Buy or Sell: Frank Gore

Frank Gore
ADP: 41.8
RB: 17

After 10 solid years in San Francisco, Frank Gore has shuffled off to Indianapolis, where he’s already raving about the play of QB Andrew Luck. The Colts are hoping to take the next step toward a championship and they think Gore’s got enough left in the tank where his skills and leadership can help. At 32, does he have what it takes to put up the numbers to help fantasy players win championships too?

Buy: Vomhof

I’m all in on Frank Gore this season.

In fact, there probably isn’t any fantasy player I like more at their current ADP than I like Gore at his. There’s just so much to like about his situation this year.

First and foremost, he’s going to be the lead back in one of the NFL’s top offenses. The Colts ranked third in yards (6,506) and sixth in points (458) in 2014, and now they’ve added Gore, Andre Johnson and Phillip Dorsett to the mix. They’re going to score points like they’re playing Madden this year—and that means Gore is going to get plenty of easy scoring opportunities.

Gore racked up 1,217 total yards and five TDs last season in the 49ers’ slow and low-scoring offense. I could easily see him matching or exceeding the yardage with the Colts this year, and doubling his TD total to 10 might actually be his floor.

Yes, I know Gore is 32 years old, but he hasn’t missed a start since 2011. And he looked sharp while averaging 4.34 yards per carry last season in San Francisco.

Plus, he won’t be overworked in the Colts’ pass-heavy offense. He’ll get enough touches to keep defenses honest and open things up for Andrew Luck, and he even figures to get more work in the passing game. (Gore caught just 11 passes in San Fran last year, while Ahmad Bradshaw caught 38 in just 10 games for the Colts. And, in 2013, Donald Brown and Trent Richardson combined for 55 catches.)

The key here is Gore’s ADP—he’s going off the board around 41 overall and 17th among running backs. He’s even going after guys like Alfred Morris and Carlos Hyde. … Are you kidding me?!

I absolutely love Gore at that price. I think he’s a lock to finish as a top RB2 this year, and he could easily finish in the top 10.

So go ahead and grab one or two of the elite wide receivers in the first and second rounds, then snatch up an absurdly underpriced Gore in the third or fourth. It might just win you your league.

Sell: Andy

First, let me qualify this. I love the signing of Frank Gore for Indianapolis from a pure football perspective. By all accounts, he is energized by playing with rising star Andrew Luck at QB he’ll be the most well-rounded back this team has had in a few years.

That said, he’s 32, and in football years, for a RB, that’s like 224.

Let’s do a deep dive on Gore’s 2014 season. He rushed for 1,106 yards at a 4.3 per carry clip. But a full 27 percent of those yards and 20 percent of those carries came in the last two games. Before that, he had played 14 games and produced 804 yards, a 3.9 ypc clip. Before toting the rock 51 times the last two games, he’d had just two previous 20-plus carry games all season and those last two games doubled his triple-digit yardage game total for the year to four.

The thing is, from the 49ers perspective, this was the right thing to do – limit Gore’s usage so that he doesn’t wear down. Maybe the last two games show he CAN produce those kinds of numbers on a regular basis, but more likely at his age, if he regularly got 25 carries per game he’d wear out at the midway point or get hurt. Sure, injuries are always possible, but RBs at an advanced age are even more prone. And it was some wise coach somewhere who once said he’d rather get rid of an aging player whose career was wearing down a year too early rather than hang onto him one season too late.

Giving me additional pause, Gore goes from a team that had the ninth best offensive line in the league – fifth-best run blocking, led by Joe Staley and Mike Iupati (who has since moved on to Arizona) – according to Pro Football Focus, to a team that improved on the line but still ranked just 17^th. If Gore is putting up relatively pedestrian numbers behind one of the best run blocking lines in the league, what’s he going to do behind a middling unit whose personnel did not improve during the offseason?

Now, in Gore’s favor, at least health-wise, he’ll be maybe the third or fourth option on the offense, given that this should be a pass-first team with plenty of weapons. And Gore likely will be more utilized in the pass game, giving him some touches that won’t involve taking hits right on the line of scrimmage.

I do think Gore will help Indy take another step toward a championship. I also think he will have some solid fantasy games. I do not think Gore will be a consistently great fantasy option. You can’t turn back time, so I think Colts coaches would be smart to limit his touches, taking opportunities early in the season to work in promising cohorts like Josh Robinson. But for fantasy purposes, there are just too many mouths to feed.

So, would I take Gore on my team as a bye week fill in or as an injury sub? Yeah, probably. But where Gore is going in drafts, I’d rather grab someone a bit younger with a little less wear and tear on the body.

Previous Buy/Sell: T.J. Yeldon
Next Buy/Sell: Justin Forsett