It seems time has cooled things off between Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts. In his first public comments since June, Taylor sounded happy to be healthy and ready to return to a football field, even if that’s in a Colts jersey.
“It feels really good to be healthy. The main goal was to be healthy and play football.”
As far as whether or not Taylor wants to be a Colt: “I’m here right now.”
Taylor told reporters today that he’s not here to discuss contract issues and that right now, it’s not about what he wants—but what he can do to help his teammates and the city of Indianapolis.
Taylor can indeed help the Colts, who enter Week 5 at 2-2 following an overtime loss to the Rams last week. Rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson (and backup quarterback Gardner Minshew) have helped the Colts out-perform preseason expectations for the team thus far, but the rushing attack has been about what we thought it would be without Taylor in the backfield.
Jonathan Taylor’s return will boost the Colts’ struggling backfield
The Colts have 463 rushing yards through their first four games, which ranks 14th in the NFL. But if you remove Anthony Richardson’s 131 rushing yards, Indianapolis’ backfield has just 332 rushing yards, which would rank 28th in the league.
So, needless to say, a healthy Jonathan Taylor is a welcomed addition for Indianapolis, and he could help the Colts continue to defy the preseason expectations placed upon them.
Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is excited for the chance to get Taylor back into the mix, something we could see as early as this weekend when the Colts take on the Tennessee Titans.
“I know he’s a great player, and I know I can do some things pretty well,” Richardson said in his Wednesday press conference. “Just trying to combine those two things, I can only imagine what it’s like, but we won’t see until it actually happens. We’ll see, and I’m excited.”
It appears that Taylor has come to peace with the fact that he’s likely going to be a Colt for at least the remainder of this season. When Taylor was removed from the PUP list earlier this week, it was reported that there hadn’t been any recent trade conversations between the Colts and other teams regarding Taylor.
So, it appears that all of the training camp scuttlebutt had much to do about nothing. For now, anyway.
