It’s ‘next man up’ again in the Indianapolis backfield with the Colts’ Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson looking to help fill Jonathan Taylor’s rather sizable shoes this Sunday in Jacksonville.
Indianapolis Colts (2-2) running back Jonathan Taylor, who’s battling a high-ankle sprain suffered during last weekend’s win, was officially ruled out ahead of Sunday’s road game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (0-4) (-3).
This doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, as while Taylor was publicly hopeful post-game on Sunday, it typically takes at least a few weeks for a high-ankle sprain to fully heal.
The Colts likely want to be cautious with Taylor’s injury too, given it’s the same bothersome right ankle that cost him 6 games in 2022 due to a Grade 2-3 ankle sprain, as well as the first 4 games of the 2023 campaign—as he initially began it on PUP, still recovering.
In his absence, the Colts will likely turn to former 2021 San Francisco 49ers 3rd round pick, Trey Sermon, as the starter, who appeared in 14 games for Indianapolis last season.
This year, Sermon has 9 carries for 24 total rushing yards (2.7 ypc. avg.)—although to be fair, at least a handful of those carries occurred last week, when Sermon appeared in relief of the injured Taylor late—and as the Steelers were clearly selling out to stop the run, as the Colts were predictably looking to kill clock in the game’s closing minutes with a small lead and a backup quarterback behind center.
Sermon will likely handle the bulk of the ‘between-the-tackles’ work, while the Colts will turn to third down back Tyler Goodson to assume pass catching duties out of their backfield.
No, the Colts’ ‘next-man-up’ platoon won’t be able to replicate the same elite play and production of star workhorse Jonathan Taylor, who’s arguably a Top 5 NFL player at the position and a special talent—featuring a tantalizing speed and power combination, as a home run threat to take it the full distance anytime he touches the football.
However, let’s not forget that during Week 15 of last year on Saturday night football, this same fill-in Colts’ backfield pairing put up the following numbers: Sermon rushed for 88 total rushing yards on 17 carries (5.2 ypc. avg.) and Tyler Goodson had 11 carries for 69 total rushing yards (6.3 ypc. avg.)—en route to a big Colts’ win against a very good Pittsburgh Steelers defense that kept Indy’s late season playoff hopes very much alive.
It’s not as though this Colts replacement running back duo hasn’t held their own before.
Behind a Colts offensive line that per ESPN, ranks 2nd in run block win rate (75%) and 1st by PFF with a +80.0 overall run block grade, we’ll have to see if they can do it again versus the Jacksonville Jaguars front seven, who rank 30th in run defense so far during 2024.
