The Dolphins are not the only Jonathan Taylor suitor. Six teams are believed to have shown interest in Taylor, ESPN.com’s Stephen Holder reports.
Two of those clubs are believed to have extended offers to the Colts. It is not known if the Dolphins are one of the clubs to make an offer, but given their reported interest from the start of this accelerating derby, they would be a good guess here. But Miami, which has engaged in ongoing discussions with Indianapolis, is not alone in this pursuit.
More than three weeks after Taylor’s trade request became public, the Colts gave him permission to find a deal. The AFC South team wants a first-round pick — a price no team has paid for a running back since the Colts gave up one for Trent Richardson in September 2013 — or a picks package on the Christian McCaffrey level. The 49ers gave up second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-rounders for CMC last year.
The Colts are giving Taylor until August 29 to find a trade partner, Holder adds. The Colts must decide by 3pm CT on August 29 whether to keep Taylor on the PUP list or move him back to their active roster. Taylor remaining on the PUP past roster-cutdown day would mean a four-game absence to start the season. The team looks to have established a deadline. It remains to be seen if that is a point of no return on a Taylor trade.
Part of Taylor’s frustration with the team goes back to May, with Holder noting the Colts refused the running back’s extension request. Taylor, 24, became extension-eligible in January, but he is coming off an injury-plagued season. Taylor’s first notable NFL injury — an ankle malady that may or may not still be causing him trouble — led to him missing six games. GM Chris Ballard cited this and the team’s poor 2022 performance as a reason no extension was on tap.
Between May and training camp, a number of sobering developments transpired for running backs. It is unsurprising to see the Colts press pause here, but Taylor — who hired a new agent in late May — has changed his tone with the team. Indicating as recently as this year he still wanted to retire a Colt, the 2021 rushing champion switched gears. His agent has gone back and forth with Jim Irsay on social media, with the outspoken owner’s comments on the RB meetings not going over well with his own RB1. Irsay’s one-on-one meeting with Taylor did nothing to end this impasse, with Holder adding the Wisconsin alum remains set on being traded out of Indianapolis.
One year remains on Taylor’s rookie contract. The former second-rounder’s hope for an extension has complicated a trade, with teams leery of sending over notable draft compensation and authorizing a near-top-market extension. It is not known what price Taylor is seeking, but none of the rumors involving the franchise-tagged trio (Saquon Barkley, Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs) reached the McCaffrey or Alvin Kamara levels. No back has even secured a $10MM-per-year deal since the Browns paid Nick Chubb (three years, $36.6MM) in July 2021.
The Colts would have the option of tagging Taylor in 2024. In theory, a team that acquires Taylor via trade would as well. Though, it would be odd if a team traded for Taylor without the intention of extending him. Despite some of the recent RB extensions working out for teams, the market iced over this offseason. Taylor’s standoff with the Colts may represent the final chapter in perhaps the worst year for the position in its history.
Trade what, a 6th? He has a bum ankle and back right?
No. He is fine. He just doesn’t want to play for the Colts.
I bet that’s true. If Taylor can prove his back was fine, I’d sue the heck out of Irsay for slander. Billionaire wants to run his yap publicly over medical issues? Get him.
Do you really believe what NFL owners tell the media?? Lol I wouldn’t bet on that. Taylor is 100%, the Colts are just covering it up.
I think that Taylor is the one saying his back hurts. Now that teams cannot rescind money lost during a holdout, players will start reporting to camp and complaining of a “sore back”. I think the kids call it “quiet quitting”? We can call it a “quiet hold out”.
Taylor openly disputed his back pain, not his ankle.
Arty-when Taylor met with team doctors at the start of training camp, looking at the status of his ankle; Taylor indicated he had some back pain from his rehab & personal training. That was before his agent change & subsequent personality change. He denied having back pain to the media, but I’m sure it’s in his medical records.
This is all on Taylor, who came out earlier when franchise tag drop dead day left 3 RB’s without long term deals in support, saying it was wrong not to pay them. Then he changed agents & ramped up his stance to include himself, saying others like Nelson & Leonard got their extensions before their final year; he deserved it now & wanted $15mm. The Colts is the same as the league’s on paying RB’s the 2nd contract that most will never finish. $10-12mm is the ceiling now & rarely more than 3 years. His ankle surgery was in January & typical recovery is 6 weeks, not 6 months. If he truly still has problems; his career is soon to be over. If he’s milking it, why reward him. He’s now a cancer to the team.
If you’re right, then no lawsuit. If I’m right, then Taylor should go after Irsay. I have no idea about his medical records. But Taylor denied them non-stop and his back hasn’t been brought up since, anywhere.
