**2\. With Jones healthy, look for Jonathan Taylor to return to form, too.**
Taylor powered the Colts' 8-2 start with 1,139 yards on 189 carries (6.0 yards/attempt) with 17 total touchdowns over the first 10 weeks of the 2025 season. But over his final seven games, Taylor never rushed for more than 90 yards in a game and totaled just three touchdowns.
The Colts have no reason to doubt who Taylor is as a running back – he's the NFL's active leader in rushing yards per game (90.5), after all. But Steichen and his coaching staff spent significant time this offseason digging into the reasons behind Taylor's decline in production, which, it should be noted, came against the NFL's Nos. 1, 3, 4, 9 and 11 defenses by rushing yards per game.
Finding a way to generate production from Taylor regardless of circumstance or defense certainly is important, but one key circumstance will be different on Sept. 13: Taylor and a healthy Jones will be together again in the Colts' backfield.
Defenses, now, will have to respect Jones' ability to roll out on play action – less to run (which he can do, even after the Achilles' injury) and more to dump a pass off to a wide-open receiver in the flat. It changes the math on how teams can defend the run. And it could very well benefit Taylor, who the Colts expect to be an engine of this offense again in 2026.
**3\. The wide receivers fit well together, again.**
Colts assistant general manager Ed Dodds likened building a wide receiver room to building a basketball team, with each player bringing different physical builds, athletic traits and play strengths to an offense. In 2025, that analogy worked ideally, with Alec Pierce, Michael Pittman Jr. and Josh Downs all complementing each other's skillsets and strengths in an impressive way.
Pittman was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers in March, but the Colts signed veteran Keenan Allen in August to help round out the basketball team in their receiver room. The 6-foot-2, 211 pound Allen, even at the age of 34, remains one of the most technically skilled route runners in the NFL.
The Colts' offense needed reliability more than explosiveness – that's Pierce's wheelhouse – and believes it got that in Allen, who last year had nearly identical production to Pittman.
But before Allen signed, the Colts had spent time this offseason working on how to get Downs more involved in the offense after his production dipped in 2025. We'll see how that looks come Week 1, but expect Downs' short-area quickness, feel for space and acceleration to be weaponized quite a bit in this year's offense.