Tag: Jim Irsay

Jonathan Taylor: ‘I’m proud to be an Indianapolis Colt’

Here’s what Jonathan Taylor and the Colts’ brass said about the RB’s new deal.

The Indianapolis Colts and running back Jonathan Taylor were able to put their differences aside, coming to an agreement on a three-year contract extension Saturday.

With Taylor officially being activated from the PUP list, he will make his season debut against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

In a statement released by the team, Taylor was grateful the two sides were able to get a deal done.

“I want to thank Jim Irsay and his family, Chris Ballard, and Coach Steichen for the opportunity to be part of this organization’s future,” Taylor said. “I greatly appreciate the support of my teammates and Colts fans. I can’t wait to get back on the field and do everything I can to help bring this city the championship it deserves. I’m proud to be an Indianapolis Colt.”

Taylor wasn’t the only one to give a statement following the announcement of the signing. Owner Jim Irsay offered some encouraging words about Taylor and his future with the team.

“Jonathan is a special player and signing him to this extension is important knowing the impact he’ll make as the team develops under Shane Steichen,” Irsay said. “I have no doubt he’ll continue to create highlight plays and memories for Colts fans as he’s done in his three seasons thus far. Jonathan deserves this deal and I’m happy for him.”

Head coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard also chimed in.

“I’m thrilled we were able to reach an agreement with Jonathan,” Ballard said. “At the end of August, I spoke about the importance of relationships and being able to move forward. We were able to reach that point. We know what Jonathan means to this team and this city. He is an exceptional playmaker, and he has given a tremendous amount to our organization. This is the result we all wanted.”

As for Steichen, the first-year head coach has been envisioning a backfield featuring Taylor and rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson since he took the job this offseason.

“Part of the reason I took this job was to work with a player like Jonathan Taylor,” Steichen said. “He adds an explosive element to our offense and his success on the field over the last three seasons is undeniable. I’m excited for the role he’ll play on this team as we continue to build.”

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NFL fans were thrilled to see Jonathan Taylor finally get paid by the Colts

Jonathan Taylor finally got paid by the Colts.

The Indianapolis Colts finally did right by running back Jonathan Taylor by paying him a worthy extension.

Ever since Colts owner Jim Irsay needlessly antagonized the “running backs getting paid a proper salary” argument and Taylor requested for a trade, the two sides have been locked at a stalemate.

However, Taylor returned to practice with the team this week, and him getting activated off the PUP list quickly turned into a new deal and a Sunday return in a key AFC South rivalry game against the Tennessee Titans.

Now, Taylor will join new Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson as Indianapolis contends for a division title this season.

Taylor getting paid helps the Colts keep their offense as explosive as possible during Richardson’s rookie deal and keeps him from being traded to a different franchise for his eventual payday.

Colts fans will have to be happy to have Taylor back in the lineup, and NFL fans were equally pleased to see all of this get settled after a long stretch of drama.

The Colts weren’t actually serious about trading Jonathan Taylor, who was never getting dealt for Jaylen Waddle

The Colts’ trade demands for Taylor told the world he was never getting dealt this summer.

The Indianapolis Colts’ self-imposed deadline for trading Jonathan Taylor came and went without any action. This played out precisely like team owner Jim Irsay intended.

It took fewer than 24 hours for details to leak out about the Colts’ side of the trade they’d allowed their best offensive player to seek. As teams across the NFL set their rosters and picked through the scraps of a replenished free agent market, Indianapolis found itself soaking up buzz not from the moves it made but the one it didn’t. Taylor remains on the roster, albeit on the physically unable to perform list for at least four games. A rebuilding franchise will trundle forward in a feud with its most recognizable star.

Again, this is what the team wanted. That much became clear on Wednesday when reports swirled about negotiations between the Colts and parties interested in freeing the 2021 NFL rushing leader from football purgatory. At first, Irsay wanted a first round pick or its rough equivalent in exchange for a player he’d deemed unworthy of a market value contract extension. Then, when the Miami Dolphins emerged as one of few suitors in need of a running back, the asking price got even more lopsided.

