Colts coach hints at Marlon Mack starting over Jonathan Taylor

Marlon Mack topped 1,000 yards rushing for the Indianapolis Colts last season, and it looks like he has a good chance of keeping his starting job.

In a conference call with the media on Monday, Colts coach Frank Reich hinted that Mack would start over rookie Jonathan Taylor. Reich did also indicate though that Taylor and Nyheim Hines would have prominent roles.

“There’s definitely inherent respect for the starter returning,” said Reich, per Kevin Bowen of 1070 The Fan. “And that’s the way I see this … I see it as a 1-1 [punch]. The way that the league has gone and the way role playing has been elevated in our league, it’s made it prominent. We used to say in San Diego that when we had Danny Woodhead. He was not our starter, he was our ‘role playing’ starter. He played such a significant role. He had 80 catches in a year.

“You look at a guy like Nyheim Hines,” Reich added. “We talk about Marlon and Jonathan, but what about Nyheim? He’s such a good third-down back that he’ll play a prominent [role]. In some ways, [Hines] is a starter. He’s a role-playing starter.”

The Colts used a second-round pick in this year’s draft on the first team All-American Taylor, leading many to believe that he could unseat Mack as the starter. But Mack had an excellent 2019 season, rushing for 1,091 yards and eight touchdowns despite missing multiple games with a hand injury.

In any case, Taylor’s speed (and Hines’ change-of-pace ability for that matter) is a good complement to Mack’s explosiveness, which is an encouraging development for the Colts in an offseason that has been full of them.