Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor just put together a season that should have made him impossible to miss in any league-wide conversation. Instead, Pro Football Focus slotted him seventh among NFL running backs.
That’s a tough sell for a player who led the NFL in carries with 323, rushing touchdowns with 18, total touchdowns with 20, and rushing first downs with 84. Taylor also finished second in touches at 369, third in rushing yards with 1,585 and yards from scrimmage with 1,963, eighth among running backs in receiving first downs with 15, and tied for 10th in yards per carry at 4.9.
He piled up eight games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage, including three with 150 or more, and he had five games with at least three touchdowns. Through the air, Taylor set career highs in pass targets with 55, receptions with 46, and receiving yards with 378, while matching his single-season best with two receiving touchdowns. He also posted new highs in receiving first downs at 15, receiving success rate at 54.5%, and pass protection grade at 58.6, according to Pro Football Focus.
The production has already pushed Taylor past Hall-of-Famer Edgerrin James for the Colts’ franchise career rushing touchdown record, and he is now 1,629 rushing yards away from taking that mark too. On the league’s all-time list, Taylor sits fifth in rushing yards per game at 90.5, trailing only Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis, and Eric Dickerson.
His résumé is already loaded: he has led the NFL in carries, rushing touchdowns, and total touchdowns twice, earned First-Team All-Pro honors in 2021 after leading the league in rushing yards, and made three Pro Bowls.
Still, PFF’s latest running back rankings placed him behind Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey, De’Von Achane, and James Cook.
“Taylor looked like a potential MVP candidate through the first 10 weeks of the season before tapering off down the stretch,” PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Max Chadwick wrote. “However, he still led the league with 18 rushing touchdowns, and his 1,585 rushing yards slotted third.
“Taylor’s 3,016 rushing yards since 2024 are third in the NFL, as are his 1,949 yards after contact. His 83.5 PFF rushing grade in 2025 was also his highest in four years.”
An ESPN poll of dozens of NFL coaches, executives, and scouts recently had Taylor fifth at the position, with votes reaching as high as No. 2. And the NFL’s own top 10 runs of the year list featured Taylor three times - more than any other player - at Nos. 1, 4 and 6.
The early part of Taylor’s 2025 season looked every bit like an MVP push. According to the source, the only reason someone caught him in the rushing race - which would have been the second rushing title of his career - was Daniel Jones going down for the year.
After that, 43-year-old Philip Rivers stepped in, and the Colts’ offense shifted heavily toward shotgun looks, lining up that way 93.8% of the time, per SumerSports. That setup, along with injuries to offensive tackles Bernhard Raimann and Braden Smith, made life harder on the ground.
The drop-off was real. Taylor went from averaging 139.9 yards of offense per game and scoring 17 total touchdowns over the first 10 games to averaging 80.6 yards of offense and three total touchdowns over the final seven.
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