Frank Gore was signed to be a workhorse running back for the Indianapolis Colts, but Andrew Luck’s injury issues never allowed him to get into the rhythm that many expected him to have. He had a solid all-around season, but the Colts will need him to have an even bigger season in 2016 and make a bigger impact.
After seeing the way that the entire Colts’ offense struggled without Luck, Gore’s production could very well go up next season. He may not hit 1,000 yards, but he should definitely be more efficient.
Throughout the course of the 2015 NFL season, Gore ended up carrying the football 260 times for 967 yards and nine touchdowns. Those numbers weren’t too shabby at all, but there is no question that he could make a bigger impact. He ended up averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, which ended up being a career low for him.
Not only did he have a career yards per carry low, he also didn’t break 100 yards in any single game.
While his stat line may not look terrible, Gore is accustomed to having much bigger years than he had. At 32 years of age, there is a lot of buzz going around that Gore could be winding down to the end of his career. Age could be slowing him down, although that didn’t necessarily appear to be the case.
Luck is the backbone of the Indianapolis offense and it was obvious that there were issues everywhere when he went down with injury. Add in the fact that the offensive line still hasn’t been fixed and a good number of Gore’s struggles can be figured out.
That being said, the veteran has to figure out how to up his yards per carry to above 4.0 once again and also find a way to punch the football into the end zone more. Only recording six touchdowns was not what the Colts were hoping to see from their new running back.
Looking ahead to the 2016 NFL season, there is a very good chance that the Colts will have upgraded their offensive line. Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano are going to be working closer with each other, which definitely bodes well for the offensive line’s chances of receiving a bit of an overhaul. Having Luck back starting every game will be a major help as well.
There are no more excuses that Gore can make for his struggles moving forward, assuming the Colts do make the needed changes.
Expect to see him come out looking to prove a point to start the 2016 season. He knows that he wasn’t the big running back signing that the Colts thought they had, but he also knows that he is more than capable of showing off the full talent that he has and putting up huge numbers for the Colts in his second season with the team.
