The age of 30 has been a statistical death sentence for countless running backs in the National Football League ... unless of course, your name is Frank Gore.
Gore, who is entering his age-32 season, will join the Indianapolis Colts (and not the Philadelphia Eagles) and becomes the new starter for coach Chuck Pagano. Despite his extended age and over 2,400 regular-season carries (including the third-most in the NFL since 2011), Gore has remained a productive runner. He has rushed for over 1,100 yards in each of his last four seasons, and has maintained a respectable 4.35 yards-per-attempt average in that time.
In Indianapolis, he enters a system that helped Ahmad Bradshaw re-emerge into a solid fantasy option last season. And with Trent Richardson expected to be cut, Gore figures to be prominent in the offense for coordinator Pep Hamilton. As a result, I can see him in the middle-round, No. 2 running back conversation.
The player who benefits the most from this move is Carlos Hyde.
Unless the Niners go on the hunt for another legitimate No. 1 running back in free agency or the NFL Draft, Hyde will be the new top option in an offense that promises to run the football a ton. And though he didn't produce eye-popping numbers as a rookie, he carried the football just 83 times. That number should swell to well over 200 as an NFL sophomore, making him a good bet to rush for more than 1,000 yards with somewhere in the neighborhood of seven-plus touchdowns.
In a best-case scenario, Hyde could push for second- or third-round value as a high-end No. 2 fantasy running back.
Michael Fabiano is an award-winning fantasy football analyst on NFL.com and NFL Network and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Hall of Fame. Have a burning question on anything fantasy related? Tweet it to _**@MichaelFabiano**_ or send a question via **Facebook**!
