Fantasy Football News

The Colts are trading LB Zaire Franklin to the Packers for DL Colby Wooden. Franklin spent eight years with the Colts and arrives with two left on his contract.

Colts LB Zaire Franklin (knee) is active for today's game against the Patriots. Play him as usual in your IDP lineups.

Colts LB Zaire Franklin (knee) is questionable for Sunday's game against the Patriots. He appears to be trending toward returning after missing last week's game, though. Franklin sat out Wednesday but returned to a limited Thursday workout and then practiced in full Friday. We'll check his status Sunday. The Colts have ruled CB JuJu Brents (quad) out for the second straight game.

The Colts have downgraded LB Zaire Franklin to doubtful for Sunday's game against the Panthers for the knee injury that kept him out of practice all week. That should leave Shaquille Leonard and E.J. Speed as the top two LBs for Indy in this game. Check our Week 9 LB rankings to see how high each has risen.

Colts LB Zaire Franklin missed his third straight practice Friday with a knee injury. Mike Chappell of Fox 59 in Indianapolis reports that Franklin will be a game-time decision. Unfortunately, that game carries a 4:05 p.m. ET kickoff. So we might not know Franklin's status until after the first set of Sunday games has begun. On top of that, Franklin figures to carry some re-injury risk even if active. It'll be scary to sit fantasy's No. 2 scoring LB (in most formats) for anyone if he's active. But we're moving Franklin down the Week 9 LB rankings for those risk factors. E.J. Speed would likely see full or near-full playing time if Franklin goes inactive.

Colts LB Zaire Franklin missed his second Thursday with a knee injury he sustained in Sunday's loss to the Saints. He returned quickly, though, and missed just two of Indy's defensive snaps for the game. That makes his practice absences a bit surprising. Friday should tell us whether they were more maintenance days of if Franklin is in danger of missing Sunday's clash with the Panthers. E.J. Speed would likely pick up more playing time if Zaire Franklin can't go and makes sense as a stash right now in deeper IDP leagues.

The Colts on Sunday added LB Zaire Franklin to the injury report as questionable for Monday night's game against the Steelers because of illness. We'll check his status when the inactives come out. If Franklin sits, E.J. Speed should be the next LB up to join Bobby Okereke. Indianapolis also downgraded EDGE Kwity Paye (ankle) to out for the game. The team is reportedly optimistic about having DT DeForest Buckner (ribs, illness) and EDGE Yannick Ngakoue (back) available. Both are officially questionable.

Colts LB Shaquille Leonard had back surgery Tuesday and will miss the rest of the season. The operation was reportedly successful, so he should have time to get ready for 2023. In the meantime, Zaire Franklin and Bobby Okereke should be locked in as Indy's full-time LBs the rest of this season.

Colts LB Shaquille Leonard will play Sunday against the Commanders, though he's not yet going full time. "He’s ahead of schedule, but not quite there yet so he will be on a pitch count," HC Frank Reich told the Indianapolis Star. "We feel he is the best defensive player in the league. Our goal is to get him out there for 100 percent of the snaps as soon as we can, but we’re just not quite there yet." Leonard is coming off surgery for a broken nose, as well as a concussion. That followed a slow start to the year coming off June back surgery. It's tough to know just how many snaps Leonard will play, but we've boosted Zaire Franklin to full playing time and moved him way up the Week 8 IDP rankings. He played 100% in the 1 game that has included Leonard so far this year (Week 4).

Colts LB Shaquille Leonard practiced in full Wednesday and was listed only for the back issue, which was the June surgery whose recovery kept him out to open the season. It's good news that the team isn't listing his broken nose that required more recent surgery. Leonard's inactivity in the wake of that kept HC Frank Reich from playing him in last week's loss at Tennessee, despite full practices leading up to the weekend. Leonard seems to be on track to return for this Sunday's game against Washington. That would likely take playing time away from IDP revelation Zaire Franklin. We'll watch for word on whether Leonard will immediately assume a full-time role.

Colts LB Shaquille Leonard suffered a broken nose in addition to his concussion in Sunday's loss to the Titans. HC Frank Reich said Tuesday that issue might keep Leonard out beyond his concussion recovery but that the team won't know until "significant swelling subsides," according to ESPN's Stephen Holder. We'll see about that return timeline. In the meantime, LB Zaire Franklin continues as a full-timer next to Bobby Okereke.