1. Zaire Franklin led the NFL in tackles in 2024.
Franklin, with eight tackles in the Colts' 26-23 overtime win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, finished the 2024 season with a league-leading 173 tackles – nine more than Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker, who finished second. The Pro Bowl linebacker became the first Colts player to lead the NFL in tackles since Shaquille Leonard did so as a rookie in 2018.
Since becoming a full-time starter for the Colts' defense in 2022, Franklin has 519 tackles, 28 more than the player with the second-most tackles in that span (Baltimore's Roquan Smith, 491).
Franklin's final tackle of the 2024 season was a sack of quarterback Mac Jones, which set a new season high for the seven-year veteran with 3 1/2 sacks. Franklin also set career highs in forced fumbles (five) and interceptions (two); he tied his career high with six passes defensed.
2. Alec Pierce's yards per reception went *up* to end the season, and he became the first player since 1976 to lead the NFL in yards per reception.
Pierce caught a 40-yard touchdown and added a 17-yard reception in Week 18, bringing his season total to 824 yards on 37 catches – an average of 22.3 yards per reception.
Players since 2000 to average over 20 yards per reception on at least 35 catches:
| Year | Player | Team | Receptions | Yards/reception |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Alec Pierce | IND | 37 | 22.3 |
| 2019 | A.J. Brown | TEN | 52 | 20.2 |
| 2019 | Mike Williams | LAC | 49 | 20.4 |
| 2014 | DeSean Jackson | WAS | 56 | 20.9 |
| 2010 | DeSean Jackson | PHI | 47 | 22.5 |
| 2010 | Mike Wallace | PIT | 60 | 21.0 |
| 2008 | Bernard Berrian | MIN | 48 | 20.1 |
| 2004 | Ashley Lelie | DEN | 54 | 20.1 |
If you expand this to players with 37 or more receptions and at least 22 yards per catch, the list since 1992 is:
- DeSean Jackson (2010)
- Alec Pierce (2024)
Pierce also finished the season with seven touchdowns, and is the first player since the Houston Oilers' Chris Sanders in 1995 to average over 22 yards per reception and have at least seven touchdowns in a season.
The last Colts player to lead the NFL in yards per reception was wide receiver Roger Carr, who averaged 25.9 yards per reception on 43 catches for the 1976 Baltimore Colts.
3. Jonathan Taylor capped a bounce-back year with four consecutive 100-yard games.
Over the final four weeks of the 2024 season, Taylor led the NFL in:
- Rushing attempts (117)
- Rushing yards (627)
- Rushing touchdowns (six)
The second-most rushing attempts in Weeks 15-18 were from Atlanta's Bijan Robinson (89); the second-most rushing yards in that span were the 514 Baltimore's Derrick Henry gained.
While Taylor deserves plenty of credit for his vision and feel for when to be patient and when to get downhill on carries, it's notable that a little over half of his 632 yards came before contact, per Pro Football Focus – which is a testament to the blocks executed by the Colts' offensive line, tight ends and wide receivers. Only three other running backs gained more than half their yards before contact in Weeks 15-18, per PFF: Arizona's James Conner (35 attempts), Green Bay's Emmanuel Wilson (34 attempts) and Cincinnati's Khalil Herbert (25 attempts).
"Those guys up front, they do a lot of the heavy lifting," Taylor said. "I'm just passing by. I'm like a ship in the night."
Taylor is just the 10th player in the last 20 years to have 627 or more rushing yards in a single-season four-game span, joining:
- Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley (632 yards, 2024)
- Tennessee's Derrick Henry (710 yards, 2020)
- Minnesota's Adrian Peterson (629-684 yards over multiple spans, 2012)
- Kansas City's Jamaal Charles (658 yards, 2009)
- Tennessee's Chris Johnson (646 yards, 2009)
- Minnesota' Adrian Peterson (653 yards, 2007)
- Kansas City's Larry Johnson (642 yards, 2005)
- New York's Tiki Barber (627 yards, 2005)
- Seattle's Shaun Alexander (627 yards, 2004)
Of those players, only Taylor, Chris Johnson, Peterson and Larry Johnson had at least six touchdowns in their four-game spans.
4. A couple notable PFF offensive line rankings (minimum 250 snaps)
LT Bernhard Raimann: 85.1 overall grade (8th among tackles), 80.7 run block grade (10th), 82.0 pass block grade (14th)
LG Quenton Nelson: 83.1 overall grade (5th among guards), 81.7 run block grade (6th), 79.7 pass block grade (4th)
RG Will Fries: 86.9 overall grade (3rd among guards), 84.9 run block grade (4th), 74.9 pass block grade (12th)
5. Where Anthony Richardson ranked on designed QB runs.
Of Richardson's 86 rushing attempts, 21 were scrambles, per Pro Football Focus – tied for the 18th-highest total in the NFL. Most of Richardson's impact on the ground came in the form of designed running plays, which remove scrambles from the equation.
Those numbers:
- 65 attempts (4th)
- 315 yards (2nd)
- 5 TDs (T-3rd)
- 23 first downs (4th)
- 4.8 yards/attempt (4th)
- 13 rushes of 10+ yards (2nd)
- 29.2% stuff rate (6th-lowest)
