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Stephen Holder, ESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — Jonathan Taylor had barely secured the handoff when he saw a 300-pound defensive tackle bearing down. So the Indianapolis Colts running back proceeded to do what he does best: Leave the defender in his wake.
Taylor executed a jump cut to his right, amid all the bodies at the line of scrimmage, and found a running lane. After eluding Houston Texans defensive tackle Kurt Hinish in the backfield, Taylor encountered linebacker Blake Cashman on the second level. Cashman dived at Taylor’s legs but came up empty as Taylor high-stepped out of the tackle.
Then, as Taylor surveyed the field, he saw only 40 yards of open space. A timely final block from receiver Alec Pierce provided the only escort Taylor would need before reaching the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown — his longest of the season.
Taylor was completely taking over the Colts’ biggest game of the season on Saturday night, with a trip to the playoffs going to the winner. It was a vintage performance, the kind he hadn’t produced consistently in two years. Five minutes into the third quarter, Taylor had 145 yards and had scored the game-tying touchdown.
It was the kind of showing so many had waited so long for the star running back to display. Taylor was keenly aware of the whispers.
“Everyone’s asking, ‘Hey, when are you going to break a long run?'” he said later.
Was Taylor, the 2021 NFL rushing champion and Colts single-season rushing leader, finally back?
He was — until he wasn’t. A heel injury later in the third quarter sent Taylor to the sideline, and ultimately, to the locker room. The Colts announced his status as questionable to return. Minutes later, they downgraded his status to doubtful.
“That’s kind of been the whole year for him,” quarterback Gardner Minshew said. “He’s battling through one thing or another.”
Surprisingly, Taylor would muster the ability to return to the game late in the fourth quarter.
“You have to dig deep,” Taylor said.
Taylor returned on the Colts’ final possession, with a six-point deficit, and helped the Colts reach the red zone. But on the decisive play of the game, a fourth-and-1 from the Texans’ 15, Taylor was on the sideline. Minshew threw an off-target pass to fourth-string running back Tyler Goodson. The pass was dropped. The Colts lost.
All while Taylor was reduced to a spectator.
It was that kind of season for Taylor, with 2023 spanning the emotional gamut from frustration to exhilaration to consternation. The most physically challenging season of Taylor’s life, not to mention an ugly and protracted contract standoff with his team, limited him to 10 games and a career-low 741 yards.
From a distance, much about Taylor’s experience this season suggested he was far away from his 2021 version. But in his final appearance on Saturday night, Taylor offered a lasting reminder of his potential impact.
“I get it. He hasn’t been on the field as consistently this year and he’s been in the news for lots of other reasons,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “People have years like that.
“But every time he’s played, it seems like he gets in the end zone. He’s got a knack with the ball in his hands. He’s a playmaker, man.”
Taylor’s 2023 season had it all: Success, struggles and new riches (in the form of a new $42 million contract). But the Colts hope the final act of Taylor’s season, the 188-yard performance against Houston, is just a preview of what’s to come.
FROM THE VERY first day of training camp, nothing about Taylor’s season was typical. He set the tone when he demanded a trade on the day players reported, a reaction to the team’s resistance to extending his rookie contract a year early.
That led to an unusually public spat between an NFL franchise and its star player, one that included Taylor’s agent, Malki Kawa, and Colts owner Jim Irsay trading barbs on social media.
Meanwhile, Taylor indicated he needed more time to recover from an offseason ankle surgery and was placed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. He never saw the field in training camp. Then, in the weeks before the start of the regular season, the Colts gave Taylor and Kawa permission to find a possible trade partner. Talks heated up before the Colts ultimately declined to make a deal.
“It definitely got rocky,” receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. “I was like, ‘Oh man, are we really going to lose him?'”
The sides were dug in. A resolution seemed elusive. Colts general manager Chris Ballard described the situation succinctly.
“It sucks,” he said.
For the first four weeks of the regular season, Taylor remained on the PUP list. But behind closed doors, Taylor was rounding into shape in his workouts. And the Colts’ surprising 2-1 start caused them to rethink how to approach things with their game-breaking running back.
