What would Marion Motley have to say about the current state of the Indianapolis Colts’ roster? Motley – NFL Hall of Famer, member of the 1940s' All-Decade team, one of the league’s first African American stars – played fullback and linebacker for some champion Cleveland Brown squads in both the AAFC and the NFL in the late ‘40s.
As March comes to an end in 2026, Chris Ballard’s Colts team has exactly one player at both of those positions with any kind of significant NFL pedigree – running back Jonathan Taylor.
We have talked extensively about what Ballard is doing with his linebackers, ultimately concluding that we have no idea. By signing Akeem Davis-Gaither, he has at least acquired a player with some starting experience in the NFL.
What are the Indianapolis Colts doing at running back?
Most of Davis-Gaither’s 24 career starts came last season for the Arizona Cardinals, but compared to the other five linebackers on the roster (career starts totaling six), he is an experienced leader.
We’re going to leave aside linebackers today because something even more alarming is happening on the other side of the ball. In the backfield, as of today, the Indianapolis Colts have three running backs.
The two players behind Taylor – DJ Giddens and Ulysses Bentley – have played in 10 career games. Zero starts. A combined 27 professional carries for under 100 yards. Does that make you feel good about the state of the Colts’ backfield?
Why does this matter? Why is there no team in the entire league that needs quality depth in the backfield more than the Colts? Let me give you two sets of numbers.
In the first ten games of 2025, when Indy was cruising to an 8-2 record, Taylor was averaging 19 carries and 114 yards per game. He was gaining an elite six yards per carry. He piled up over 1,000 yards and 15 touchdowns in those ten games. Both figures led the league.
Jonathan Taylor was a legitimate MVP candidate.
Over the next seven games, all of which the Colts lost, his numbers fell off a cliff. He was still averaging 19 carries, but his yards-per-game plummeted to 64 – his yards-per-carry to a mundane 3.3. He scored three more touchdowns.
The Colts indeed lost their starting quarterback during this run, but JT’s falloff began before the Daniel Jones injury. Running behind the same very good offensive line, his production fell by almost 50 percent.
Jonathan Taylor is too good a soldier to say it so I’ll say it for him. He was simply worn out.
Taylor has carried the ball more than 300 times in half of his six seasons. He has led the league in carries twice, including last year. The only player to have at least three 300+ carries in that time is the phenom Derrick Henry, who outweighs Taylor by 25 pounds. Many of the other backs who reached 300 even once – Najee Harris, Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb – have seen significant drops in performance.
Ballard’s unwillingness or inability to provide his star with adequate backup has been one of the GM’s greatest failings.
Consider what a far more successful GM – Les Snead – did in Los Angeles over the past couple of seasons. The Rams had an excellent young running back in Kyren Williams. In his third season (2024), the 207-pound back carried the ball 316 times for almost 1,300 yards. He averaged 4.1 yards-per-carry. All well and good, but Snead and head coach Sean McVay recognized the potential problem.
In 2024, Snead drafted Michigan running back Blake Corum in the third round. Last year, Corum got 145 carries, which reduced Williams’ total to 259. Both backs hovered around the five yards-per-carry figure for the year. They were both fresher for the entire season.
As of today, Ballard has done nothing to address the issue. He has signed no one in free agency. In fact, he lost Tyler Goodson to the Falcons. Goodson was primarily a special teams star, but he could at least contribute in the backfield if needed. He is gone. 32-year-old Ammer Abdullah remains unsigned. Salvon Ahmed, who missed all last year with an ankle injury, is also unsigned.
Ballard may have someone targeted in the upcoming draft. The fact that this is generally considered one of the weakest recent years for the position does not fill fans with much hope. There are still plenty of free agent backs out there, and Ballard will most likely sign several this summer. But none of them come with much certainty. That is why they haven’t been scooped up yet.
Every other team that lost a running back of any real note – not necessarily a star, mind you –just someone who could contribute some decent snaps in the backfield – every one of them 1) has more than a paltry three running backs on its roster, and 2) brought in someone through free agency to help share the load.
Jacksonville lost Travis Etienne and signed Chris Rodriguez. Seattle brought in Emanuel Wilson after Kenneth Walker left. When Rico Dowdell left Carolina for Pittsburgh, the Panthers signed AJ Dillon. Dowdle himself was coming to a Steelers club that had lost Kenneth Gainwell. Brian Robinson should do a lot of what Tyler Allgeier did for Atlanta in support of Bijan Robinson.
Some of these – like Rodriguez and Dillon – are minor moves. But at least they are moves. The teams are trying. In addition to Dillon, Carolina has five other backs on its roster. The Jags have four others alongside Rodriguez.
Right now, the Colts have just as many specialists who kick the ball (Blake Grupe, Spencer Shrader, Rigoberto Sanchez) as running backs (Taylor, Giddens, Bentley).
Feel free to check my math on this, but I’m willing to say that is not true for any other NFL franchise as we approach the draft.
So what is the plan at running back? Here’s my considered opinion…
It beats the hell out of me. At least Marion Motley isn't around to see what the Colts are doing to his two positions.