Its called a hold-in now
No. But it doesn’t mean the owner can put out false medical reports either. Irsay wanted to embarrass Taylor, Taylor should do the same. It’ll be 100% funded by the NFLPA. Not out of his pocket.
Nor should he. They didn’t pay James or Faulk, so I’m sure the precedent has been set. The owner doesn’t pay RBs.
The team I root for has some ‘extra’ receivers and maybe DBs that could be trade bait but I doubt they’d be willing to pay Taylor whatever his asking price would be!
One team has to be Cleveland with all that cap space they made recently?
Have you heard of Nick Chubb?
I’ve heard of Nick Papageorgio.
From Yuma?!
And just like that, RBs have value.
They always will because passing 50+ times a game is not a blueprint for success.
It’s not that the RB position isn’t valuable, it’s that a particular RB isn’t that valuable because there are lots of them. You can draft a guy like Cris Carson in the seventh round. No need to bust your cap for Ezekiel Elliot because Pollard is better and cheaper. There is still value in running the ball, but most teams have three or four guys that can carry the rock and all of them can be replaced late in any NFL draft.
Do you bust your cap for Henry, Kamara, or McCaffrey? They are making $15M to $18M this season. Teams with very good QBs don’t need great RBs. But many teams don’t have great QBs. There are a few teams that are hurting for RB this season, Patriots, Texans, Bucs, Cardinals come to mind. Let’s see how Raiders, Colts, and Vikes do without theirs. You can’t just plug and play late round RBs and expect the same results. D coordinators will stack the box, stuff the run, and let the QB try and beat them. Do you trust that 6th rd RB not to fumble the ball on short yardage situations? Good luck with that.
I’m happy with Stevenson at RB for Pats, not hurting for RB
Stevenson on NE, not hurting. Teams are plugging in undrafted RBs so I think some teams are trusting late round picks
Dameon Pierce had an excellent rookie season. Texans arent hurting as much as others. They also signed a quality backup in devin singletary.
Yes, I agree with this, but alot of people have the ongoing sentiment wrong.
They think GMs are saying,”don’t pay RBs at all, because you can find one to replace him in the 5th or 6th rounds.”
That is not true, especially for some of the more versatile, dual threat backs who’s abilities cannot be matched.
So, that isn’t exactly what they are saying, they are saying it isn’t always smart money to pay a RB in the double digits per year, because they typically wear down faster than most positions. That’s the case, especially if you’re already paying a QB big money, and you have other big-time roster needs elsewhere.
This is mostly an argument made against paying a RB big money, when you could allegedly use that money better elsewhere. I don’t think it is a blanket statement, and covers all RBs in the league, just the vast majority of them.
Anyways, by the time a RBs second deal is up, if they even can obtain a high AAV deal, that RB is either an injury waiting to happen, they’re no longer the same RB with the same burst due to the number of hits they’ve taken, or the value just isn’t there because they’re projected to decline so rapidly.
In an ideal world, from a GMs perspective, they are saying you can draft a RB in the 3rd Round or later every year, and with a stable of three reliable and versatile backs, you can get all the production you need from the position, except it is at a fraction of the cost.
While I tend to agree for the most part, you will always have your outliers at the position. These are the guys that are just head and shoulders above and beyond all their peers. Look at Bijan Robinson and Jahmir Gibbs both getting drafted in the 1st Round this year.
For the top tier RBs, I think we will start to see more shirt-term deals like Nick Chubb received from Cleveland. They can obtain more guaranteed money, but take a shorter deal, and this way the team isn’t worried about being stuck in the middle of a longterm deal having to overpay for a RB when he’s approaching his late 20s.
Alot of people are feeling bad for RBs, but you have to look at this from all angles. All this means is that more and more RBs are going to be able to get to show and prove what they are capable of if given the opportunity.
Most other positions that are drafted in the 5th-7th Rounds never even get to sniff any playing time in the first or second season. Unless they’ve earned a spot on one of the ST units, it could take some guys three to four years to even sniff taking first team reps at their position. Now, consider a 5th Round RB, he is likely only one injury away from taking meaningful snaps his rookie season.
Get your points.
Logic says you run a 200lb RB into a DL populated by 300lb violent men your body is going to pay a physical price.
There’s about 1200 snaps per season and RBs are either carrying the ball or pass blocking the majority of these, so they’re maybe more physically accosted than a WR.
I’m thinking RB contracts should be structured to value yardage gained, TDs achieved, receptions / yards after, and availability. This would highlight ‘common usage’ and define a unique manner of reward for usage and accomplishment.
Of course every RB would need to comply.
A side note – some of the monies connected to the NFL as a whole are beyond comprehension for us commoners!
