Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Running Back Jonathan Taylor OUT 2-3 Weeks with Injury

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts have lost star running back Jonathan Taylor for at least two to three weeks. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by PrizePix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to prizepix.com slash locked on NFL and use code in all lowercase locked on NFL for our first deposit match up to $100. Hello, everyone.

Starting point is 00:00:57 I'm Zach Hicks of horseshoehuddle.com and obviously of the Locked On Colts podcast. You guys can find my work over there again at horseshoehuddle.com where I do all my film stuff and really nerd out about this Colts team. We have a not-so-fun show today. We're talking all about the Jonathan Taylor injury, and you guys kind of got a firsthand look on how difficult it is to run a daily podcast because yesterday Jake and I get on here. We're all excited talking about how the Colts need to lean on their star running back the rest of the way and how important it is for Jonathan Taylor to be the lead back down the stretch.

Starting point is 00:01:30 And then 24 hours later, not even 24 hours later, I mean, heck, when you guys listen to the podcast, it was, what, 12 hours later, Jonathan Taylor is out for the next two to three weeks with a thumb injury. So we're going to talk all about the repercussions of that injury. Then we're going to talk about what the Colts offense will look like without their star player. Luckily, we've already kind of had a glimpse of that early in the season with Zach Moss leading the way, but we'll look more into that yet again. And then to close out today's show, we're going to talk about how the RPO game really

Starting point is 00:02:00 might have saved this Colts offense. The Colts offense looked really anemic in those Patriots and Panthers games, but the RPO game came to life in this past game against the Bucs, and that might have saved this entire Colts offensive system. So to kick this off, though, we're talking Jonathan Taylor. We're talking about the star running back who missed the first, what, six games this season with that ankle injury that he was still recovering from in the offseason.

Starting point is 00:02:23 He started the year on the pub list. I mean, again, a lot of speculation on whether that was a hold in or if that was an actual ankle injury still. By all accounts, Jonathan Taylor said his ankle still wasn't right. So we're going to put that down as the ankle injury still. But, you know, you guys can think whatever you want about that. So Jonathan Taylor missed the first six games this year with that ankle, comes back, plays fairly well. You know, he gets ramped up to speed,

Starting point is 00:02:51 plays some good football, coming off a really strong game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And now this thumb injury is going to sideline him for at least two to three weeks. You know, we don't know exactly when it really happened in the game. I know there's been some people that have been, you know, showing me some screen grabs of like a moment in the third quarter where he was wincing in pain after a hit and some other things. One guy on Twitter I want to shout out here is Brent, a fan of Nuance on Twitter. I'm sure you guys all know who he is. He messaged me, you know, earlier in the week. I think it was on Sunday after the game or on Monday talking about how the Colts running back rotation might have been influenced because in the second quarter, Jonathan Taylor was getting his hand wrapped. I don't, again, I don't know if that's exactly related to this thumb injury, but it makes sense that it

Starting point is 00:03:33 would be related to this thumb injury. So Brent, big shout out there for, for pointing that out. I know Taylor didn't play a ton of snaps in the second quarter of this game. So that could have been when that thumb injury happened, but regardless, it doesn't matter when it happened or anything like that. That's just some semantics that we're talking here. Jonathan Taylor out at least two to three weeks. James Boyd of the Athletic is reporting that Taylor has undergone surgery, is about to undergo surgery for that thumb. And again, Jim Irsay talked about this with James and the Athletics saying that the real concern right now is how well he's going to be able to grip the ball with that thumb. So they just want to get the surgery, get it taken care of and get him back for those last, you know, whatever it's going to be. I mean, if he comes

Starting point is 00:04:12 back after two or three weeks, great. If he goes on IR and comes back after four, not as great, but you know, you still get them back or, you know, knowing the Colts with the injuries this season, who knows when he's coming back? I mean, Braden Smith didn't go on IR and he missed like six weeks with his injury. Juju Brents didn't go on IR and he missed like six weeks with his injury. Juju Brents didn't go on IR and he's already missed five weeks now. Jelani Woods is still on IR when we just thought it was a hamstring pull and now it could be an entire season miss for Jelani Woods. So who knows when it comes to the Colts and on the injury front, but it does look like Jonathan Taylor is going to be out again at least two to three weeks

