INDIANAPOLIS – That favorite NFL team of Jonathan Taylor is going to have to change.
Because that is the team who has kept the Colts from winning the division—in which Indianapolis once dominated—4 out of the last 5 years.
The No. 23 Taylor donned at Wisconsin was because of former Houston Texans running back Arian Foster.
Thus, the Texans are were the favorite team of Taylor.
“I just think he was so smooth for his size, in and out of his cuts. That’s just a guy I tried to model my game after,” Taylor explains.
“Me being kind of a bigger back, making sure when I play, I play smooth so it looks natural. And I thought (watching Foster) was just like rhythm and poetry in my eyes.”
Well, considering Foster had 1,001 rushing yards in 9 career games against the Colts, it’s Indianapolis now hoping some of that same poetry can come from the guy who patterns his style after the sleek runner.
From a size standpoint (Foster: 6-1, 227 pounds, Taylor: 5-10, 226 pounds), there are similarities between Foster and Taylor.
But it’s the Colts’ runner who has more of that game-breaking element (Foster ran 4.68 in the 40-yard dash, Taylor runs 4.38).
During the 2020 draft process, Taylor felt that he was the top back in the class.
So did the Colts, even though others pointed to LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire (went No. 32 overall to Kansas City) or Georgia’s D’Andre Swift (went No. 35 overall to Detroit).
“Really, I think it’s my consistency,” Taylor, who went No. 41 overall to the Colts, said during the Combine. “If you look at the next level, what separates the great backs from the elite backs is really them playing on an elite level day in and day out every Sunday. I think that’s one of the biggest things that separates me is my ability to be consistent year in and year out.”
Taylor was that in college, putting up numbers over his three seasons at Wisconsin, unlike really anyone else in college football history.
For those reasons, the Colts are pointing to Taylor being a guy who is helping them in a big way come Week 1.
“We are expecting a lot,” Frank Reich says of Taylor. “We think he can come in and make an immediate impact because he has the off the field maturity to handle what he needs to handle, and get ready even in this COVID environment.
“He’s mentally really sharp. He has really high character. I had so many people call me and text me after we picked him, literally, it was a lot of football people that (said), ‘Hey, this was my favorite guy. Off the field, and on the field, this was one of the best guys in the draft.’”
