Hines provides from a fantasy perspective.
But Reich does want Hines to produce in reality, and the coach is smart enough to know that if Hines does that, he’s going to be valuable in fantasy.
“We all know Nyheim (Hines) is a playmaker and we want to feature him,” said Reich.
The head coach also stressed that the great thing about having a veteran quarterback such as Matt Ryan is that he’s not going to force the ball to one guy. Reich emphasized that Hines isn’t going to be targeted to pad his stats this year. But he did say it’s one of the team’s goal to have him heavily involved naturally.
“It’s incumbent upon us to spread the ball around, number one,” Reich said. “But also, hey, would we like to have Nyheim be up there as far as at the end of the season when you tally up who has the catches, do we want Nyheim to kind of be one of those top three guys? Probably, yeah.”
Nyheim Hines the Cordarrelle Patterson of the Colts in 2022?
Yours truly has written a few times this offseason that it appears as though the Colts want Hines to be what Cordarrelle Patterson was to Matt Ryan with the Atlanta Falcons last year.
Patterson was Atlanta’s best all-around back in 2021, and he was particularly lethal through the air. He set or tied new career highs with 52 catches, 548 receiving yards and five touchdowns. Patterson led the Falcons with 11 total touchdowns and recorded 1,166 yards from scrimmage.
Prior to last season, Patterson’s previous career best in yards from scrimmage was 627 in 2013.
Hines probably won’t reach 1,000 yards from scrimmage unless Jonathan Taylor misses time because of an injury. But Hines can make a Patterson-like impact in the passing game with Ryan behind center.
Hines has 210 catches, 1,537 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns in his four-year NFL career. Last season, he had 40 receptions for 310 yards with one score.
In 2020 with Philip Rivers behind center (instead of Carson Wentz last year), Hines had 63 receptions, 482 receiving yards and four touchdowns.