Starting point is 00:04:44 with this thumb injury. And again, knowing the Colts, it could be it could be the rest of the season. This is really unfortunate, obviously, for the Colts who are trying to make this playoff push. The Colts are sitting at six and five after a big win against Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They're sitting right now at the seventh seed in the AFC playoff race, which is which is a playoff team. Now, I mean, that's that's the state of the NFL. Now, that's a playoff team is that seventh seed. Uh, and Taylor was obviously a big catalyst of that win this past weekend. He had 91 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone. He

Starting point is 00:05:13 had six carries for 54 yards and a touchdown presumably with that bad thumb. So I don't, again, I don't know when that thumb injury happened. It could have happened on the very last run of the game. We don't really know exactly, but if it did happen earlier in the game, he had six carries for 54 yards and a touchdown in that fourth quarter to ice this past game with that thumb injury. So you know what? Playing through that injury a little bit did help the Colts get that victory. But yeah, Jonathan Taylor is going to be missing some time.

Starting point is 00:05:39 I don't think this drastically changes the Colts offense too much. We're going to talk about that a little bit more in segment two, talking about the guy who's going to be replacing him, but it does change their immediate projection. Obviously, you know, this Colts offense has been changing the run scheme a little bit in recent weeks. They've been leaning more on gap and power stuff for Taylor. They've been getting him more involved. I mean, he's had what I'd say like 70 to 80% of the offensive snaps over the past two games. So he's been getting a ton of looks there in this offense. So this does change quite a bit for the Indianapolis Colts.

Starting point is 00:06:09 And obviously when you lose a big time playmaker, your offense is going to suffer a little bit. I mean, again, we did a whole show on this yesterday, talking about how the Colts were able to win this past game by leaning on Michael Pittman Jr. and leaning on Jonathan Taylor and how going forward, that needs to be their approach. It's leaning on those two star players. and leaning on Jonathan Taylor and how going forward that needs to be their approach. It's leaning on those two star players to carry them into the playoffs. Well, now they're down one of those star players. And can Zach Moss be one of those star players and

Starting point is 00:06:34 replace Jonathan Taylor's impact in that way? Maybe, maybe. We'll talk about that more in segment two, obviously. But this is a big loss for a Colts team that is trying to push for that playoff spot. Anytime you lose one of your best players, it hurts, and especially with Taylor coming off such a big game, leading the Colts to victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But coming up, guys, we're going to talk all about the replacement, Zach Moss, who's still top 10 in the NFL in rushing yards, so this is no slouch coming in to replace Jonathan Taylor. We're going to talk all about Zach Moss and what impact he could bring to the Colts offense

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Starting point is 00:10:56 plus our national shows covering every single league. Go to Locked On Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to your first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. All right, everydayers, we're continuing this conversation about the loss of Jonathan Taylor. Again, hopefully not a season-ending injury for him, but it does look like he's going to be out for a minimum of two to three weeks, according to James Boyd of The Athletic. The man who's replacing Jonathan Taylor is running back Zach Moss. Yet again, I mean, luckily slash unluckily, I mean, however you guys want to view that,

Starting point is 00:11:27 luckily or unluckily, Colts have already had some experience seeing what Zach Moss can do as the main guy in this offense. Again, he started the first, well, not the first six games because he was injured in week one, but he started five of the first six games with Taylor out. And even when Taylor was working his way back into the offense, Zach Moss was a prominent member of this running back room. And he even was the lead guy alongside Taylor there for a little bit. So Zach Moss steps into that spotlight role again. He's the main guy this year so far,

Starting point is 00:11:57 672 yards rushing on 4.8 yards per attempt and five touchdowns. So this is no slouch. I mean, this is a really, really good running back. Like it's not like the Colts are bringing in some street free agent or some, some late round rookie guy to replace Jonathan Taylor. This is one of the better running backs in football. This season is coming in and playing alongside or coming in and being that starter down the stretch. So again, you don't want injuries to ever happen, but if they're ever going to happen at any position, you want it to be to ever happen, but if they're ever going to happen at any position, you want it to be at a spot where you have a guy like Zach Moss as the backup,

Starting point is 00:12:30 where it's like, okay, we trust this guy. Like, you know, it's not like a defensive tackle when Grover Stewart went down. It's like, okay, Eric Johnson, I guess you're up and teams are going to average eight yards to carry on us. It's really not that, you know, it's, it's okay. Jonathan Taylor's down. We lose some of that explosiveness and that speed, but we're still getting a guy who's averaging almost five yards to carry this season. And it's not like he's only done that with Anthony Richardson. I mean, this past game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he had eight carries for 55 yards and looked really, really good on his couple carries in this past game. He's still 10th in the NFL in rushing yards, and that's with him not getting more than like 10 carries in a game in over a month at this point. I mean, it's

