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What does adding Jonathan Taylor to Anthony Richardson mean for the Colts?

INDIANAPOLIS — The possibilities are impossible to ignore.

For Jim Irsay, for Shane Steichen, for Anthony Richardson and the rest of the Colts, the prospects have only gotten more tantalizing through the first four weeks of the season, even with Jonathan Taylor on the reserve/PUP list.

The possibility of pairing Taylor and Richardson in the same backfield, forcing defenses to deal with a quarterback-running back tandem that could be the most explosive the NFL has ever seen.

“I dream about it,” Colts middle linebacker Zaire Franklin.

The dream might be a reality soon.


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Taylor returned to practice this week — the fourth-year back was listed as a full participant for Wednesday’s walk-through — and the Colts haven’t ruled out the possibility of playing their superstar back on Sunday against the Titans, even though he hasn’t practiced with the team since last December.


Indianapolis has little concern about Taylor’s ability to pick up the offense.

“With OTAs and training camp stuff, being around … shoot, the system, obviously the verbiage stuff, he’s heard it all,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. “Obviously, he’s in the meetings getting ready today and all that stuff, so taking his notes, getting ready. With anything — obviously, he’s been around it — but any time you sign a player, you sign players on Wednesday that start on Sunday.”




If the Colts get Taylor on the field this week — and the Titans are reportedly saying they’re preparing for the running back to play — Tennessee’s defense will have tougher choices to make.

Veteran backup Zack Moss has ground out yards in Taylor’s absence, picking up 280 yards on 66 carries, a 4.2 average that has helped moved the chains. But he does not have Taylor’s history of breaking long runs, the runs that propelled him to an 1,811-yard season in 2021.


NFL defenses are obsessed with preventing the explosive play. When it is Richardson and Moss in the backfield, a defense can focus on Richardson, who is averaging 5.7 yards per carry and has already ripped off a handful of explosive runs in his first three starts.

Ignoring Taylor in favor of the quarterback comes with bigger risk.



“When you have an explosive player like him in the backfield that can hit the home runs, obviously, you might get heavier boxes,” Steichen said.

Boxes that can help open up a passing game that was far too dink and dunk for the first three and a half games of the season. Forced to play a string of defenses -- the exception being Baltimore -- that sit back in a shell and try to make teams throw underneath, the Colts were averaging roughly 5.8 yards per attempt through the first 14 quarters of the season, a number far beneath Steichen’s goal.

Then Richardson got hot against the Rams, hitting Mo Alie-Cox, Alec Pierce and Josh Downs on the kind of plays that open up the offense.

“You create explosive plays offensively, your percentage of scoring goes way up,” Steichen said. “When we started hitting those chunk plays last week, we started scoring points. Any time you can create thos explosive plays, it’s going to help.”



Taylor can help create explosive plays in a lot of ways.

With the ball in his hands, with the threat of the ball in his hands pulling safeties into the box and out of coverage, and by taking attention away from Richardson, who already has four rushing touchdowns this season.

Richardson, like everybody else, has wondered about the possibility of pairing his talents with Taylor. He grew up, like a lot of other football players, watching Taylor at Wisconsin, then watched Taylor tear up the NFL two years ago in Indianapolis when the Colts star established himself as the best back in the league.

Taylor and Richardson haven’t been on the field together at full strength yet, the product of Taylor’s ankle injury and contract dispute with the Colts, but it hasn’t kept Richardson from wondering what it might be like playing with him.

“I know he’s a great player, and I know I can do some things pretty well,” Richardson said. “Trying to combine those two things, I can only imagine what it’s like, but we won’t see until it actually happens.”



The Colts haven’t ruled out the possibility that it could happen this week.

The position Taylor plays is easier to build chemistry with the quarterback than a receiver.

“I don’t think it takes too long,” Richardson said. “It’s pretty simple just handing the ball off, knowing where to step. It’s also learning the running back; also learning how he wants the ball given to him, how he wants the passes thrown to him. Maybe a couple days.”

And then Steichen and the rest of the Indianapolis offensive staff can start feeling out the talented duo at their disposal, getting a feel for how defenses will try to stop a combination of two players with power, blinding speed and excellent agility.

A combination that could be devastating.

“I know he is a dog, and I know he is going to fight for yards and get us yards,” Richardson said. “Hopefully, that can open up the passing game for us.”