Patriots HC Bill Belichick knows the type of player Taylor is and is concerned about his athleticism.
"We want to try to keep him out of those situations as much as possible," Belichick said Wednesday. "We don’t want him extending the play. He’s a lot better at extending the plays than we are. Inevitably, those are going to come up and we're going to have to defend them. The more that we can limit those loose plays, extended plays, I think the better off we'll be.
"I don’t think you can eliminate them completely, but we certainly aren’t looking to get into those situations. Go back, let him run around, let him extend the play and see if we can defend it. We're certainly not trying to do that and no team has been very successful with that with him. He’s very good. If you don’t let him run laterally and throw the ball, he can run up the middle and run the ball and he’s hard to tackle."
Earlier in the season, the Patriots defense was one fantasy owners picked on with quarterbacks, as they allowed an average of 23.88 fantasy points per game to the position from Week 1 to Week 7.
During that span, they allowed 20 or more rushing yards four times, with the more mobile Deshaun Watson and Cam Newton reaching the 40-yard mark. Taylor definitely fits the mold of a mobile, rushing quarterback and has had some success on the ground versus the Patriots in the past.
Since becoming a Bill, Taylor has faced the Pats four times. He has rushed for at least 28 yards three times, with two games of 40+ yards and a touchdown. His rushing ability boosts his fantasy floor. It's a very good matchup for Taylor this week as the Pats rank 19th in aFPA vs. QBs. We have Taylor ranked as our No. 10 QB, so feel free to start him with confidence.
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