JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich confirmed that starting running back Marlon Mack suffered an Achilles injury Sunday in the Colts' 2020 season-opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Mack will undergo further testing to determine the severity of the injury.
The fourth-year veteran out of South Florida, who is coming off his first-career 1,000-yard rushing season, was off to a solid start in Sunday's contest in Jacksonville, with four rushing attempts for 26 yards (6.5 avg.) and three receptions for 30 yards, when he went down grabbing his foot in the second quarter after hauling in a short pass over the middle from quarterback Philip Rivers.
Initially ruled questionable to return with an ankle injury, Mack was eventually downgraded to out just before halftime.
Indy would roll with Nyheim Hines and Jonathan Taylor the rest of the way at running back; in all, the Colts, who finished seventh in the league in rushing yards a season ago, finished with 22 rushing attempts for 88 yards (4.0), with Hines scoring from 12 yards out on the game's opening drive.
The Colts would ultimately lose to the Jaguars, 27-20.
Depending on Mack's diagnosis, Taylor, who was selected in the second round of this year's NFL Draft after a standout career at Wisconsin, could be in line to pick up some slack at the running back position moving forward.
While no NFL rookies had the luxury of an on-field offseason workout program or preseason reps this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor said after today's game that he feels ready for whatever role he's given moving forward thanks to the leadership of running backs coach Tom Rathman and the other Colts backs.
"Not being able to have OTAs and not being able to have rookie minicamp, I mean, we had to try and do as much meeting as we could, and then also, kind of add on top of that throughout training camp in order to try to get me up to speed with those vets," said Taylor, who had nine carries for 22 yards and six receptions for 67 yards Sunday in his NFL debut. "I know that whatever happens — I don't know the full status yet — but I know that Marlon … he's not only going to be in my ear, but the rest of the backs … in order to make sure we can uphold his part and make sure that the running back group, there's not a drop-off."
