Where does Colts running back unit rank?

How does the Indianapolis Colts’ running back unit as a whole compare to the rest of the NFL?

How does the Indianapolis Colts’ running back unit as a whole compare to the rest of the NFL?

Pro Football Focus’ Dalton Wasserman recently ranked each team’s running back units from best to worst and the Colts landed right in the middle at No. 16.

“Jonathan Taylor has suddenly become one of the toughest backs in football to evaluate,” wrote Wasserman. “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 evaluation here of Taylor seems to be a bit nitpicky, if you ask me. I mean, he rushed for the fourth-most yards in the NFL last season and did so at 4.7 yards per attempt, which ranked 11th in the NFL. So, sure, Taylor gets a lot of carries, but he was still efficient as well.

For me, the question when it comes to this running back unit for the Colts is around the depth, where GM Chris Ballard said the team needed more production this season.

Last season, even with Taylor missing three games, Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson combined for just 88 carries on the season, and they averaged under 4.0 yards per carry as a duo, per PFF.

To remedy this, Ballard signed Khalil Herbert and drafted DJ Giddens to hopefully help provide a spark. While Taylor is again going to shoulder the workload here, having a dependable second option can help reduce the number of carries over a long NFL season.

Where the Colts’ running backs could also be better is in the passing game. This was an area that was mostly non-existent for this offense in 2024. Herbert has some experience in that regard, but Giddens perhaps has the greatest potential to add this element to the Colts’ backfield.