The Indianapolis Colts went with the hot hand in the 41-21 win over the Detroit Lions in Week 8, giving Jordan Wilkins most of the work in the second half of the game.
Wilkins impressed the Colts by moving the pile consistently in the second half. It was night and day compared to the struggles of rookie Jonathan Taylor, who is dealing with an ankle injury.
Moving forward, it remains to be seen how much more work Wilkins will be getting, but offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni believes the third-year back will be more involved.
“Yeah, whenever a guy takes advantage of his opportunities the way that Jordan (Wilkins) has, I think it’s natural that we’re always going to ask that question. Jordan has done nothing but earn more opportunities, and he’ll continue to get more opportunities,” Sirianni said Monday. “So I think that’s fair. I for sure always ask that. We say that a lot, ‘Let’s get this guy involved.’ He can really do things when he’s in the football game.”
Wilkins finished the game leading the Colts’ rushing attack with 20 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown. He out-carried Taylor 14-1 in the second half and punched in a goal-line carry for a score.
Even after drafting Taylor in the second round, the Colts have made it clear they want to get all of their backs involved. And after Wilkins took the bulk of the work in the second half of the game on Sunday, we could be looking at more of a timeshare.
Sirianni said Monday that the Colts still have confidence in Taylor moving forward as the starter.
“Well, it wasn’t anything that he was struggling with in my mind. It was that when Jordan (Wilkins) went in and had some opportunities to go and get some carries, he really excelled at it,” Sirianni said. “Jordan got hot and he continued to carry the ball and that’s just the way the game took us. Again, total confidence in Jonathan Taylor, it was just the way the game went the other night.”
It will be interesting to see how the Colts will move forward with the timeshare, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Wilkins see a slight uptick in usage.
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