This is, again, a wild interpretation of running back value from a franchise insisting it does not value running backs. Jaylen Waddle is coming off a 1,356-yard season in which he led the league in yards per catch (18.1). He was fundamental to Tua Tagovailoa’s growth as a quarterback. He’s a top 10 wideout, which places his annual average value at roughly $24 million (and rising) even though he’s scheduled to count just $16 million against the NFL’s salary cap over the next two seasons.

This is all a long way of saying that deal was never going to happen. While the defense from Indianapolis’s camp may be “it never hurts to ask,” it’s similarly true you can ask questions to which you already know the answer. Miami was never going to meet that asking price, especially with veteran tailbacks — inferior to Taylor, certainly, but significantly cheaper in every regard — dotting the open market both before and after cutdown day.

Reports broke Wednesday that the other team in the bidding was the Green Bay Packers. With Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon already in the fold, it’s easy to see why general manager Brian Gutekunst wouldn’t meet the Colts’ demands just to add a third safety valve behind Jordan Love’s passing offense.

This is all bad news for Taylor. Indianapolis priced out the one contender who really needs him and blocked a move back to Wisconsin. While he theoretically remains available up until the October 31 trade deadline, it’s hard to imagine any team getting desperate enough to pay the king’s ransom needed to sate Irsay’s front office.

That was the intent. Allowing Taylor to seek a trade was lip service, a concession in an ongoing negotiation that ultimately meant nothing. The Colts are utilizing their leverage, knowing they have their star running back under contract through 2023 and have the option to franchise tag him for something approaching $13 million in 2024 — and could tag him again in 2025 for roughly $16 million. Those are big numbers, sure, but it would be years before he’d even match Christian McCaffrey’s annual average salary in San Francisco thanks to an extension he signed in 2020.

Taylor is left with a choice. He can remain entrenched in his entirely logical and reasonable stance that he deserves a rich contract extension — the Colts made him play with Carson Wentz and the ghost of Matt Ryan, for god’s sake — and stare down the myriad options Indianapolis can weaponize against him to keep him in the fold. Or he can show up and play football for a team and owner that doesn’t value him, putting his future earnings at risk in hopes of eventually breaking free and finding a franchise that might actually value the running back position.

It’s a difficult decision, but one thing is clear. The Colts aren’t serious about trading Jonathan Taylor. Not when they’re asking the moon for a player they don’t even care enough about to sign to a contract extension.

Colts hope to calm waters surrounding Jonathan Taylor

Jim Irsay hopes for calm waters ahead regarding Jonathan Taylor.

The saga between the Indianapolis Colts and star running back Jonathan Taylor continues into the final week of the preseason, but owner Jim Irsay is hoping calmer waters are ahead.

Taylor is expected to return and travel with the team to Philadelphia following his second excused absence from training camp (this due to a personal matter), but he remains on the PUP list as he continues his rehab from offseason ankle surgery.

In the middle of a contract dispute and trade request that reportedly still stands, Taylor’s future with the team remains cloudy. Irsay said during the broadcast of the second preseason game Saturday night that they hope to come to a resolution, but he also made it clear where he stands.

“We’re really looking forward to him to playing his way into being the Jonathan Taylor he was,” Irsay said. “These days, you hope you have less contractual problems because the way the CBA is and they work a lot of things through. But you have them, and that’s what I know (general manager) Chris Ballard is going to work hard on and try to get the waters as calm as they can and go forward.”

It’s pretty clear the Colts still have no intention of making Taylor one of the highest-paid running backs in the NFL coming off his ankle injury. How much of this ankle issue is tied to his current contract isn’t clear but if it truly is still rehabbing, the Colts aren’t going to pony up a new contract.