Starting point is 00:13:09 really been the Jonathan Taylor show for the past month in this Colts backfield. And Zach Moss is still 10th in the NFL in rushing yards. He has the fewest amount of rushing attempts among all players in that top 10. So again, mathematically speaking, the highest yards per attempt of all of those players in the top 10 as well. And this week against the Tennessee again, mathematically speaking, the highest yards per attempt of all of those players in the top 10 as well. And this week against the Tennessee Titans, you know, the Colts are playing the Tennessee Titans on the road this week. Zach Moss was the lead guy the last time the Colts played them. And he had 23 carries for 165 yards and a touchdown in that game. So Zach Moss more than capable running back, like you really can't complain about Zach Moss being out

Starting point is 00:13:45 there and I think when you look at what this offense is going to look like with Moss compared to how it looked with Jonathan Taylor it's going to be much of the same I mean I think some of the running game changes a little bit we've seen Shane Steichen lead more into some more gap in power and pulling linemen with Jonathan Taylor's return to the lineup. And I mean, I think you could see that on plenty of plays in this past game. The game ceiling play, obviously, they had Quentin Nelson pulling around the outside with Jonathan Taylor falling behind for that big gain. A couple of other Jonathan Taylor big runs had, you know, Will Fries or Braden Smith pulling around the outside

Starting point is 00:14:19 because that's just where Jonathan Taylor thrives. He thrives more on that gap and power stuff on the inside, where Zach Moss is more of an inside zone, inside trap type stuff. You know, that's where Zach Moss is going to thrive. So you'll probably see the Colts lean more into those inside zone type runs with Zach Moss and let him get downhill and kind of read that first cut and explode upfield like he's been doing all year. But for the most part, it doesn't really change too much.

Starting point is 00:14:44 You know, who you have at running back doesn't really change the RPO game too much. Doesn't really change just the overall feel and dynamic of this offense too much. If anything, it keeps a better pass blocker out there a little more prevalent. I mean, again, I'm not saying that Jonathan Taylor is such a liability in the pass production game that he needs to come out, but he's close to that. I, but he's close to that. I mean, he's close to that. Zach Moss is a really good pass blocking running back in the backfield where Jonathan Taylor does have some struggles and limitations. So now you can kind of, you know, if you're having Moss play like 90% of the snaps, then you're going to get a guy who can continually do both of those areas really at a really high level. So, so again, I mean,

Starting point is 00:15:23 to reiterate, like again, it sucks to lose Jonathan Taylor, especially when he was starting to look like Jonathan Taylor yet again. I mean, he was hitting those inside zone cuts at a really high level. He was following his blocks. He was looking decisive and smooth and calm. And I wrote a whole article about how the Colts need to lean on Jonathan Taylor. And I'm so upset how horribly that aged. But at the end of the day, if you're going to have an injury anywhere,

Starting point is 00:15:45 let it be at the spot where you have someone as good as Zach Moss sitting behind them. It sucks. It really sucks. I feel like I say sucks on this podcast a lot because we had the whole show about Shaquille Leonard last week saying the same thing. Injuries are the worst, but having a player like Zach Moss behind definitely lessens the blow quite a bit. And you have a really quality player that's coming in that can do some really good things

Starting point is 00:16:07 for your offense. So overall, I don't think this Colts offense can change too much with Zach Moss leading the way yet again. If you guys are big fantasy players, I mean, go to fantasy football and if Zach Moss got dropped in your league for whatever reason, grab him as quick as possible because he's going to be a must add going forward because the Colts are going to lean on him. Zach Moss is that capable of a player. They're going to give him a lot of touches.

Starting point is 00:16:27 They're going to let him have the ball, and he's going to do some good things for this team. So, yeah, I'm excited for Zach Moss. I would rather see Jonathan Taylor out there, obviously, but I'm excited for Zach Moss. Really good player who's been doing some good things. And, hey, now he has a chance to get to 1,000 yards on the season, which would be a really great benchmark for him. So we'll see what he can do, do again with some more starts under his belt. But I'm excited for Zach Moss.

Starting point is 00:16:49 I think he's a really good running back. He's doing some great things for the Indianapolis Colts. But coming up, guys, we're going to shift away from this running back conversation. We're going to dive into the Colts' offense at a more schematic level and talk about how a slight change to how the Colts approach this past game might have saved their offense for the rest of this season. But first, guys, when you guys are hiring for your small business, you want to have as many top tier candidates as possible to interview.

