The Titans ruled running back Tony Pollard out for Week 17 against the Jaguars with an ankle injury and an illness.

Originally listed as questionable, Pollard now will not travel with the team. This sets Tyjae Spears up for a bigger workload Sunday in a very favorable matchup against the Jaguars leaky run defense. Spears can be viewed as a RB2 with RB1 upside.

Tyjae Spears in concussion protocol.

Related players: Tony Pollard, Julius Chestnut

Spears was back in action in Week 10 and essentially split the work with seven carries and a team-high 47 yards rushing with three catches for four yards. Pollard out-touched Spears 13-10 in the game. This past week Spears exited early but the running game was held in check. If Spears can't play in Week 12, Pollard would likely lead the way, but it would be a tough matchup against the Texans.

Titans RB Tyjae Spears is listed out for Sunday’s game on Tennessee’s injury report.

RB Tony Pollard is listed as questionable.

WR Calvin Ridley is off the injury report.

Related Players: Julius Chestnut

It looks like this could be the Chestnut show, but we won't know until Sunday. If that is the case, this is a situation we should save for DFS contests, not necessarily in redraft lineups.

Tyjae Spears, Keondre Coburn, Treylon Burks are OUT for the Titans

Related Players: Tony Pollard, Julius Chestnut

In a follow-up tweet, Kuharsky mentioned that Burks may be heading to IR, so he can freely be dropped, even in Dynasty leagues.

Pollard should get a massive role this weekend, and profiles as a potential RB1.

Titans coach Brian Callahan tells reporters that RB Tyjae Spears is considered week-to-week with a hamstring injury.

Related players: Tony Pollard, Julius Chestnut

The week to week designation means Spears is very much in doubt for Week 7 and could miss more time than that. Any time missed should mean a potential bump in fantasy value for Pollard with RB3 Chestnut possibly also mixing in.

Tyjae Spears will likely be listed as QUESTIONABLE but Brian Callahan expects him to be good to go for the Titans on Sunday.

Related Players: Tony Pollard, Julius Chestnut

Spears left the Titans' Week 2 game late, but has still been far out-touched by Pollard through their first two matchups. Pollard has 43 opportunities to Spears' 16, making the latter un-startable in fantasy until he shows he can steal more of the workload. Pollard is a low-end RB2 against the Packers.

And Tyjae Spears should be OK... Nothing major.

Related players: Tony Pollard

Spears is the RB2 behind Pollard, who finished with 17 carries and 62 yards, but maybe more important was Pollard collecting five catches for 40 yards. It looks like Spears should be good for Week 3 - and we'll continue to monitor how practice goes this week, however, Spears looks to be running behind Pollard at this point.

The distribution of touches for Titans RBs wasn't where Brian Callahan wanted it to be. But he noted that Tony Pollard ran the ball well and in the 2nd half they had trouble sustaining drives which hindered opportunities to get others involved.

Related players: Tyjae Spears

Pollard was the top back in Week 1 despite a summer full of seeing both Pollard and Spears listed as RB1 on the depth chart and talks of a split in workload. While that wasn't the case, the good news here for Spears and his fantasy owners is there is at least some coach-speak about getting more of a balance in touches going forward. Pollard had 19 touches to Spears' 8 in Week 1. Spears owners may have to use the "wait-and-see" approach with Spears before putting him in lineups for Week 2, however.

While they moved quickly to sign Tony Pollard in March, they don’t project the former Cowboy will play a similar role to the one that Travis Henry filled in Tennessee. Last year’s third-round pick Tyjae Spears is also on hand and head coach Brian Callahan made it clear on Tuesday that he expects both players to see plenty of time in the offense this season.

“The fun part for me is: How are we going to deploy those guys?,” Callahan said, via the team’s website. “Maybe they both play at the same time, maybe one gets hot and you let him run, maybe we just rotate back and forth. I don’t know what that’s going to look like yet. But they are both going to play quite a bit of football for us, and I don’t view either one of them as a starter or a back-up. They are both starting players to me.”

Not exactly what fantasy owners want to hear. The statement makes a lot of sense and probably shouldn't come as a surprise. However, many consider Pollard and Spears to be of the same mold. As you would expect, the expectation of both players seeing lots of time puts a hit on their rankings. We have Pollard ranked 32nd and Spears 34th, with Pollard's ADP in the 8th round and Spears' the 9th round. Hopefully we get a better feel by the time fantasy drafts come around, but it looks like both players could be Zero RB targets for those using that approach.

Rico Dowdle, an undrafted, 26-year-old running back, functioned as the Cowboys No. 2 running back behind Tony Pollard in 2023 at the age of 25, but in 2024, there's the chance he may end up leading Dallas in carries in the regular season.

"Definitely, he's had a good off season, looks great," HC Mike McCarthy said at Cowboys OTAs on May 30. "You know, I think just like anytime these guys have a chance to really hone in their training. So, Rico's done an excellent job there. Very comfortable [with him]. He's very, very bright, very instinctive football player. So, he's definitely one of the the lead lead guys in the room as far as his experience here, but also his understanding of the offense."

Related players: Ezekiel Elliott, Deuce Vaughn

Dowdle was listed among five potential Cowboys breakout candidates for this coming season. Dowdle compared his running style to Elliott's, just smaller in size, and he believes he is more of an all-around RB. In the story, Elliott said he views himself as a starter but also wants to keep himself fresh for a stretch run and potential playoff run, meaning Dowdle could get significant work in the offense. The Cowboys RB situation is just one of many things to keep an eye on this offseason.