With NFL training camps beginning this week, Pro Football Focus selected one player from each team to watch as the next month-plus unfolds. For the Colts, they chose running back Evan Hull.
With Zack Moss now in Cincinnati, the backup running back role behind Jonathan Taylor will be one of the more intriguing positional battles for the Colts this summer.
PFF notes that with Taylor not playing more than 766 snaps in any of his four NFL seasons, the second running back should see his share of playing time this season.
“Those guys, there’s some great opportunities ahead of those guys to get carries, to get playing time, to earn that game action,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said.
“We think we know those guys pretty well, but it’s our second year going here and different guys arrived at different times last year, so we’re kind of excited to get a full camp with these guys and find out more about them and obviously complement JT, who’s going to be so huge for us this year.”
Hull was a fifth-round pick by the Colts in 2023. PFF mentions in the article that Hull had two “solid” preseason performances with rushing grades of 67.0 or higher with the team relying on him heavily during training camp with Taylor on PUP at that time and Moss injured.
Unfortunately, Hull’s rookie season was cut short, after he sustained a season-ending knee injury in Week 1.
“It was a root tear, so it was a little different than your typical tear in the body, which would be more of a 6-8-week type of thing that we see typically,” Hull said via The Athletic. “So, that was an entirely different process because they needed to basically repair the meniscus and put it back to its root, so you need to stay off (your knee) a lot longer.”
During his career at Northwestern, Hull averaged 5.0 yards per carry with 18 rushing touchdowns. He was a huge factor in the Wildcats’ passing game his final two seasons, totaling 110 targets, while averaging an impressive 9.0 yards per reception.
Hull will be competing with Trey Sermon, who according to ESPN’s Stephen Holder, was a standout player during minicamp, along with Tyler Goodson.
With Hull’s ability to impact the passing game and his experience in pass protection, he will have the opportunity to carve out a role as a third down back or seeing the field during obvious passing situations.
Being in Shane Steichen’s system for a second season will be a key part of Hull’s development, although there still may be a learning curve he’ll have to navigate after missing valuable practice time as a rookie.
However, with that said, Hull was able to make a quick impact on offense last summer.
“We saw quite a bit of him at Northwestern do some certain things and we’ve put him in a few positions here that maybe we didn’t see quite as much on his college tape,” said Cooter last August. “I would say he’s pleasantly surprised us.
“… Typically rookie running backs sort of struggle the most in protection because in college football you just don’t see a lot of that. You don’t see them pick up a lot of blitzes – they don’t have to. So, for him to come in and really do more or less a really nice job in protection. He’s been a bright spot at this point sort of in training camp and in the preseason.”
