Officially halfway through the 2020 season, the Indianapolis Colts haven’t gotten the type of production expected out of rookie running back Jonathan Taylor.
With a clear path to lead the backfield, Taylor hasn’t quite broken out yet and coming out of the Week 7 bye, he has been on a seemingly short leash in each of the last two games.
But the Colts still believe in the talent of Taylor and what he can become in the offense. General manager Chris Ballard gave some support to the rookie on 1070 The Fan this week.
“I mean, we like what Jonathan’s done. He had an unfortunate fumble on a really good run this week, just working to get extra yards, and Marcus Peters, who’s one of the best I’ve ever been around causing turnovers, he got his hand in there and knocked it out,” Ballard said. “But we like Jonathan. Jonathan’s played pretty good football for us, and as he gains more experience and continues to play, we think he’s got a lot of talent and a lot of ability, and we expect to see big things from him the second half of the season.”
While Taylor was seemingly making improvements every week leading up to the bye, the last two outings have been far from encouraging. It’s not time to hit the panic button just yet, but he was essentially benched in Week 8 due to a lack of production and in Week 9 because of a costly fumble.
The Colts have said there isn’t a particular reason for the benching, but their actions say another thing.
Taylor appears to still be the starter, though he’s been out-carried and out-snapped by Jordan Wilkins in each of the last two games.
The rookie will get another shot at redeeming himself on a short week when the Colts visit the Titans at Nissan Stadium on Thursday night.
