Given Jonathan Taylor’s presence in the Colts backfield, regardless of who’s behind him, this admittedly feels low.
According to PFF, the Indianapolis Colts have around a league average running back room headed into the 2025 campaign—even with star Jonathan Taylor returning, coming in at just 16th overall:
16. Indianapolis Colts
Jonathan Taylor has suddenly become one of the toughest backs in football to evaluate. He rebounded on the surface with a 1,400-yard rushing season in 2024, but he earned a career-low 57.1 PFF overall grade due to an inability to break tackles.
The Colts added Khalil Herbert in free agency to back up Taylor, but he is coming off a career-worst season, as well. The Colts did get nice value when they drafted DJ Giddens in the fifth round. He earned an elite 93.4 PFF rushing grade in three seasons at Kansas State. Indianapolis’ depth is better this year than last, but Taylor needs to prove he can gain more yardage than his outstanding blocking gives him.
The Colts actually fell out of PFF’s Top 10 backfields from last season, dropping 6 spots.
Look, the Colts backfield isn’t exactly Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew as a 1-2 punch, but a little more credence should be given that Taylor remains one of the best backs in all of football carrying the torch again for this Indianapolis positional group.
It doesn’t really matter who’s carrying the football behind him, given that he’s a workhorse.
Taylor received a Pro Bowl nod last year, as he rushed for 1,431 total rushing yards on 303 carries (4.7 ypc. abg.) to go along with 11 rushing touchdowns during 14 games (13 starts).
After losing Zack Moss to the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency last offseason, the Colts had depleted depth in their backfield this past season—and it clearly showed, as neither Tyler Goodson nor Trey Sermon really ran away with their respective roles, as both a pass catcher and between-the-tackles change-of-pace back respectively.
This offseason, that led to the Colts signing Khalil Herbert as offseason competition for Goodson, while Indianapolis moved on from Sermon, who averaged a paltry 2.8 yards per carry last year, for rookie running back, D.J. Giddens, with hopefully a lot more juice to show for the swap.
The Colts selected Giddens in the recent NFL Draft’s 5th round, and at 6’1,” 212 pounds, he’s drawn some running style comparisons to former Colts’ 1,000 yard rusher Marlon Mack, as the Kansas State standout had rushed for over 1,200 yards for the Wildcats in each of the past two seasons before declaring for the draft after his junior season in 2024.
Herbert has been regarded for his pass catching chops in recent seasons—as the Colts newest scatback, but now 27 years old, does he still have plenty of gas left in the tank?
All of that being said, this ranking admittedly feels a bit low.
Given that Taylor is coming off a really strong season (regardless of what the PFF grades show), and the Colts are also projected to upgrade from Sermon with Giddens, and it’s a bit surprising to me that Indianapolis actually slipped a handful of spots here.
