As the Indianapolis Colts bring in Philip Rivers to be the quarterback leading the offense, there are several players who will benefit from the veteran signal-caller. Chiefly among them will be running back Nyheim Hines.
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Even though Hines will be behind Marlon Mack and second-round pick Jonathan Taylor on the depth chart, his pass-catching abilities make him a strong target for Rivers.
Mack and Taylor will see a lot of the early-down work in the backfield, but Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni expects Hines to be one of the biggest beneficiaries to the addition of Rivers.
Nick Sirianni on Nyheim Hines’ role out of the backfield:
“Nyhiem is going to benefit big time from playing with Philip. There’s no question about that."
— Kevin Bowen (@KBowen1070) May 11, 2020
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Throughout his career, Rivers has often targeted the running back position in the passing game. With the weapons the Colts have in the backfield, 2020 should be no different. And with Hines being the best pass-catcher among the group, he will likely see plenty of targets thrown his way.
The 2019 season showed just what Rivers can do with a pass-catching running back. He helped give Austin Ekeler a career-year, and we even looked at some of the ways the Colts could use Hines in that role.
Even in his limited work in the backfield, Hines has the ninth-most targets (139) and eight-most receptions (107) at the running back position since the start of the 2018 season. With Rivers, those numbers are likely only going to increase.
There are a lot of mouths to feed in the backfield, but Hines already has his role carved out and he should see plenty of production in the passing game with Rivers under center.
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