In the days leading up to the Colts’ Week 4 game against the Los Angeles Rams, Ballard phoned Kawa with a proposal: He wanted to talk about a deal, provided Taylor’s camp was willing. Just more than a week later, Taylor signed his extension.
All along, Taylor enjoyed broad support from his teammates. His absence was interpreted as a de facto contract holdout by some on the outside — his ankle surgery was initially described as routine — but in the Colts’ locker room, he was seen as a sympathetic figure. The opinion of Taylor internally contradicted external perceptions that he was acting selfishly.
“In this league, as much as we love the game and being able to play it at the highest level, we understand that this is a business,” Franklin said. “Every single man in this room — along with living out that lifelong dream — they’re here to take care of their family.”
Said guard Quenton Nelson: “[Taylor] stayed the same — which I admire a lot — through good times and bad times. Just a humble guy and resilient, too. The resilience to work no matter what happens. He’s going to keep fighting and try to be his best for this team and this city. I know how much it means to him, and it means a lot. And I appreciate that guy.”
The backing of his “brothers,” as Taylor calls them, meant everything to him. He said their support never wavered because he’d previously established his character as a team-first player.
“Everybody [understood] it,” Taylor said. “There’s no question about the team with me. Everybody’s always asking me about carries, accolades, all that. I just want to win.
“And even when you have those accolades and those carries, it’s the receivers getting those blocks on the edge. It’s [Quenton Nelson] and Ryan [Kelly] working that block up to the linebacker. It’s we, not me. That was never questioned.”
TAYLOR’S REPUTATION FOR big plays is unimpeachable. No player has more explosive runs since Taylor entered the league in 2020. He has 129 such carries, defined as 10 yards or longer.
But, at times this season, they were harder to come by. In his first two appearances of the season, in Weeks 5 and 6, Taylor’s longest run was five yards. His presence still had an impact because of the way defenses respect him. But there were times when Taylor had to adjust his standards a tad.
“It doesn’t have to be a 50-yard run to be successful,” he said. “It could be a 5-yard run, and then it’s a first down when it was second-and-5. Or maybe it was second-and-7 and you got a 6-yard run. Now you’re like, ‘OK, we’ve got a manageable third down. Let’s go.’
“But of course if you can break it, you’d like to break it.”
Taylor didn’t often acknowledge it, but a fair amount of pressure comes with signing a big extension — especially given his previous trade demand and contract fight.
Fans wanted and expected the 2021 version of Taylor, when he established a franchise single-season record with 1,811 yards. But, as Pittman said, “It takes time to get rolling.”
Then there’s this: Not every season is going to be record-setting.
“Everybody loves the 2021 year, but I always tell people that was special,” Taylor said. “And it was special for a reason.
“If you could do it every year, everybody would do it every year. So, you’ve just got to keep plugging away every single game. Keep plugging away. Take what they give you and when it’s time to really capitalize on a mistake, you capitalize on it.”
But to do that, you have to be on the field. And Taylor missed more time when he underwent thumb surgery in November and missed the next three games.
That added “injury-prone” to his list of potential criticisms. And it posed yet another test of Taylor’s resilience and character.
“There’s going to be ups and downs throughout the season, throughout your career,” coach Shane Steichen said. “It’s how you handle them.”
Taylor handled them with ease. He returned on Christmas Eve against the Atlanta Falcons and succumbed to their five-man front in a 43-yard effort. But he rebounded a week later with 96 yards against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Then came the explosion against Houston, a team that entered the game allowing 3.3 yards per rush — second in the NFL. Taylor averaged 6.3 yards per attempt while producing the second-highest rushing total of his career.
“It’s days like today where you realize you need J.T.,” Minshew said Saturday night.
Taylor finally finding his footing is one of the most promising things to come out of 2023 for the Colts. And the optimism created by his late-season surge can be combined with the hope surrounding the return in 2024 of fourth overall draft pick Anthony Richardson from shoulder surgery. The future franchise quarterback and the star runner played just one snap together in 2023, proverbial ships passing in the night.
“That’s gonna be a really awesome sight to see,” Taylor said of playing alongside Richardson.
It was a fitting statement, because little did Taylor realize that his own presence this season provided the same kind of inspiration to others.
“When I see him out there,” Franklin said, “that gives me hope.”
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