Colts RBs Coach Confident Rookie Jonathan Taylor Will Improve Ball Security

As a hard-nosed, two-time Super Bowl winner, Tom Rathman was known for being a reliable player who took care of the football. Now an Indianapolis Colts running backs coach, he’s stressing ball security with rookie Jonathan Taylor, who had 6,174 rushing yards in college but 15 lost fumbles in 41 games.

INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Rathman’s reputation as the Indianapolis Colts running backs coach is to be expected, considering how he played the game as a two-time, Super Bowl-winning fullback with the San Francisco 49ers.

He sounds a bit old school when assessing what’s important for running backs, which includes being a stickler for hanging onto the football.

When asked Thursday about rookie running back Jonathan Taylor needing to work on ball security in the NFL, Rathman expressed confidence that the newcomer will make the necessary improvements.

“I don’t really think there’s going to be any issue there,” Rathman said. “I believe that it will get corrected with the development of just basic fundamentals. We harp on it every day.”

Not surprisingly, the Taylor question was the first asked of Rathman in a Zoom video conference call. Taylor rushed for 6,174 yards in three seasons at Wisconsin, where he won the Doak Walker Award twice as the nation’s top running back. But he had 18 fumbles, 15 of lost, in 41 career college games. Granted, he was a workhorse - those fumbles were on 926 carries.

“We’ve talked about it,” Rathman said of remote discussions with Taylor during virtual offseason training activities. “We’ve talked about our four points of pressure, the way we carry the football. I think it’s just kind of the fundamentals of the game, the way you carry the football.

“He can improve the way he carries the football. Just looking at film, he understands that and he understands what we are asking our players to do when we talk about ball security and how important it is.”

Rathman, who played for nine NFL seasons, is entering his third season as Colts running backs coach. Marlon Mack, the team’s leading rusher in 2019, has had just two lost fumbles in two seasons, both of those in 2018. Backups Nyheim Hines and Jordan Wilkins have had one and two lost fumbles, respectively, in two seasons.

The expectation is for Mack, Hines, and Wilkins to be better in 2020. Mack is entering his fourth season while Hines and Wilkins are starting year three.

Colts head coach Frank Reich and offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni have discussed how Mack and Taylor will provide the team’s seventh-ranked rushing offense with a “one-one punch.”

How much Taylor is able to contribute immediately depends on his ability to learn quickly despite not having the usual offseason mini-camp workouts at the team facility due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Jonathan, he’s a work in progress, so to speak,” Rathman said. “Obviously very talented. He came out with huge numbers, over 6,000 yards, three 2,000-yard seasons in a row. Obviously there’s ability there, but you still have to develop at this level.

“It will hurt him a little bit, I believe, not being around mini-camps, (not) being at the facilities in the offseason program, but the thing about Jonathan is he’s a very intelligent kid. He understands what it’s going to take. He’s got a great work ethic. They’re all going to work hard.”

Rathman admitted that Taylor was a well-known commodity based on his consistent production at Wisconsin.

“If you didn’t know who Jonathan Taylor was, then you haven’t been watching college football,” Rathman said. “A very gifted player. And the thing that’s going to help him adjust to our game is that at Wisconsin, they were well-coached in different schemes. So he can come in and he’s been running in gap schemes, he’s been running outside zone, he’s been running inside zone.

“So whatever we throw at him, he’s going to basically know what the understanding of the concept is. I think that will help him with his progression as a football player.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)