Colts Must Lean On Jonathan Taylor, As He Keeps Evolving

The Indianapolis Colts took an expensive approach this offseason to strengthening their offense, re-signing quarterback Daniel Jones (two years, $88 million) and wide receiver Alec Pierce (four years, $114 million).

However, despite those moves being critical to their success on that side of the ball, you could argue they're not what they do best.

ESPN recently broke down key factors for every NFL team, and analyst Mike Clay determined that Jonathan Taylor and the Colts' running backs are the team's biggest strength.

"Jonathan Taylor is one of the league's best backs and is fresh off a terrific 2025 campaign in which he led the NFL in carries and touchdowns while also finishing in the top three in touches and rushing yardage," Clay wrote. "Once a minimal part of the Colts' passing game, Taylor also ranked in the top 10 among backs in routes, targets, catches and receiving yards, setting career highs in each. This all happened despite a big dip in production when quarterback Daniel Jones suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in Week 14."

Last year, Taylor evolved into the best version of himself as an offensive player yet, en route to his third Pro Bowl.

He had eight games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage (including three with 150-plus) and five games with at least three touchdowns.

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Taylor led the NFL in carries (323), rushing first downs (84), rushing touchdowns (18), and total touchdowns (20). He was second in touches (369) and No. 3 in rushing yards (1,585) and yards from scrimmage (1,963), eighth among running backs in receiving first downs (15), and tied for 10th in yards per carry (4.9).

Taylor not only had standout rushing marks, but he also set new career highs in pass targets (55), receptions (46), receiving yards (378), and tied his single-season best in receiving touchdowns (2). He also set new highs in receiving first downs (15), receiving success rate (54.5%), and pass protection grade (58.6), according to Pro Football Focus.

As far as career accomplishments go, Taylor bested Hall-of-Famer Edgerrin James' franchise career rushing touchdown record and is now 1,629 rushing yards shy of surpassing that as well.

Will the Colts continue to put the pedal to the metal with Taylor in 2026?

"I think he led the league last year in carries, but talking to him after the season, he said he felt good," Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. "But yeah, obviously he's a (heck) of a player. It's hard to take him off the field when he's running so good, but getting Seth (McGowan) in the fold and DJ (Giddens), and see how those guys come along in training camp, and we'll go from there."

Taylor himself isn't worried about the workload after posting his third season with well over 300 touches.

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"They're going to talk about it every single year. You talk about it every single year until something happens and you're like, ‘Ah, there it is,’" Taylor said. "It's just how you prepare. I mean, like ever since college, it's preparing for the type of workload you're going to have, whether it's more, whether it's less, but then it's also finding – you guys know, I'm big on recovery. And it starts immediately after the game, but also in the offseason, you’ve got to find that good balance of restoring the body and then knowing how to pace yourself in order to build your body back up."

Now, the Colts' run game is considered the team's strength because of Taylor, but what if he actually gets some help this year and a complementary piece emerges?

DJ Giddens wasn't yet prepared last year as a rookie for third-down passing-game duties and didn't play special teams, which limited him to just nine games.

Rookie Seth McGowan is a more urgent, violent runner who picks things up quickly and projects as capable of handling pass pro and special teams duties, but the latter will need to be more of a learned skill since he didn't do much of it in college.

Along with handling some third-down duties, such as pass protection and pass-catching, Taylor's backup will likely also need to provide utility on special teams. Otherwise, someone with a severely diminished role on offense or defense doesn't make sense to be active on game days if they don't contribute on special teams.