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Starting point is 00:18:26 Jake is not on the show with me, we dive into some really nerdy schematic talk about the Indianapolis Colts. And that's exactly what I'm about to do today. So we're going to dive into this Colts offense. Now going into this past game against Tampa Buccaneers, who again, the Tampa Buccaneers, not the greatest overall defense in the league. One of the worst past defense is a pretty solid run defense. But again, those numbers get skewed a little bit when you're so bad against the pass that teams don't have to run the ball against you but I digress that's not the main point of this conversation here the main point of this is the Colts offense has was struggling quite a bit going into this past game I mean against the Panthers and the Patriots and those two games

Starting point is 00:19:03 combined the Colts only scored 23 total points. They couldn't run the ball. Their passing game was really erratic and just not effective. So the Colts really faced two major issues going into this past game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was how do we get defenders out of the box so we can actually run the ball? And how do we fix Minshew being erratic and not in control? And at the end of the day, just not comfortable. Gardner Minshew was just not comfortable whatsoever against the Panthers or the Patriots. And the Colts offense was not operational. There was a really low success rate and they were not moving the ball. So how were the Colts going to combat that? How were they going to get players out of the box and open up the pass game and get

Starting point is 00:19:43 Gardner Minshew more comfortable in the pocket? And the answer was these three simple letters, RPO, RPO. Now, for all you people who know what that term means, or at least have heard that term a thousand times and maybe don't fully understand it, an RPO is a run pass option. So it's a run design play with a passing option on top of it. So it's a bit like a read option in terms of the quarterback is making a choice on every single snap, but instead of it being like a read option where, you know, you either hang the ball off to the running back or running it yourself, your options are handed to the running back or pull it and throw it to your one read wide receiver

Starting point is 00:20:17 based on what the conflict defender is doing. So the quarterback is staring at one defender right as the ball is snapped and seeing how that defender is moving, which will dictate what he's going to do with the ball. If he's going to hand the ball off or he's going to throw it to a wide receiver or tight end or whoever it's going to be. So this is something that's really prevalent at the college level because offensive linemen are allowed to block four yards down the field before a pass is thrown. In the NFL, they can only go one yard down the field before a pass is thrown or it's a legal man downfield. So RPOs are not as prevalent at the NFL level, but we do see some teams like the Indianapolis Colts, like the Philadelphia Eagles lean heavily into the RPO game. And what we really saw in this past game with the Colts is every single run was an RPO

Starting point is 00:20:59 in this one because they wanted to give Minshew those options. And this is something that Minshew has been operating really well throughout his entire career, going all the way back to high school and his early college days. Gardner Minshew might not be the best dropback passer, but he's a really efficient and effective RPO passer because he is so good in those one read plays. He's so, so good in one read plays. He's really good at changing his arm angle. He's really good at being decisive. He's really good at just getting that ball out of his hands before obviously the offensive lineman goes down the field. So he's just really good in those RPOs. So the Colts really did some self-evaluating and this is really just great props to Shane Steichen yet again, where he really

Starting point is 00:21:38 did some self-evaluating. It's like, okay, how do I fix these two major issues? How do I get Gardner Minshew more comfortable? And how do I get defenders out of the box so I can actually run the ball again? Well, the answer is put Gardner Minshew in a system or in this one type of scheme, this one type of play that he is so effective and efficient at that will also lessen the box the more that he hits on those passing plays. So we saw the start this past game. The Colts came out throwing the ball so much. so much empty personnel, which doesn't really go to my argument here, but it was part of the game plan. And a lot of RPOs where Minshew was just

Starting point is 00:22:13 pulling the ball out and throwing it to a receiver, throwing it to a tight end and getting chunk gains in the passing game on those RPOs. Now, again, RPOs are run plays by design with just a slight pass option behind it to keep a defense honest. But if a defense is going to keep six, again, RPOs are run plays by design with just a slight pass option behind it to keep a defense honest. But if a defense is going to keep six, seven, eight guys in the box, your quarterback is going to pull those every single time. So we can hit that quick wide receiver and get the ball up the field and get some chunk plays. And we saw it in a couple of plays to like Will Mallory had a couple of RPO catches in this one. Michael Pittman Jr. had a couple RPO catches in this one. Pittman Jr.'s big fourth and one conversion was on an RPO catch.

