The trick was good, to be sure. Sometimes spectacular.
Only a few backs in the NFL can match Taylor as a pure runner, the kind of back who can take over a game simply by pounding away until the dam breaks, but the Colt has rarely been known as an asset on third down.
The running back’s hands and ability to pick up the blitz have been inconsistent throughout his career, leading to the Colts coaching staff taking him off the field at times in obvious passing situations.
Taylor has put it all together through the first two games of the season. The Colts superstar leads the NFL with 236 rushing yards, added five catches for 77 yards and has been part of a blitz pickup unit that has given up just two sacks despite facing 37 blitzes, by far the most in the NFL over the first two weeks.
“For me, not only as a teammate but as a friend, just seeing how he gets overlooked and disrespected in the national media is kind of ridiculous,” middle linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “I’m always going to scream his name from the mountaintops.”
Taylor began his career as a bigger part of the Indianapolis passing game, even though draft analysts knocked the Wisconsin product for issues with his hands after a wildly productive career as a collegiate runner.
But the Colts found a way to use Taylor as a receiver as a rookie. Taylor caught 36 passes for 299 yards as a rookie, then started hot in his second season, producing long touchdown catches in Miami and Baltimore on his way to a 40-catch, 360-yard season.
He also dropped five passes in 2021, according to Pro Football Reference, and his receiving production fell after that, dropping to 28 catches in 2022, 19 in 2023 and 18 in 2024. Injuries altered his 2022 and 2023 seasons, but he was healthy enough to handle 303 carries last year, making his lack of production in the passing game seem like the norm moving forward.
Taylor is bucking that narrative in the first two weeks of this season. While he’s not a primary target in the passing game — the Colts have too many mouths to feed on the outside — Taylor caught three passes in the opener, then made a pair of huge plays against Denver as a receiver, taking one swing pass 43 yards up the sideline and catching another for a 7-yard touchdown, his first score of the season.
The reasons for Taylor’s resurgence in the passing game are hard to pinpoint.
“Sometimes it’s scheme,” Taylor said. “Sometimes, it’s just however the game is going, what the coaches want to call, but at the end of the day, the overall goal is when your number is called, you got to make the play.”
The quarterback also makes a difference.
Daniel Jones has surprised everybody through the first two weeks with his ability to make reads, often knowing exactly where to go with the ball before it’s snapped.
That helps Taylor. A lot of times, the checkdown to the running back is an afterthought, taking so much time that the defense recognize he’s sitting in the flat.
On Taylor’s 43-yard catch-and-run Sunday, the ball went directly to the running back after the snap, allowing Taylor to hit the afterburners without being touched. Taylor got all the way up to 22.38 miles per hour on the play, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the fastest time recorded in the NFL since 2020 and a sign that Taylor hasn’t lost a step at all after dealing with high ankle sprains the past three seasons.
Taylor is still one of the NFL’s deadliest runners in the open field. Getting the ball to him in the passing game gets him out into space right away.
“As long as it gets us down to the end zone, it don’t matter to me (how I get the ball),” Taylor said.
Taylor’s ability to protect the passer has also been questioned in the past.
As good as he’s been as a playmaker, Taylor has sometimes struggled against the blitz, a surprise for a player known for intelligence and relentless preparation.
He’s been excellent so far this season. Both Miami and Denver attacked the Colts by relentlessly sending extra pressure, forcing Taylor to make quick decisions.
Taylor credited his improvement to the communication from Jones and center Tanor Bortolini.
“That was an aggressive defense, and they want to pressure and send guys, and force you to pick things up and pass off guys up front, and our guys did a really good job with that,” Jones said. “JT was a big part of it.”
Taylor played 66 snaps against Denver, an enormous number for a running back.
Indianapolis has DJ Giddens, a promising rookie back, behind Taylor.
But it’s difficult to take Taylor off the field when he’s playing well all-around..
“When he needs a breather, we’ll give him a breather, but he’s feeling good right now,” Steichen said.
Playing like the kind of NFL superstar his teammates have been telling everybody Taylor has always been.
Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.