Should Colts Lessen Jonathan Taylor’s Workload?

Should Colts Lessen Jonathan Taylor’s Workload?

INDIANAPOLIS – It’s one of the more impressive feats for a starting running back to achieve in today’s NFL.

Jonathan Taylor was 1 of 11 running backs to not miss a single game last season.

Not only did Taylor suit up every week, he also didn’t show up on the injury report for any of the team’s 51 practices/walk throughs last year.

That incredible run of health led to Taylor carrying the ball 323 times, 12 more than any other player in the league.

At 27 years of age, and with 1,551 carries at the NFL level, on top of the 926 carries in 3 years at Wisconsin, Taylor is reaching a workload level where many running backs start to turn the other direction when it comes to reps and production.

Earlier this offseason, Shane Steichen acknowledged the question about Taylor’s activity level.

Have you looked at Jonathan Taylor’s workload at all and said he’s got to dial it back a little bit?

“That’s a fair assessment,” the head coach began.

“I think he led the league last year in carries, but talking to him after the season, he said he felt good. But yeah, obviously he’s a hell 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 will enter the 2026 season having played in 27 straight games, with double-digit carries in all of those contests.

It’s easily the longest such streak in the NFL.

Last season, Taylor’s efficiency was oftentimes a direct correlation between Colts win and losses.

Similar to many offensive related items, Taylor saw his numbers take quite the dip in the second half of last year.

When the Colts won 7 of their first 8 games, Taylor had the following yards per carry: 3.9, 6.6, 6.0, 4.5 (loss), 3.9, 5.9, 5.9, 12.8.

As the Colts then lost 8 of their final 9 games, Taylor had these yards per carry numbers: 3.2, 7.6 (win), 3.6, 4.0, 3.5, 2.9, 3.3, 1.9.

This notable discrepancy was a major part of the Colts off-season evaluations.

“Just finding the ability to be really, really consistent with everything that we do,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter says when asked about the drastic differences in the run game success. “It’s really a process driven run game where all 11 of those guys got to do their job at a high level against a defense who’s trying to stop that thing. As you go through a year, you pop the big runs by being consistent over and over and over and getting the running back into some space. Obviously, JT (Jonathan Taylor) being so special once he does get into that space, you’ve got to be careful trying to make the big play happen with a great block or a great run, or a great anything, you’ve just got to sort of churn out those consistent runs, and then the big runs come. Later in the year, we’ve just got to sort of clean up some of the process oriented things that we needed to do at every position, including myself. Just cleaning up the way we went about our work at the end of the year so we could sort of win our side of that competition against the defense.”

Since entering the NFL in 2020, Tayor’s 1,551 carries ranks as the 3^rd most in the entire NFL.

He’s carried it more than Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey.

Do the Colts need to be more cognizant in 2026 about how much they put on the plate of Taylor?

Are the young options of Giddens (26 carries during his rookie season) and McGowan (a rookie) ready for whatever roles the Colts ask of those backs behind Taylor?

Does Taylor’s hopes for a third contract with the Colts factor into this at all?

Clearly, the workload of something the Colts have thought about, and was definitely a storyline during their rollercoaster season of 2025.

Will the impressively durable Taylor continue to be the league’s top workhorse or is it time the Colts try to pace him?