Fred Taylor's Profile at Pro-Football-Reference

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Drop Dead Fred

Seven years ago, it would have been impossible to envision a time in which Fred Taylor would be a poster-boy for dependability.  After having three of his first four years largely defined by injury, folks are even starting to ponder Fred’s chances as a Hall-of-Fame candidate.   He has ground out 11,271 career rushing yards for an average of 1000+ over his 11 year career.  He sits 16^th overall on the all-time rushing yards list.  Fragile Fred is no more.

When healthy, Taylor is one of the league’s toughest backs.  A strong and confident runner, Taylor has made a living pounding the ball up the middle and posting a career average of 4.6 yards per carry.  For his age, Taylor also has some speed to burn in the open field, ripping off 70+ yard runs in ’05, ’06, and ’07.

The Hall Way

Fred is hitting that point in his career where based on shear numbers and tenacity, he is starting to be at least discussed as a future Hall-of-Fame candidate.  He would need to have a couple more 1,000+ yard seasons to be further considered.  We are going to assume that one pro-bowl and one All-Pro season (both in 2007) is a tough sell to the HOF voters.  If he can crack the top five all-time rushing yards leader list, though, we feel he has a very legitimate shot.  There is a lot to be said about finishing the race and withstanding the test of time.   If Freddie can produce at that rate and help his new team to win a Super Bowl or two along the way, he is guaranteed a spot.  We’re pullin’ for you Freddie T.

new digs

If Fred happens to be intent on making a HOF run in the twilight of his career, there is not a better team he could have landed on.  It is true that Belichick has consistently employed a RBBC over the years and has the RBs to do it on top of Fred (Sammy Morris and Laurence Maroney).  However, Taylor is more talented than Morris and more durable than Maroney.  Running lanes on the Patriots will be as gaping as the holes on US borders - assuming Brady stays healthy.   The best offensive balance Taylor has ever experienced was in the days when Keenan McCardell and Jimmy Smith were lined up on opposite sides, but Mark Brunell and Byron Leftwhich were nothing for opposing defenses to sweat.  If anything, Smith and McCardell benefited from the threat of Fred in the backfield.   It’s a bit of a role reversal when you speak in terms of Brady, Randy Moss, and Wes Welker.  Oh and they inked Joey Galloway this off-season, too.  That’s quite an aerial assault.

2009 Fantasy Outlook

Taylor will see the bulk of the carries relative to the Patriot RBBC which net him about 200 or so carries and 230 total touches.  Let’s be honest, though.  Maroney’s chances of making it through a season are about as good as you hooking up with a girl on AdultFriendFinder.com that weighs less than 250 pounds.  Fred is still capable of shouldering every down duties which gives him some upside relative to where he will be drafted this season.

Taylor has a Dian Fossey-sized monkey on his back this year, so he’ll come into the 2009 season motivated and ready to prove the Jaguars wrong for having dismissed him.  The Jags did make the right move, considering both his large salary cap figure and the fact that an All-Pro in waiting (MJD) is ready to explode.  However, the Pats were wise to pounce on the situation, yet we still have to hedge a bit with Fred as the Pats will split those carries up among four RBs, leaving Fred with about 230 touches for the season at best.