Nonetheless, Irsay made sure to rave about Taylor and his family even despite what may seem like a rift between the two sides.

“I know these things are always difficult. I respect any time people are, they’re tiring to fight for their position for their families and all those things,” Irsay said. “And we’re really excited to have him, and we want to do everything we can to support him and embrace him as a Colt, because he’s a great young man. I can’t say enough about him and his family.”

General manager Chris Ballard echoed those sentiments earlier in the week to SiriusXM NFL, stating that they love Taylor as a person and a player, but that they also need to get him healthy before anything happens.

So much is likely happening behind closed doors that it’s difficult to get a read on what the future looks like from the outside.

The Colts expect Taylor to practice whenever he’s medically cleared from the PUP list, and that’s likely going to happen without a new contract in place for the 24-year-old.

We’ll see what happens as the regular season approaches as this saga is expected to continue at least for a few more weeks.

Jim Irsay is spending $20 million to release an orca into the wild and everyone had Jonathan Taylor jokes

The star RB has to be so frustrated seeing this news.

As talk of how NFL running backs are mistreated on the open market grows, Jim Irsay showed us his true colors in regard to Jonathan Taylor. After apparently having a conversation with Irsay about his future contract, Taylor requested a trade from Indianapolis Colts — a request that will probably not be honored.

All of this is rather ironic because it seems Irsay has a lot of money to throw around willy-nilly in non-football settings.

According to the New York Post, Irsay plans to spend $20 million to transport Lolita, an 8,000-pound orca, cross country from the Miami Seaquarium and release her into a netted bay in Seattle with her pod. It’s a noble cause — especially considering that the same report states Lolita no longer has the strength to swim for long or hunt for herself — but it does somewhat call into question Irsay’s priorities.

If Irsay has $20 million to spend like this, he doesn’t have $20 million, at least in part, to give to his best football player? I’m not sure I like this logic, and the timing and optics aren’t great either.

A lot of NFL fans thought the same, with plenty of Taylor jokes.

Could recent Colts drama lead to Patriots landing a new No. 1 WR?

Patriots Wire’s Cam Garrity has an interesting what-if scenario involving the Colts and Patriots.

The New England Patriots exhausted all options of adding a true coverage-dictating receiver to their offense and ended up with Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator, a DeVante Parker extension and the additions of JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki.

Those players mentioned are more than fine as ancillary options, but the Patriots lack a true game changer. Unless Tyquan Thornton is a hit or the Patriots draft one early in 2024, there isn’t much they can do.

Teams do not let their elite, or borderline elite, young receivers go easily, especially on rookie contracts. The same goes for most positions with the way things are easily malleable as it pertains to the salary cap.

With new money coming in for the NFL, teams are willing to spend big to retain their stars. Very rarely do we see elite players hitting the open market. But there could be a butterfly effect brewing in the NFL, and the Patriots should be ready to pounce if that happens.

Running back Jonathan Taylor has requested a trade after vocal Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay publicly criticized the current issues with the running back market. Taylor is only 25 years old, two years into the league and one of the best offensive weapons in football. But he isn’t the domino effect I’m referring to here.

The player I’m referring to is none other than 25-year-old wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. If a player with the pull of Taylor requests a trade due to the owner’s behavior, there will be a natural decay of team trust. That decay could lead to the Patriots swooping in and offering draft capital and a top market extension for Pittman, who is currently playing on an expiring contract.

Pittman is a big-bodied receiver who has been productive in his last two seasons and is in the prime of his career. The Patriots could finally have themselves a true No. 1 receiver that matches the timeline of Mac Jones. That would allow Smith-Schuster to be fully unlocked and be more productive as a No. 2 option.

Pittman could also take pressure off Parker, particularly with him being a natural separator. Parker could be an effective No. 3 option in rotation with Tyquan Thornton or rookie Demario Douglas.

