DJ

Giddens

Giddens has been sidelined for weeks with a severe hamstring injury. His return comes a few weeks ahead of the Colts’ regular season opener against the Ravens. Giddens as a rookie in 2025 had 96 yards on 26 carries, appearing in nine games for the Colts. He’ll battle Seth McGowan for RB2 duties this season behind Jonathan Taylor.

It’s been hard to find a good word from a beat on Giddens this offseason, so this isn’t an overly surprising conclusion to see listed out. He’s been sidelined for most of camp with a hamstring injury. The Colts look like they’ll keep Seth McGowan as their main backup to Jonathan Taylor. In this projection, Giddens loses the third running back spot to Ulysses Bentley IV.

Giddens appeared to have the inside track on the No. 2 RB job behind Jonathan Taylor at the end of July. With Taylor out looking for a new contract, Giddens took the majority of first-team reps during minicamp. Now Giddens is out dealing with a hamstring injury and seventh-round rookie Seth McGowan is getting the reps behind Taylor. It could be an uphill battle for Giddens, who the Colts selected in the fifth-round in 2025, once he returns from injury.

Giddens was supposed to provide some relief to Jonathan Taylor last year, but “that plan was mostly shelved” as the Colts apparently didn’t love what they saw. Giddens and sixth-rounder Seth McGowan figure to battle for the main backup job behind Taylor, but neither is a priority backup to target late in drafts as they’d likely form a committee.

With Tyler Goodson gone, Giddens is the incumbent and has the higher draft capital, so we’re surprised to see a beat writer giving some leeway to the idea that McGowan could be the backup right away. Neither player figures to play much without a Jonathan Taylor injury, but they could be interesting contingency holds in deeper leagues.

That can change if the Colts select a ballyhooed running back in the 2026 NFL Draft, but at this time, Taylor looks like he should handle another RB1-worthy workload next season. Taylor’s 369 offensive touches in 2025 rank second at the position and he is one among just 10 NFL running backs to clear 300 offensive touches during the regular season. He logged 321 in 2024. No. 2 RB DJ Giddens touched the ball 18 times last season and therefore enters 2026 as an unknown. If Taylor can again remain largely healthy next season, he has decent odds of surpassing 300 touches again.

It was the first time Giddens saw any real work since Week 1, where he spelled Jonathan Taylor late in a blowout win over the Dolphins. With Tyler Goodson (one carry, three yards) set to become a restricted free agent in 2026, Giddens will enter the offseason No. 2 on the depth chart. He hasn’t shown much so far, but how could he? He had only 18 carries all season before this game as Taylor stayed incredibly healthy, and those 18 carries were the most among Indy’s backup runners.

Gardner and Lewis were ruled out on Friday. Everyone else is a healthy scratch. Giddens has fallen behind a now-healthy Tyler Goodson in the battle to be the caddy that Jonathan Taylor doesn’t actually have.

No surprises here as the Colts didn’t have anyone listed as questionable heading into the weekend. Giddens remains a healthy scratch. Tyler Goodson will continue to back up Jonathan Taylor.

The Colts’ notable injury-related absence is defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. He was placed on injured reserve earlier this week. DJ Giddens remains a healthy scratch for this game.