Colts star Jonathan Taylor stays after the trade deadline, kept by a price no one paid

Jonathan Taylor warmed up for what looked like a farewell. The video boards at Lucas Oil Stadium rolled a montage of his runs, he walked off after another loss talking about the city that raised him, and then the trade deadline came and went without anyone moving him. The Colts star is staying in Indianapolis. Why he is staying tells you more about the franchise than about the player.

The easy reading is sentiment: the face of the team, the fan favorite, the man whose picture hangs on the stadium. The reporting points somewhere colder. Indianapolis put a seller’s price on its best player, and no contender would meet it. Taylor did not win a standoff this time. Nobody bought him.

The back who asked out, then asked to stay

Three summers ago the roles ran the other way. In the final year of his rookie contract in 2023, Taylor requested a trade after a meeting with then-owner Jim Irsay on the team bus at training camp, NFL.com reported. He wanted to be paid like the top backs in the league, and the club had not made an offer. Irsay shut the door by text to Albert Breer: “We’re not trading Jonathan … end of discussion. Not now and not in October!” The extension arrived that October anyway, the first of two.

Recommended ReadingColts Fire GM Chris Ballard, the Patient Builder Whose One All-In Bet Outlives Him

By this summer the player was the one holding on. “I’d definitely love to be a Colt for life,” Taylor said in June, and he signed a second extension, two years and $44 million with $39 million guaranteed, according to CBS Sports. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon called him “one of our pillars” and added: “His picture is on the stadium for a reason.”

Then the season broke. The Colts fired general manager Chris Ballard in October after a 2-4 start, traded Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner on the same day, and kept selling into the deadline: Keenan Allen to the 49ers, Josh Downs to the Chiefs. Downs had asked to go. Taylor had not, coach Shane Steichen said after the Nelson and Buckner deals.

“The hay is in the barn”

The afternoon that felt like an ending was not a good one for him. The Colts lost 27-23 to the Dallas Cowboys, their fifth straight defeat, to fall to 2-7. Taylor ran 13 times for 46 yards, caught five passes for 18, and lost a fumble in the fourth quarter that cost Indianapolis a scoring chance, the Associated Press reported. Afterwards he spoke like a man packing a bag he had not been told to pack.

“I think you play every game like it’s your last,” he said. “But at the end of the day, this has been a spot where I’ve grown up.” He talked about starting a family there, about the place shaping “the man I am today”, and said he was very grateful for the city. Then the line that defines his week: “I love repping the horseshoe, but it’s out of our control now. The hay is in the barn. We just play the waiting game now.”

In 2023 Taylor forced the conversation. This time he practiced, played and waited while other people set his price.

What the market actually offered

Multiple teams offered a second-round pick and more, but the Colts “wanted a blockbuster offer to even consider it,” Tom Pelissero reported, per Pro Football Talk. The New York Giants put a second- and a fifth-round pick on the table, Fox Sports reported, and pulled it while Indianapolis deliberated. Giants coach John Harbaugh confirmed the offer was withdrawn and framed his thinking: “I’m not just going to go for a short-term fix at exorbitant cost.” Denver gave it a run in the final week but was not comfortable with the return Indianapolis wanted, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported.

The bar was a first-round pick or a package equivalent to one. There is a reason the Colts set it there. They do not own their own first-rounder in the 2027 draft; it went to the New York Jets in the Sauce Gardner trade, and Nelson fetched only a third- and a fifth-round pick from Seattle. CBS Sports reads the Taylor price as an attempt to clean up those deals. Seen that way, Taylor was asked to cover a hole he did not dig.

The coverage splits on what it means. ESPN’s Dan Graziano says the Colts were never eager or close to trading him: “They like him.” Yahoo Sports calls it a curious decision for a team that has given up on the season. OutKick’s Armando Salguero goes further, dismissing the club’s apparent post-deadline message, that Taylor and quarterback Daniel Jones were kept as a lure for a future general manager or coach, as “ridiculous reasoning.” Both camps describe the same fact: the Colts value Taylor, and that value is a number.

A stay with no guarantee attached

The deadline settled nothing about next year. According to CBS Sports, there is no guaranteed money left on Taylor’s contract in 2027 or 2028. That makes him cheap to keep and just as easy to move. His future now belongs to a general manager who has not been hired yet, and to a staff led by a head coach whose own job is in jeopardy, in the AP’s words. Fowler calls Taylor “a boon in 2027 for any Indy coaching staff” and the team’s best player. He also notes the miles: 1,712 career carries.

Taylor is 27. He averages 88.8 rushing yards per game, the fifth-highest mark in NFL history behind Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis and Eric Dickerson, according to CBS Sports. He has not played in the postseason since his rookie year in 2020, Bleacher Report notes. Fowler adds that Taylor would have welcomed the chance to play for a contender.

Miami comes to Indianapolis next, the first of eight games left. Taylor plays them behind a line without Nelson, in front of an organization that put a price on him and found no buyer. He said he loves repping the horseshoe. He now gets those games to show a general manager who has not been hired why that should matter.

Tags: NFL, running backs, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Jonathan Taylor

More Like This

Pro Bowl Lineman Quenton Nelson Goes From a Colts Rebuild to a Seahawks Title Run

Daniel Jones Is the Colts’ Starter Again — the Achilles Healed, the Harder Question Didn’t

Quinnen Williams’ Cowboys Extension Sets a Guarantee Record — He Signed It to Win, Not to Cash In

Titans trade All-Pro lineman Jeffery Simmons to Bears a day after ‘I am going to be here’

Josh Allen Christens the Bills’ New Highmark Stadium — and Shows Why Buffalo Still Leans on Him

Safety Jessie Bates III leaves the Falcons for a Jaguars team buying more than a rental