Toward the end of the first quarter of the Indianapolis Colts' second preseason game against Green Bay, quarterback Daniel Jones handed the ball to Jonathan Taylor for a nine-yard run off left tackle. There was nothing particularly special about the play. It is the kind of run Indy fans hope to see their star make throughout the 2025 season.
It was Taylor’s first carry of the preseason and, as it turned out, his last of the Packers’ game. Green Bay gave backups Tyler Goodson, DJ Giddens, and Ulysses Bentley IV the rest of the work on Saturday. No surprise. It would be foolish to risk a player as valuable as Taylor in the preseason.
No, in and of itself, there was nothing odd about Taylor's only run of the day. What was odd was the context - where it came in the game. Indianapolis’ first run of the game came with less than three minutes to go in the first quarter. Until that run, offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter had dialed up eight consecutive pass plays.
What is behind Indianapolis Colts' recent pass-happy offensive scheme?
To be fair, Cooter didn’t call eight straight pass plays. He may have only called two. Or it may have been nine. Daniel Jones fumbled a seemingly decent snap on the third play from scrimmage and had to fall on the ball. We don’t know for certain if that play would have been a run or a pass.
But we do know this much. In the first two preseason games of 2025, Indianapolis has passed the ball 89 times while running just 48. That works out to be about a 35 percent running rate, which is absurdly low in the NFL. Maybe this is how Indy is letting the quarterback battle between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones play out.
To put this in context, the Colts’ two opponents, Baltimore and Green Bay, were almost the exact opposite, running the ball 64 percent of the time.
If we look at 2024, Cooter’s offense was almost perfectly balanced. They passed the ball 513 times and ran 496. That works out to a 49 percent running rate. In the final four games, that running rate moved up to 54 percent, though that was largely due to a single game.
The Colts ran roughshod over a Tennessee Titans' defense, piling up 335 yards on the ground through 50 running plays. If you toss that outlier, they were pretty close to that 50/50 ratio that so many teams seem to favor.
So what is going on early in the preseason? Why has Cooter suddenly turned into Mike Leach? Where did this new air raid offense come from? (I know, it’s not really a spread air raid offense. They’re just throwing the ball a lot. I like to mention Mike Leach whenever I can.)
There’s one obvious answer. The Colts don’t have a competition at running back. At least not at starting running back. It’s Taylor that they may want to see how his backups perform in order to make their final roster decisions, but I think that ship has already sailed. Goodson and Giddens will begin the year as backfield depth.
But the Colts certainly have a decision at quarterback. It’s the biggest personnel decision Shane Steichen has made. And there does seem to be some logic to letting both Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones throw the ball a lot in order to help make that decision. If that is the reason, there’s not much to read into this anomalous play-calling.
But I’m not certain that is the only thing going on here. For one thing, Steichen should be evaluating his two QBs as they run a standard offense. Throwing every down may yield a little extra info about – well, how they throw the ball. But it does not show how they run the offense, which is more important.
I’m beginning to suspect there may be a contrarian logic to Cooter’s calls, which could carry over into the regular season. Every opposing defense knows that the Colts’ QB, be it Richardson or Jones, struggles with accuracy. They will all know Indy wants to lean heavily on Taylor. So they will crowd the box early.
That is the best time to throw, especially if your quarterback is not very accurate. The throwing lanes will be bigger. Ideally, several quick completions will give the QB confidence and will cause the defense to back up. That in turn will make Taylor’s job easier.
This idea of using the pass to set up the run isn’t exactly new. But it may be particularly useful for either Richardson or Jones. It is a risky strategy, since missing on first down puts the offense behind the chains and makes subsequent pass plays harder to execute. But it may end up being just the type of surprise tactic the Colts need to revive a stagnant offense with an unproven signal caller.