WESTFIELD — The story of last year’s Colts training camp arrived at Grand Park on Wednesday with little intrigue.

No questions about his ankle or intentions, no breathless reports the moment he pulled into the parking lot.

Jonathan Taylor felt normal again, from the timing of his arrival to the stream of praise for his teammates, right down to the t-shirt he wore, a Florida-era shirt covered in pictures of his starting quarterback, Anthony Richardson.

“Feels very different,” Taylor acknowledged. “Especially when you’re healthy and you had a whole offseason full of work.”

Doyel: Shhhh! It's quiet but this could be the best Colts team in years. Pass it on.

Taylor is coming off the most tumultuous season of his career, a season marked by a contract dispute — a standoff the running back ultimately won by landing the long-term extension he wanted with the Colts — and intermittent battles with injury, first an ankle that kept him out the first four games and then a thumb that forced him to undergo surgery late.

Upheaval that led to Taylor’s least-productive season, a 741-yard, seven-touchdown campaign that seems to have pushed the former first-team All-Pro out of the national mindset.

But the Colts, led by general manager Chris Ballard, believe the nation might be making a mistake. Taylor, still only 25, reported to training camp fully healthy, focused on teaming with Richardson and taking advantage of a Shane Steichen offense built on creating exactly what Taylor provides best.

Explosive plays.

Ballard is so sure Taylor will make his $42 million investment look prescient that he offered a simple, emphatic prediction on the running back.

“Jonathan Taylor will have a big year,” Ballard said. “A big year.”

Ballard has been beating this drum throughout the offseason.

Days after the team’s surprising playoff bid came up short in a hard-fought loss to the rival Texans, Ballard was already predicting big things for Taylor, the kind of big things he’d provided in his first two seasons as a Colt.

“I will tell you this, and I kind of felt this all year, I would be shocked if we’re not about to see real greatness out of him here going forward,” Ballard said in January.

By that standard, Ballard’s proclamation of a big year on Wednesday might seem almost reserved.

But the conviction remains.

Taylor showed Ballard in the season finale. After back-to-back seasons marred by injury, Taylor looked his old self against Houston, nearly dragging the Colts into the playoffs on the back of his brilliant, gutsy 196-yard performance.

The old Taylor was still in there.

And that gave the Colts reason to dust off all the reasons they were excited to see Taylor in Steichen’s offense last season.

None bigger than Richardson.

Taylor’s t-shirt indicated how excited the running back is to play with his young running mate, beginning with training camp.

“Really to just get a feel for one another, learn how each other moves, how they play, how he thinks,” Taylor said. “It was very few snaps, but we’re praying for a full 17 weeks full of snaps this year.”

Injury limited the preferred Indianapolis backfield to just two snaps together in 2023, but the Colts have spent the offseason excited about the prospect of finally pairing the two. When Taylor is healthy, he is the game’s best big-play back, and Richardson is a force on the run himself, a combination of size and speed who averaged 5.4 yards per carry and scored four touchdowns in his limited time as a rookie, forcing defenses to pay attention.

When Richardson was on the field, former Colts running back Zack Moss was more than a yard better per carry than he was without him.

Indianapolis has been dying to see what it looks like when Steichen can deploy Richardson and Taylor at full strength.

“He’s kind of like a mad genius,” Taylor said.

There are other reasons to believe in Ballard’s proclamation of a big year for Taylor.

For starters, Indianapolis is clearly betting on his impact. The Colts did not sign or draft a player to replace Moss, the player who’d backed up Taylor capably the past season and a half; Indianapolis is counting on a back to emerge from a group that includes Trey Sermon, Evan Hull and Tyler Goodson.

None of the three are likely to threaten Taylor’s workload in the running game. Even when Moss was on the roster, the Indianapolis coaching staff gave almost every carry to Taylor, at least as long as the team’s star was at full strength.

“Shane’s pretty good about giving out who needs to have the ball in their hands,” Ballard said.

As long as Taylor’s healthy, he’s going to get his chances.

The Colts already know what he can do. They’re ready to see him reach his potential again.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Drama behind him, Colts believe Jonathan Taylor is poised for 'big year'