Colts Cover-2 Podcast: Will Jonathan Taylor win MVP?.
Insiders Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown discusses the chances of running back Jonathan Taylor winning MVP this season on the latest Colts Cover-2 Podcast–> https://youtu.be/7B4aE5klXRs
Even though NFL QBs have won each of the league’s last 12 MVP awards, Colts tailback Jonathan Taylor believes the right season-long stat line can still earn the honor for a running back.Through eight games, Taylor is on track to finish with more than 1,800 rushing yards, 30 total touchdowns and more than 2,200 total yards.The last non-quarterback to win NFL MVP was Adrian Peterson in 2012, who ultimately fell eight yards short of the league’s all-time single-season rushing yards record.
INDIANAPOLIS – It’s a debate that’s garnering serious talk show and podcast segment time with impassioned viewpoints: Could/should/will Colts standout running back Jonathan Taylor win the NFL’s MVP award in 2025 – something a non-quarterback hasn’t done since 2012?
For the moment, Taylor is simply smiling through the attention. Thursday, the sixth-year tailback presently on pace for more than 2,220 total yards and 30 combined touchdowns on the ground and though the air in 2025, was asked if winning the honor would mean something.
Obvious question, obvious answer.
“Of course. I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t want to have that under their belt,” Taylor grinned, noting that doing so as a running back would feel a bit as if he would be carrying the mantle for running backs past, present and future, with only three players at his position having won in the past 20 years – and only one in the last 18.
“Those are legends. (Recent NFL running back MVP winners Shaun Alexander, LaDanian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson) are the guys who’ve set the path for us, so we’re just trying to follow along in their footsteps to create a path to finish it for the guys behind us to take us to new heights.”
Since Peterson’s 2012 campaign with the Minnesota Vikings, where he finished eight yards shy of the all-time single-season rushing yards record (2,105) less than a year after tearing his ACL, those in his wake have put up seasons where backs have logged more than 1,800 rushing yards or eclipsed 2,100 yards from scrimmage (or sometimes both). Saquon Barkley’s 2024 season with the Eagles, where he finished 100 yards shy of the all-time rushing mark – 2,283 total yards in all — and sat out the regular-season finale but the best recent running back MVP case on a list that includes recent 2,000-plus total yard and 17-plus total touchdown seasons from Christian McCaffery (2019 and 2023), Derrick Henry (2020) and Taylor (2021).
For the most part, the league’s best running backs over the last decade have simply run into otherworldly QB campaigns from the likes of Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady – a group who’s won nine of the last 11 NFL MVPs. But Taylor’s present MVP competition, though big on star power, lacks what feel like MVP-worthy statistical lines from quarterbacks at the season’s halfway point.
Presently sitting as low as ninth on BetMGM’s NFL MVP betting odds through Week 8, Taylor said he doesn’t feel as if winning this award is unattainable for anyone not starting under center, noting he feels as if the ‘disposable’ narrative around running backs that made it tough for several stars – Taylor included – to land what they felt to be deserving second contracts.
“You just have to do enough, and whatever that is, you have to let the chips fall where they may,” Taylor said Thursday. “But if you do enough, look at guys in the past. They’ve won it.
“I definitely think guys around the league have been able to disprove that narrative, but it’s an ongoing battle, and we’ve got to continue to put good tape on film. That’s something we all try to do year-in and year-out. Ultimately, it’s (up to) us to continue to pave the way, and then younger guys behind us taking it to new heights.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.