Starting point is 00:22:48 So that's really how you lessen that box is, look, if a defense is going to crowd the line of scrimmage and bring everybody up around the line and dare you to throw it, well, you can still call a run. But if you have your quarterback pull it out and throw it real quick, then you can get one of your playmakers in space with a lot of room to move and get upfield for big productive gains. And that keeps your offense on schedule. So what we saw in this past game was a Gardner Minshew who was less erratic, not saying he wasn't erratic at all.

Starting point is 00:23:15 He was still fairly erratic at times, but he was far less erratic than what we've seen in recent weeks. We saw Gardner Minshew who was making better decisions at the line of scrimmage. We saw a more effective, efficient, operational, and highly more, like much more successful offense from this Indianapolis Colts team. They were able to move the ball at will. I mean, they didn't finish every drive, but they were able to actually move the ball in this game. And also as a result, we saw the run game finally open up again. It might not have been as many carries as we would want. You know, you probably want maybe 30 plus carries in a game like that where you're running

Starting point is 00:23:48 the ball so well, but if that RPO game is going, I mean, look, Shane Sikin probably called around 35 runs in this game. I'd have to go back and chart every single call, but if you count RPOs as runs, which they are run plays, Shane Sikin probably call it 35-ish runs in this one, but the Colts only had 23 because Minshew was pulling a lot of them to throw it to wide open receivers who can make plays happen in the open field. So the offensive scheme really relied on Gardner Minshew doing something that he's been doing since he was in high school, doing something that he's been effective at for his entire career. And it's a very simplistic thing. It's extremely simplistic. That's what RPOs are. It's a one read thing.

Starting point is 00:24:27 He's reading one defender, pulling the ball or hand the ball off based on that one defender. But because this is one thing that he's really, really good at, he was able to be more comfortable. The box was able to lessen up. The Colts were able to run the ball, and they were able to have a lot of success in all areas of their offense in this past game. So for all the people out there thinking, you know, this Colts offense is doomed because what do you do with Gardner Minshew at quarterback? You know, he's struggling as a dropback passer right now.

Starting point is 00:24:53 He's been erratic in the pocket. He's got happy feedback there. He's making some poor decisions. How do you make this Colts offense operational again? And for Shane Steichen, his self-scouting in the bye week was let's lean on the RPOs. It's something he's good at. It's something that's not too difficult or tricky for our offense. And it's a way to just keep the offense moving. You know, we're not going to have two play drives like this, but you're going to have sustained eight, nine, 10 play drives that

Starting point is 00:25:17 can get you some points and get you some conversions for first downs and keep the ball on the field for your offense. And that's all I was really asking in those Panthers and Patriots games was let's just get this offense operational again. They're not going to have this high octane offense with Gardner Minshew. But if you can just get this offense operational and kind of moving under him, that's fine. That's enough to get in the playoffs with this schedule the Colts have. So if they can continue to lean on RPOs, lean on empty set stuff, and then obviously build off the RPOs like they did this past game where they were throwing in a lot of

Starting point is 00:25:49 play action pop passes where these play action pop passes, there were still just one read plays, but they were play action by design. They were not, they didn't really have that run option where Minshew was able to pull it out and hit a quick hitter over the middle for a long game. I mean, the Marley Cox catch was obviously a play action pop pass. Michael Pittman Jr. had a quick slant, I think in the second quarter that was on a play action pop pass over the middle where it's like, hey, one read route or whatever,

Starting point is 00:26:13 just get that ball out quick on play action. But it's built similarly to the RPO without the run option, if that makes sense. It's a play action play that looks like an RPO essentially. But all this is say that the Colts offense, I'm not saying it's completely saved because RPOs are fairly volatile and sometimes they're just not going to work for your offense, but this is at least a solution to the problem that we saw in those Panthers and Patriots games. It's showing that this Colts offense is

Starting point is 00:26:40 able to evolve to problems where they looked at this and they said, look, Gardner Minshew needs something to feel comfortable again. And they said, let's lean on the RPO game again. Let's lean on the RPO game and see what it can bring us. And as a result, the Colts were able to have a really successful operational offense against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So we'll see if that continues going forward against somewhat better defenses. So not better teams overall, but better defenses going forward and see if the Colts offense can remain operational down the stretch and get them into the playoffs. That's all I have for you guys today. If you guys don't already, make sure you're following at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthur, at ZachHicks2, all on Twitter.

Starting point is 00:27:14 Also subscribe to us on YouTube, every list of your podcasts. We love your guys' ratings and reviews. And we'll see you guys back here bright and early tomorrow morning.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Running Back Jonathan Taylor OUT 2-3 Weeks with Injury

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