A wide receivers room of Pittman, Smith-Schuster, Parker, Thornton and Douglas, with Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki as pass-catching tight ends, would be a lethal skilled group for Jones to utilize.

It may take some time for this to shake out, but if the Patriots wish to be aggressive, they could offer a package to Indianapolis for Pittman at the end of the season, if things go awry for the team.

Something along the lines of a 2024 first-round draft pick, 2024 third-rounder and a 2025 third-rounder could get it done. It would be anticipated that Pittman would sign a $25 million-plus AAV contract extension, but it would be worth it for one of the league’s best natural separators, which is something the Patriots’ offense clearly lacks.

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The Jonathan Taylor saga in Indianapolis just took another big turn

The saga in Indy continues:

It is a truly impressive accomplishment to anger Jonathan Taylor. The Wisconsin legend and current Indianapolis Colt is one of the more mature and even-keel players I can remember coming through the Wisconsin program in some time.

Well, Colts owner Jim Irsay has done just that. The saga began when Irsay outwardly discussed the NFL’s running back market, insinuating he wouldn’t be giving Taylor a contract when the 2023 season comes to a close. The Colts usually pay rookies early, so the fact contract talks haven’t gotten anywhere up to this point should show the organization’s plans.

Taylor and his agent were not thrilled, to say the least, about Irsay’s initial comments. The star running back met with the owner three nights ago and formally requested a trade out of Indianapolis.

Then the situation took a turn.

First, Irsay publicly stated “If I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor is out of the league, no one’s gonna miss us. The league goes on. We know that. The National Football (League) rolls on. It doesn’t matter who comes and who goes, and it’s a privilege to be a part of it.”

That was certainly odd.

Then ESPN’s Stephen Holder dropped a bombshell: Sources told him Taylor “reported to camp complaining of back pain that was deemed to be from a pre-existing issue. The team is now considering placing him on the non-football injury list, which could result in him not being paid for the regular season.”

In short, the Colts are fighting fire with fire and looking for a loophole so they don’t even have to pay Taylor in 2023.

To which Taylor responded:

The issue here isn’t with Holder’s sources. It’s clear where the story is coming from: somewhere within the Colts’ front office. The larger question is whether this relationship is repairable to the point Taylor will or can play this season.

Colts head coach Shane Steichen, who is now caught in the middle of this mess, addressed the situation at practice yesterday:

It’s a shame to see this happening to one of Wisconsin’s greatest players, arguably the NFL’s best running back and maybe the single best player on the Colts’ roster. We already knew Irsay was a disagreeable owner. This saga puts that way over the top.

Colts seeking early-round pick in potential Jonathan Taylor trade?

According to an ESPN report, the Colts would seek early-round draft compensation in a potential Jonathan Taylor trade.

The Indianapolis Colts and star Jonathan Taylor are embroiled in a tense battle regarding his future with the team.

All indications from his camp lean towards wanting him to be one of, if not the, NFL’s top-paid running backs. The Colts believe he should be compensated market value, and consequently, they are not inclined to make that move happen now.

Both owner Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard wish to revisit that conversation later.

Both sides’ back-and-forth actions and responses ultimately led to Taylor making a formal trade request out of Indy. For the Colts to consider that, it appears they are seeking early-round draft compensation, according to Stephen Holder of ESPN.

The Colts, according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversations, would be seeking an early-round draft pick. That might be tough given the current climate about the value of running backs.

Transparently, a move like this will likely be hard to make happen. The current value of running backs across the league has significantly dropped over the last year. Additionally, the contract would have to be of substantial value for the team acquiring him. This could make it unappealing to running back needy teams across the league.

Colts owner Jim Irsay told the media the team doesn’t have plans to trade the star running back.

Head Coach Shane Steichen remains hopeful he will play this season, but what will happen with the Colts and Taylor is unknown as the two sides continue to dig in their heels.

