Indianapolis Colts running back began the season as the storyline for the offense, dominating both phases of the game against the Jackosnville Jaguars in Week 1.
It appeared he had a rock-solid role in the backfield with seven carries and eight receptions. However, there was a big surprise in Week 2 when the Colts handled the Vikings at home. Hines saw just one target in the game and not a single carry.
Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni told reporters Tuesday that they need to get Hines consistent touches.
“We need to get the ball to Nyheim (Hines). He’s too good of a playmaker. So that is an emphasis and that is an emphasis each week. It just fell last week that he didn’t get the touches,” Sirianni said. “We know we can win a lot of different ways. The main way we know we want to win is through the running game. Then everything comes off of that.”
After Marlon Mack ended his season due to a torn Achilles, everyone knew the rookie in Jonathan Taylor would be taking over the early-down role. But most expected Hines to still have a strong impact in the passing game.
Even after Parris Campbell left the Week 2 matchup with a knee injury, Hines wasn’t involved in the gameplan. In fact, he only played nine snaps on offense the entire game.
Sirianni said that wasn’t planned, but the flow of the game just fell that way.
“Jonathan (Taylor) was carrying the ball. He was carrying the ball well. When Jordan (Wilkins) went in, he was carrying the ball well,” said Sirianni. “That’s just the way it kind of lied last week, but definitely it is always in our plans to get Nyheim the ball and be a big part of this offense. It just didn’t work that way last week.”
Hines has proven what kind of playmaker he can be when he’s given touches, and it will be interesting to see if Week 2 was an outlier or something we can expect when the Colts get into positive game scripts.