The Colts may be headed toward a Jonathan Taylor usage plan in 2026 that sounds smart on paper and still won’t sit well with fans.
That’s the tension in Indianapolis right now. The team has real optimism heading into the season because it has elite talent on the roster, and Taylor is right at the center of that.
He’s still viewed as one of the league’s top running backs, which showed up again in ESPN’s annual position rankings from league execs, scouts and coaches, where he came in at No. 5.
But even with that kind of production, the Colts are looking at ways to lighten his load.
Taylor handled a massive workload in 2025, leading the league with 323 carries while piling up 1,585 rushing yards and a league-best 18 touchdowns. He also added 46 catches for 378 yards and two more scores. That’s the kind of season most teams would happily ride all the way through, but Indianapolis is talking about being more intentional with how often it asks him to carry the offense.
Colts reporter Stephen Holder laid out that thinking in a recent piece, and head coach Shane Steichen didn’t hide the challenge of it. “It's hard to take him off the field when he's running so good.”
That’s the heart of the issue. The Colts want Taylor to stay productive not just in September and October, but deep into the season and, ideally, for years to come. Running backs take a pounding, and Indianapolis is clearly trying to protect the long view.
Running backs coach DeAndre Smith put it plainly: “We definitely need to find ways to take some of that workload off him.”
The problem is that the plan gets messy fast. The Colts know any other back on the roster won’t give them what Taylor gives them, and they also know how awkward it would look to pull him out simply because they’re trying to be cautious about the future. That’s where the balancing act gets tricky.
Taylor has also shown he can handle the work. He’s played in 14 or more games in four of his six seasons, and Holder noted that Taylor himself doesn’t have an issue with his workload. So while the Colts can talk about preservation and sustainability, they also have to be careful not to manufacture a problem where one doesn’t really exist.
The safest approach may be the simplest one: monitor him, pull back when necessary, and otherwise let one of the NFL’s best running backs keep doing what he does best. Colts fans, though, are likely to bristle at the idea of a healthy Taylor spending time on the sideline just for the sake of preservation.
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