NFL.com’s Eric Edholm predicts RB Jonathan Taylor to be the Colts’ MVP of the 2024 season

According to NFL.com Eric Edholm, Jonathan Taylor, running back of the Indianapolis Colts, is considered the MVP of the 2024 season:

Indianapolis Colts

Record 2023: 9-8

Jonathan Taylor

RB · Class 5

The Colts have some outstanding players on both sides of the ball who could make excellent decisions. If QB Anthony Richardson makes it through the season healthy, or at least relatively healthy, he is an obvious candidate. But one of my main reasons for not The Richardson pick is my lingering fear of the shoulder injury that prematurely ended his 2023 season, a setback that seemed to limit him as recently as last month. That’s not particularly encouraging, even though GM Chris Ballard said the QB will be “fully operational” by training camp. Shoulder injuries can be tricky, and I’ll feel better seeing Richardson after he’s played some real, uninhibited snaps.

Taylor is a leap of faith, coming off his worst statistical season and now two years in a row he hasn’t even performed at full capacity on the field. But I’m confident he’ll get back to the production he produced in Years 1 and 2 of his professional career, when he was the Colts’ undisputed workhorse. Last year’s contract drama is a distant memory, and he looks healthier and more dynamic heading into 2023. We last saw him in the Week 18 loss to Houston, when Taylor tore the Texans apart with 188 rushing yards.

There’s no doubt that Taylor is a key player in the Colts’ offense, and the offense was certainly missing its star workhorse last season when he was limited to just seven games due to an offseason ankle injury and a season-ending thumb injury.

In 2023, Taylor ran for 741 rushing yards (an average of 4.4 yards per game) and 7 rushing touchdowns on 169 carries. Not bad considering the limited playing time, but a far cry from his monstrous 2021 season, in which he was named NFL First-Team All-Pro two years ago.

Perhaps most depressingly, the highly anticipated duo of Taylor and the Colts’ rookie quarterback only played two snaps together due to Richardson’s season-ending shoulder injury — what would have otherwise been a highly dangerous RPO game. The tandem now has a chance to make life difficult for opposing defenses in that regard if both remain fully healthy.

However, I still do not agree with Edholm’s final decision on this point.

Taylor showed that he is back in form in the Colts’ final game of the season, when he ran a total of 188 yards on 30 attempts (an average of 6.3 yards per game) and scored a touchdown.

Yet the Colts lost their last game against rival Houston Texans because 1) the Texans started with a 75-yard pass to Nico Collins (*and CJ Stroud’s overall top-notch passes) and 2) their offense didn’t get nearly enough passing power from backup starting quarterback Gardner Minshew.

This is not to diminish Taylor’s importance to the Colts offense, but ultimately I believe Indy’s most valuable player and the true success of the 2024 season will depend on Anthony Richardson – including his surgically repaired right throwing shoulder.

Given his positional importance and his importance to the Colts offense (*I mean, Joe Flacco is a good veteran backup, but he doesn’t have nearly the same level of elite athleticism and versatility that Richardson’s dynamic skills offer on offense*), Richardson is the obvious choice for the 2024 season. Their supremely talented second-year starting quarterback will need to help improve the offense to get the Colts where they really want to go.