Insider: Colts chalk up unrealized Nyheim Hines role that led to trade to offense's struggles

INDIANAPOLIS — Nyheim Hines is no longer a Colt.

Hines wanted a chance to contribute beyond the “satellite back” role he’d played in his four-plus seasons in Indianapolis.

When the expanded role the Colts decision-makers talked openly about giving Hines in the offseason never materialized and teams started calling Indianapolis at the trade deadline about the fifth-year running back, talks ultimately led to Hines being traded to Buffalo for running back Zack Moss and a conditional sixth-round pick that could turn into a fifth-round pick if certain conditions are met.

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More:Unable to increase his role, Colts trade Nyheim Hines to Bills for Zack Moss, 6th-rounder

“Ultimately, it’s hard to trade Nyheim,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said. “Such a good player, such a good teammate. We certainly wish him the best, and I know that he’ll succeed there.”

Reich, the team’s offensive coordinator and play-caller, was asked directly if he should have done more to get Hines involved in the offense. The team’s plans to move Hines into the slot more often did not materialize this season, in part because of Parris Campbell’s emergence at the position over the past month.

Rookie wide receiver Alec Pierce’s emergence and the Colts’ unanticipated problems running the ball also played a role.

But Reich ultimately chalked up the drop in touches to the team’s offensive issues overall.

“I always had a vision of Nyheim taking off in this offense,” Reich said. “When you look at the six games that he’s played in, he was the third-most targeted guy. It’s J.T., it’s Pittman and it’s Nyheim. But the fact of the matter is our offense has been below average. We’ve not produced. We haven’t had a lot of yards, we haven’t had a lot of points, so everybody’s production is down, to a large extent.”

A concussion suffered three plays into the Thursday night win over Denver essentially cost Hines two full games, two games that produced a combined 160 plays, including 58 pass attempts against Jacksonville. Backup running backs Deon Jackson and Phillip Lindsay caught 13 passes in that game alone; if Hines had been healthy, a significant portion of those catches would have gone to him instead.

Take away Hines’s two touches against Denver before the injury, and the fifth-year running back had 17 carries and 24 catches in six full games this season, a tick under seven touches per game. In his best two seasons in Indianapolis — 2018 and 2020 — Hines averaged 9.3 and 9.5 touches per game, respectively. Hines played 35.2% of the snaps in his six full games, right in the middle of his average workload throughout his career.

“I was hoping to get him close to 10 touches a game,” Reich said. “When you look at it game by game, it was a little bit down, but I didn’t think it was dramatically down, relative to other players or to where we were as an offense.”

Reich declined to say whether Hines had requested a trade, deferring to general manager Chris Ballard, the man who handled most of the work on the trade.

But the Colts locker room knew it was a possibility. Linebacker Zaire Franklin checked his phone at 3:30 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. on deadline day, knowing any deals had to happen by 4 p.m.

News of the Hines trade broke with two minutes left until the deadline.

“It came at the last second, so it definitely caught me off-guard,” Franklin said. “I was drafted with Nyheim. Me and Nyheim have been competing against each other since college. … Obviously, I’m happy for him. He’s got a fresh start in a good situation.”

Replacing Hines in the lineup could be tough.

Second-year back Deon Jackson has been good out of the backfield in limited time this season, but it’s unlikely that he can handle the full scope of Hines’ responsibilities.

“Nyheim’s an excellent person and an excellent player,” quarterback Sam Ehlinger said. “It’s unfortunate, that’s just how this league is. … You’re always going to miss a guy like that.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Unrealized role, offensive struggles led to Nyheim Hines trade