Jim Irsay is showing us exactly who he is in the Jonathan Taylor situation and we should believe him

Jim Irsay has ruined the relationship with another one of his best players

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes. 

Boy, I feel bad for Colts fans this morning.

This team is on its way to losing the services of its Jonathan Taylor all because the owner just doesn’t really know how to stay out of the way. It’s Jim Irsay. He can’t help himself.

If there’s one thing Irsay is going to do, it’s ruin the relationship between his team and the team’s best player.

It happened when he ran Peyton Manning out of town. He called the best player in his team’s history a “politician” and told him to keep his team’s dirty laundry “in house.” That was before he publicly made clear that the only way he’d be a Colt and fulfill his dream of playing for one team his whole career was if he took a pay cut to do it.

We know how that played out.

Now, it’s Jonathan Taylor’s turn. He’s the team’s best player by a country mile. All he wants is a shot at negotiating a new contract, which he’s well within his right for as a third-year player on a rookie deal.

Irsay isn’t giving him that opportunity, which stinks. But, as the team’s owner, that’s his choice. Instead of letting it simply be just that, though, Irsay is putting his foot in his mouth.

Taylor is asking for more money and Irsay’s response is, basically, him telling his star running back that no one cares about him. The team followed that up by pointing to a back injury that Jonathan Taylor says he doesn’t have and never reported, which — if the running back is telling the truth — could be a way for Indianapolis to withhold his salary for the year.

All this from the team that the owner claims treats its players better than anyone else does in the NFL.

I wonder if Peyton Manning has thoughts about that after he put his body through the ringer for Irsay’s team. Maybe Andrew Luck does, too, after he retired at 29 years old because he was so beaten and battered by the game with the Colts failing him.

Let me let you in on a dirty little secret: This is the Jim Irsay playbook. It’s the playbook for every NFL owner out there, quiet as kept. The strategy is to use these players up until there’s nothing left. Then they cast them aside and move on because nothing is bigger than the team.

The owners truly don’t care about these players — only the production they offer. And, even then, if it comes at too steep a cost then they don’t want it. This is the dirty underbelly of the conversation surrounding the league’s running backs. Jonathan Taylor is now plainly in the center of it all and all he’s asking is to be paid what he’s worth.

Jonathan Taylor is disrupting that by simply asking to be paid what he’s worth. What we’re seeing is Irsay’s reaction to that. Now, you can see his true colors clearly.

Don’t ever forget what this looks like.

Quick Hits: Clinching scenarios for USWNT … the best sneakers ever … and more

— Caroline Darney outlined every clinching scenario for the USWNT to get into the World Cup’s knockout stage here.

— I ranked the 20 best signature sneakers in the history of sports. Deion Sanders is included.

— The MLB’s trade deadline is inching closer and closer and here are 10 players who could be dealt. Charles Curtis has more.

— Steph Curry had these incredible stories about Kobe Bryant on his Hot Ones appearance and Andrew Joseph has the video.

Have a great week.

AFC South news roundup: Taylor requests trade, training camp headlines

Colts RB Jonathan Taylor requesting a trade is just one of the headlines we’re looking at in our latest AFC South news roundup.

Welcome to our AFC South news roundup: training camp edition, where we take a look at all the goings on with the Tennessee Titans’ division rivals, the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars.

We must start in Indianapolis, where Colts owner Jim Irsay made an already shaky situation with star running back Jonathan Taylor even worse.

Just days after Irsay seemingly put his foot in his mouth when commenting on the running back market, Taylor has now requested a trade from the team.

The tweet below is Taylor’s agent’s response to Irsay.

Thank your lucky stars the Titans don’t have a buffoon for an owner like the Colts do. In fact, our beloved Amy Adams Strunk could not be more of a polar opposite from Irsay.

On top of the Taylor news, we’re also covering training camp headlines for each of the Titans’ AFC South foes. Check out everything in our roundup below and, of course, enjoy your Sunday and the rest of the week!