Jonathan Taylor, DeForest Buckner And A Rainy…

1. Jonathan Taylor is continuing to prove himself as an elite running back.

We’re one-third through the 2021 NFL season and, to the surprise of no one inside the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center, Jonathan Taylor has established himself as one of the best running backs in the NFL.  

Entering Week 7, Taylor is:

• 3rd in yards per touch among running backs (6.7)
• 3rd in rushing yards after contact per attempt (3.8)
• 5th in explosive running plays (13)
• 6th in total rushing yards 472
• 7th in yards per carry (5.4)

He has two plays of 76+ yards and, with his 76-yard touchdown on a screen against the Baltimore Ravens, became the first Colts player with a play that long since 2017. His 83-yard run against the Houston Texans one week later set a franchise record as the longest play in Colts history. 

“He’s doing it not just in the run game, he’s doing it in the pass game too and that’s what makes him so very special and that’s why he’s one of the best backs in the league because of how explosive he is,” linebacker Darius Leonard said. “He gets on the outside and nobody catches him.”

Taylor is an integral part of the Colts’ offense — he can grind out first downs in short-yardage situations, slam a home run from anywhere on the field and be a dangerous weapon as a pass-catcher out of the backfield. And Taylor, in his second year in the NFL, has focused on doing whatever he can to stay on the field over the grind of a 17-game season. 

“He’s always in the training room, he’s always got some kind of machine on his body making sure he’s taking care of himself because he understands what his role is,” Leonard said. “… He knows he can’t make no plays standing on the sideline.”

Taylor has put plenty of effort and focus into “pre-hab” — which means Taylor spends quite a bit of time in the Colts’ training room even though he’s not hurt. 

“I live in the training room — even when I’m not hurt, I’m always there,” wide receiver T.Y. Hilton said. “I look over to my left, I see (Taylor) there getting work in.”

Needing to have that dedication to “pre-hab” was one of the more eye-opening things Taylor experienced going from college to the NFL. 

“Especially in college, you kind of associate the training room as a negative — you don’t want to be in the training room,” Taylor said. “But being here, talking to a lot of other vets, most of the time those guys that are in the training room, they’re there doing pre-hab, things to prevent further injuries or trying to strengthen a certain area of weakness that you have whether it be a ligament or a joint or something like that. So that’s something that I definitely learned last year going into this year is the training room doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in a bad spot.” 

All of those efforts are helping Taylor ascend to elite status among NFL running backs. His speed, toughness, vision, versatility and reliability are coming together in a big way — just like the Colts believed those traits would. 

“We all saw that during training camp,” offensive coordinator Marcus Brady said. “You could tell he was taking that next step – just the confidence that he had while he was running the ball during training camp, he looked really sharp. He looked really good. His cuts were decisive, making defenders miss and just his understanding of the offense. You could just tell he could just play faster.”