ESPN’s Bill Barnwell ranked the Colts skill players right in the middle of the NFL; is he right?
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently released his skill position rankings and ranked the Colts skill positions players (running backs, receivers and tight ends) as the 16th best in the NFL. He ranked the group as the 22nd best in 2024 and 25th best in 2023, so the jump from 22nd to 16th is nothing to scoff at. The Colts only made one significant move this offseason in those areas and that was the drafting of Tyler Warren with their first round pick, so Barnwell clearly believes that Warren will be an immediate standout player for the team. He is right to believe that.
A valid question he brought up was the presence of Anthony Richardson and whether this group is actually better than what they showed last season. Richardson’s inconsistency and flat out inability to have many good throwing games definitely hurt the group, so that needed to be taken into account when judging players who are fully dependent on the play of the quarterback, and in this case a weak one (when throwing the ball). I think he does a fair job of analyzing the impact, believing the Colts receivers are hurt more than any other NFL team in this area, citing a 21% off target rate on the 4th lowest amount of drop back targets this year. This is an important point, because not only do the Colts simply not throw the ball a lot, but when it is thrown, Richardson misses a lot. It’s worth adding, as Barnwell doesn’t mention this, that because the Colts had 3 capable receivers in 2024, the ball was spread out pretty evenly amongst the three, with Pierce taking over some games, Downs for others and Pittman as well. So they don’t throw a lot and it’s spread out amongst a few guys, unlike some teams who ride the hell out of one guy. So when that happens, it’s hard for one receiver to put up big numbers that stand out over the course of a season.
Jonathan Taylor’s injuries were highlighted in the article, and described as holding him back from hitting his true potential. I fully agree with this and I don’t think his standing has changed in the NFL over the past few seasons. Taylor ranked 7th in a NFL executive ranking/poll of running backs in the NFL and I think that’s about right for Jonathan Taylor who has yet to return to his peak that he hit in 2021. Taylor’s play last season was very good, despite the injuries that cost him a few games. As mentioned above, his standing in the league has not changed and Barnwell doesn’t boost or hurt the Colts in the running game.
All in all, I think this is an accurate ranking for the Colts. Pittman, Downs and Pierce are a great trio who offer their own unique attributes in the passing game. Tyler Warren is a great new piece to work with and should open up a lot of things in the middle of the field, especially in the short to intermediate areas. Jonathan Taylor will likely remain his usual self. Anthony Richardson has quite a good group of players to work with, so it’s time to stop holding them back, as was accurately pointed out in the article, and time to get this group to hit its ceiling.
