Fantasy Football: Are Concerns about T.Y. Hilton's Role Legitimate?

If you are a fantasy football player, you might be wondering what to do with Colts wide receiver T.Y. Hilton.  He's currently ranked around the 20-25th best fantasy receiver in many projections, and that's certainly respectable, but many have concerns about how much Hilton is really going to factor into the offense.

Hilton himself fed this concern when he said that the Colts "have three number one wideouts."  Because he's right - between himself, Reggie Wayne, and Hakeem Nicks, the Colts have three guys who have played as a number one wide receiver and who can play as a number one wide receiver.  Even more, the Colts also have guys like Donte Moncrief, Da'Rick Rogers, and Griff Whalen at receiver, plus Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener at tight end.  Considering that the Colts run a two tight end offense, leaving just two receivers on the field in their base offensive formation, plenty of Colts fans and plenty of fantasy football players have felt hesitant about Hilton's fantasy value.

Allow me to quell those concerns.  T.Y. Hilton isn't going to be spending time on the bench.  Because even though the Colts are a team with three number one wide receivers, there will only be one receiver truly functioning as the number one receiver on the team.  And that's T.Y. Hilton.  He'll be on the field a lot.  In the Colts base offense, it will most often be T.Y. Hilton and Reggie Wayne.  Then, when they add in Hakeem Nicks in a three wide receiver set, Wayne will most often move inside to the slot.  T.Y. Hilton's role will remain unchanged no matter what the Colts do with the other receivers.  Now, that's not to say that Hilton will be playing every snap every game, but I'd be surprised if (barring injury) Hilton doesn't play the most of any of the receivers for the Colts.

So now we get to the big question.  Last year, T.Y. Hilton caught 82 passes for 1,083 yards and 5 touchdowns.  Will his stats for this year be better or worse than his numbers last year?  I think the only people who would tell you that his stats will decrease would be those with the fears about how much playing time Hilton will get this year.  But once you see that Hilton is clearly the number one receiver for the Colts, and then once you watch the timing that he has with Andrew Luck, you realize that Hilton could be in for a bigger year in 2014 than he had in 2013.  In fact, I'd expect it.  Don't be afraid of T.Y. Hilton just because other people have fears about the offense.

Editor's Note: SB Nation's partner FanDuel is hosting a $100,000 Fantasy Football Contest for Week 1's NFL games. It's only $10 to join and first prize is $10,000. Starts Sunday, September 7th at 1pm ET. Here's the link.