Although Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has been given permission to seek a trade and is unsurprisingly garnering plenty of interest, and although fellow RB Zack Moss suffered a broken arm at the end of July that threatens his Week 1 availability, Kenyan Drake was unable to crack Indianapolis’ roster. Per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the club has released the veteran back.
Drake just signed with the Colts earlier in August. He saw action in each of the team’s three preseason games, though he failed to impress as a runner, accumulating just 36 rushing yards on 13 carries, which amounts to a poor 2.8 YPC average. In Indy’s preseason finale against the Eagles on Thursday, he did exhibit the receiving acumen that has made him a valuable commodity during his NFL career, catching two balls for 22 yards and a touchdown.
Obviously, that was not enough for the Colts to keep him around, and the fact that the club cut ties with Drake while Taylor’s future in Indianpolis is so uncertain perhaps suggests that Moss will be cleared before the start of the regular season. It could also mean that the team is content with its other RB options, a largely unproven group that includes third-year pro Deon Jackson — who has just a 3.3 YPC average in 81 career carries — fifth-round rookie Evan Hull, Jake Funk and Jason Huntley.
Prior to his short-lived tenure with the Colts, Drake had been with four teams over the last four seasons. Despite that nomadic stretch, he has had productive spurts with each of those outfits. The Alabama product averaged 5.2 yards per carry in his 2019 Cardinals games following a midseason trade from the Dolphins, and Arizona put the transition tag on him in 2020. The then-Kliff Kingsbury-led team used Drake as its top back that year, and he finished with a career-high 10 touchdowns. Drake totaled more than 1,000 scrimmage yards in 2019 and ’20, and the Raiders — despite having drafted Josh Jacobs in the first round of the 2019 draft — gave him a two-year, $11M deal in March 2021.
Jon Gruden‘s vision of Drake serving as a dynamic pass-catching back complement to Jacobs did not entirely come to fruition, with Drake totaling just 291 receiving yards in the 2021 campaign. The Josh McDaniels-headed Raiders released Drake last summer following failed trade talks, which led Drake to the Ravens. In Baltimore, Drake had several notable performances, including a 119-yard game against the Giants and a 93-yard showing against the Saints. Though he was deactivated for the final few games of the season and the Ravens’ lone playoff contest, Drake finished with 482 rushing yards at a 4.4-YPC rate and made some key contributions while J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards battled injuries.
Given his history, it seems likely that Drake will get another opportunity.
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