The Indianapolis Colts are the best team in the AFC through the first 10 weeks of the season and that's not something that any of us had on our bingo card. While Daniel Jones will get some of the credit due to being the quarterback, running back Jonathan Taylor has been the constant engine keeping this offense on track.
Fresh off his astounding 244-yard, three touchdown performance against the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin, the Taylor winning MVP discussions are going to grow louder, and deservedly so. It's hard for a running back to run for that many yards in a game but Taylor did so and has continued to be a driving force in winning games for the Colts.
The unfortunate reality for Taylor is that he plays running back, a position that has lost a lot of respect and luster over the last decade. The last time a running back won MVP was in 2012 when Adrian Peterson won it after rushing for nearly 2,100 yards and 12 touchdowns.
It took that kind of a performance for Peterson to win the title and no running back has been crowned MVP ever since. Not even when Derrick Henry rushed for over 2,000 yards with the Titans in 2020 did a running back get the MVP title so doing that won't be enough for Taylor.
So, how can Taylor cement himself as this season's MVP? Former All-Pro defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, who is now an analyst on NFL Network, answered that question during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show.
"Just be consistent the rest of the year," McCoy said when Patrick asked him what Taylor needed to do to keep himself in contention for the coveted award. "If any year's the year to go win it, it's this year because there's not any quarterback that's like, 'Wow! Look at what this guy's doing!'... We're not seeing those types of games from quarterbacks... What he just did yesterday vs the Falcons, that's an MVP game... Everybody has that game that's his MVP game. Now he has to have these consistent moments throughout the year. Saquon any other year would have been the MVP last year but look at what he was up against. Jonathan Taylor's not up against that this year so he just has to be consistent with what he's doing, give us one more of those like [impressed sound] type games and then consistently play the rest of the year and [the Colts] keep winning, I think he'll win MVP."
Gerald McCoy says Jonathan Taylor has to keep being consistent to win MVP
Most Colts fans, while obviously rooting for Taylor to win the MVP award, assume that he'll end up winning Offensive Player of the Year instead. There's no debating that MVP has become a quarterback award and that OPOTY has become the best position player award.
The problem with that being the case this year is that, as McCoy stated, no one has been putting on the performances like we saw Patrick Mahomes do in 2018 and 2022, Lamar Jackson do in 2019 and 2023, and Josh Allen do last year. If anything, Taylor's biggest competition would probably be Drake Maye of the New England Patriots, who also has helped his team become one of the biggest surprises in the league this year.
If what McCoy said is true, all Taylor has to do is put up another crazy-type of game like he had in Berlin this weekend and then continue to be his usual consistent self. While rushing for over 200 yards in a game probably isn't in the cards, even just rushing for multiple touchdowns in a game or helping the Colts beat a tough opponent like the Chiefs or Texans down the stretch might be enough to cement Taylor's case as this year's MVP frontrunner.