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Colts draft RB Jonathan Taylor - Round 2, Pick 41

https://twitter.com/zkeefer/status/1253832875134332930

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At 41, Colts go with Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor.

Offense with their first two picks tonight. Not a coincidence.

Getting Philip Rivers some weapons.

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...32936224370698

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The Colts are drafting Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor. I've watched a ton of Taylor over the years. Fast, great breakaway speed. Lots of experience running behind a powerful offensive line. Style's hard to describe; he can pick his way through holes and then take off.

https://twitter.com/jimayello/status...33426261741568

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From everything I've read, Jonathan Taylor is the best pure running back in the class. An athletic freak who ran a 4.39 40-yard dash at 226 pounds.

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...33083100565504

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Taylor's a very good receiver, too. Wisconsin highlighted that a lot last year. Paul Chryst clearly altered the offense to get him more receiving options.

https://twitter.com/jimayello/status...33871822598147

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With the Fournette drama unfolding in Jacksonville, my guess is that the Colts felt like they had to jump the Jags to get Taylor.

https://twitter.com/jimayello/status...41241369952256

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If there's an area of concern about Jonathan Taylor it's the immense workload he's already shouldered. In three years at Wisconsin, he ran the ball 926 times.

For reference, between 3 years in college AND 3 years in the NFL, Marlon Mack has run the ball 1,121 times.

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...42969423163393

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Fumbles were an issue, too. Fumbled 18 times in three years, but. ...

But the Colts have Tom Rathman as a RBs coach, and he's famously intense about ball security.

https://twitter.com/HolderStephen/st...54911395217408

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Regarding his fumbles, he emphasizes that the bulk of them came from his freshman year but he needs to put more work into "making sure that's shored up."

Hope the mileage isn't too high.

The drafting of Taylor tells me the colts will not be keeping Mack when he becomes a free agent.

As much as I like the pick, his mileage and fumbles are very valid concerns.

Other than that, he is a big strong fast guy with great running instincts, and behind this line that is lethal. Unless he starts fumbling the ball.

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Originally Posted by nate505 (Post 159817)

Now I remember that the fumbles were why I had him blacklisted.

Again, if you can get a guy with that type of production AND those measurables, you JUMP on him.

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...04352160382977

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The Colts had a group of 6-7 players at 34 that they were talking through. Taylor was in there. When he got to 36, 37, they were talking, and Jim Irsay said "You guys are talking about how much you like him, you should go get him."

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...04667706372096

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So Irsay's the spark that sealed the trade up for Taylor.

High wear and tear or not, he will be a great compliment to Mack in my view who will likely continue to take the majority of carries.

If Mack goes down, Taylor may be best situated to step in and pick up some or most of the load in the interim. Agreed that Rathman will drilling him on the drops so all upside in my view at this point.

Perhaps I just devalue the position too much, which is a little ironic because my all time favorite player is Edge. I just didn’t really like the value there - especially considering the high workload. However, RB is now largely a one contract and done position, so Mack is gone after this year. And they appear to see a window open over the next 2-3 years with Rivers. The need makes sense I guess and if he was their guy I like them getting it done. It still leaves me a little disappointed though looking at some of the guys that were still available at 44.

I don't understand this mileage stuff. A lot of RBs come into the league with high # of attempts like that.
He's young and still has plenty of miles left. No reason we can't get 4-5 years of production out of him - and then we'll replace with with another young back same as we're doing with Mack. Plus even though he's suited to be an every down back, we're not going to use him like that. He's going to platoon with Mack, not to mention Hines and Wilkins.

Backs who came out of college with more carries than Taylor:
Ladainian Tomlinson
Tony Dorsett
Ricky Williams
Herschel Walker
Marcus Allen
Cedric Benson
Thurman Thomas