Jonathan Taylor to Miss Week 6 Against Titans
The Indianapolis Colts’ offense may continue to struggle as they head into their Week 6 matchup against AFC South rivals Tennessee this Sunday. Starting RB Jonathan Taylor looks to miss his 2nd straight game after sitting out last week’s 37-34 road loss to Jacksonville with an ankle injury, an injury bug that has bit the 25-year-old Wisconsin back more than once so far in his 5-year NFL career in Indianapolis.
Despite being optimistic after the most recent team practice, Taylor didn’t log a practice for today, making tomorrow’s practice the last chance for him to potentially avoid sitting out this Sunday’s game against the Titans in Nashville. He might make the trip but be relegated to appearing in street clothes rather than full pads. And it’s not the first time Taylor’s ankle has prevented him from playing well. Week 12 of last season against Tampa Bay saw him pick up a torn thumb ligament, putting him out for at least 1 month.
2022 was the most impacted year for Taylor, as he had lingering issues from a Grade 3 high ankle sprain that kept him off the field from early October to mid-December of that year. This year sees him once again suffer that exact setback, and unless he’s got Patrick Mahomes’ track record with high ankle sprains, the 5th year Wisconsin draft choice is likely to miss another divisional game and could be out for longer depending on how long the injury takes to fully and confidently heal.
Without Taylor in Week 5, the Colts couldn’t establish a constant run game against the Jacksonville defense. Trey Sermon at least had ten carries for 38 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown, filling in for Taylor to go along with six receptions for 25 receiving yards, while 3rd string Tyler Goodson had five carries for 26 rushing yards while adding three receptions for 31 yards. Taylor also didn’t practice yesterday, and when most players have their best chance of starting on Sunday afternoons, they haven’t missed two straight days of always crucial practices like that.
And further damaging the Colts’ offense, already with a limited QB Anthony Richardson who’s dealing with an oblique strain, much like Saints starting QB Derek Carr after Monday night’s Kansas City defeat, is their top WR in Michael Pittman landing on IR in the coming days with nagging back injuries that will likely keep him out several weeks. All this means backup RB Trey Sermon can expect a rapidly increasing workload over these next few weeks, something the fellow 5th year back out of Ohio State has been waiting for. He had a good performance last week, but that was just the first contest without Taylor, so Sermon could see way more handoffs and touches coming from Richardson under center.
Richardson practiced full-time today, so that’s at least one good thing for Colts fans to look forward to. They should still be very careful with their limited offensive power left, sitting at 2-3, 2nd in the AFC South behind the Houston Texans (4-1), who could be hit with the effects of their own offensive power being weakened after leading WR Nico Collins joins Pittman on IR. Indianapolis looks like a team already scheduled to miss the playoffs, and the season isn’t even halfway at the moment.
Trey Sermon, meanwhile? Despite missing Wednesday’s practice nursing a collarbone injury, he was able to return to full practice today, which means he’ll do the same on Friday and be good to go for Sunday afternoon. Anthony Richardson was also limited on Wednesday with an oblique strain but did log a full practice today and should do the same in the next couple of days.
The worst part of this news is definitely still for Taylor, though. How he even sustained the injury was a complete freak accident- the turf monster living in the dirt of Lucas Oil Stadium snagged Taylor’s ankle and gave it just enough of a twist to do a bit of lasting damage. A little embarrassing? Yeah. Also very frustrating? Absolutely.
The latest major injury news for one of the NFL’s star players is another setback for fantasy managers who have held onto Taylor for the last few weeks, hoping to see him excel on the field. And so far, that hasn’t happened this season, and it looks like that trend will unfortunately continue for the oft-injured RB.
See also: Taylor Isn’t the Only Colts Star Missing Lots of Time