Stampede Blue
At first the premise of this question seems silly. Jonathan Taylor is leading the NFL in carries and is 2nd behind only Christian McCaffrey in touches. If that workload isn’t a ringing endorsement of the Colts star back’s ability to handle a large role in the offense, what is?
But diving deeper and there is some clear habits that Head Coach Shane Steichen has shown in when he chooses to feature his top weapon.
Fans online have noted that Taylor hasn’t gotten enough touches down the stretch of games, and it is true that the 4th quarter is when we have seen his lowest touch rate compared to other quarters in regulation. Partially this is due to the Colts blowing out several opponents and giving Taylor a break towards the end of games, going so far as to rest starters in a few of them.
Certainly has a case to skew the season long numbers, especially in the 4th quarter where these complaints are directed at.
However there is a clear distinction between Jonathan Taylor’s touch volume in wins versus losses. The Colts have opted to give Taylor a much heavier workload generally in wins to help keep the clock ticking after early leads and whittle away opponent’s chances for victory.
While that didn’t happen toward the end of losses to the Chiefs (went pass heavy with 9 passes to 3 runs in the final 4 drives of 3 & Outs), nor the Steelers (were trailing by several scores rather than in the lead). The Colts opted to give Taylor a combined 6 Touches in the 4th quarter/OT in those 2 games, but Colts did give a heavier workload in the loss to the Rams with 8 Touches in the 4th quarter. However only 3 of those touches were when the Colts were trailing vs the Rams.
Is this a case of what came first the chicken or the egg? Have the Colts lost these games because of a lack of involvement in Taylor? Or did they not use Taylor because they were losing?
The Colts gameplan in involving Jonathan Taylor certainly evolves based off of the score differential, though that is true for any back. But for Taylor, that becomes especially apparent compared to his piers. He is one of the...