No. I wouldn’t bust my cap for Henry, Kamara, or CMC. In fact, those contracts are the reason why teams are reluctant to pay that kind of money. The Titans and Saints are not good and would be even worse if they didn’t play in bad divisions, and the Panthers traded CMC’s contract. They were fine with the player. JP
Even King Henry, a giant among dwarves, flagged over the last couple of seasons. There’s only so many chops of the axe even a Giant Redwood can take. I still remember watching Earl Campbell whose massive thighs crushed defensive linemen’s arms for a few years, slowly fade and flag, under the twenty-five carries per game and five hits per carry the Oilers imposed on him.
For the record, Earl Campbell has just six good seasons before he was completely worn out. He was effectively done by the end of season four (end of rookie contract these days). The Oilers offense was so one-dimensional, defending it was simply, “everyone hit Campbell”. The Titans in the big seasons with King Henry were similar.
You may be correct, but “interest” does not always equate to value. There were multiple teams “interested” in Dalvin Cook and he ended up signing for 1 year @ $7mil. And that was after no one was willing to meet Minnesota’s asking price in a trade.
We won’t pay you CMC salary but we want CMC trade value
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I can understand the first part, with the RB market being what it is now. The second part…not so much. The problem for Taylor is, even if he gets a trade where they’re willing to extend him, that team isn’t likely to go real high either. But maybe he’ll get the respect he’s looking for.
Because the colts know they arent competing anytime soon… Draft capital will do more to expedite their rebuild, than an extension of Taylor will.
Your statement makes sense, however you can’t devalue and simultaneously try to increase value on the same thing. Not publicly anyway. That’s what the Colts are doing.
The value is there for a team that may be a piece away.
Of course it is. But that team is going to use the Colts own statements of his reduced value against them in any trade negotiations to bring the compensation DOWN. Irsay is talking out both sides of his mouth.
For what it’s worth, I read yesterday that the Bears reportedly made an offer. Are they a piece away?
If there at least 6 teams interested, as reported…that makes it a seller’s market. Doesn’t matter what Irsay says about Taylor’s value.
The Colts are really doing a disservice to their rookie QB by treating his best weapon poorly. I’m curious to see how Miami handles the next off-season or two if they get Taylor, since they would have to give him an extension, as well as upcoming extensions for Waddle and Tua.
It might make more sense for the Colts to ask for a couple marginal starters instead of draft picks.
The Colts have plenty of marginal starters. You get the best deal of picks or you keep him
My way of looking at this is:
-RB is the most replaceable position in the NFL.
-Taylor is currently under contract.
-Taylor is awesome, but coming off an injury.
-Taylor, nor is mouthy agent, have held a press conference or really spoken at length about this entire situation. Instead his agent, who does not have a good reputation, goes to social media with nothing more than short replies and barbs about the owner.
Why not hold a press conference and tell the story? And would advise their client to act like this after an injury plagued year in this RB climate??
I’m not sure I believe anything from either side. Who knows what was really said behind closed doors, in an RV, the true status of the injury, and so on? We only have a few facts, a few quotes and the opinions of writers and analysts to go on. I don’t see a happy ending for anyone.
I’ll be happy regardless of the outcome
At least there’s 1, lol.
Irsay provoked this situation, Irsay can stew in his own broth.
No team is going to be willing to give Taylor what he wants for a contract and the give the Colts what they want in trade value. His choice will end up playing for the Colts in 2023 or not playing at all (and not getting paid unless he wants to play the fake injury game). And good luck getting a high end contract in 2024 if he sits out all 2023 with an injury.
If 6 teams are supposed to be interested( Doubtful) And none of them is interested in giving him an extension( Likely) Then there are ZERO teams interested( Fact).
Bills should do this. Their team is soft, and he instantly solves that credibility issue. Josh Allen is their leading rusher most Sundays. That’s not sustainable.
BREAKING NEWS: 31 teams are interested in JT.
Who are these 6 teams? Dolphins yes, but I do not see anyone else going out of their way to bring him on board. The season starts in 2 weeks, and most teams are set with their current backfield.
They may be set but if you can better yourself you should explore what it may cost. Taylor is one of the best
Looks like there are injury concerns already. Three tough seasons as featured back – based on the research I’ve done on Earl Campbell and even Derrick Henry, Taylor has about one to three seasons left in the tank before he’s too bruised and bashed to
If Taylor wants to stay in the league, he better study Tony Dorsett’s tape: “run for the sidelines, fast”. Dorsett probably did more good for the Cowboys staying fresh for eleven seasons than burning out in five. Nine years into his career, Dorsett was still pulling off sixty yard runs.