Indianapolis Colts News & Rumors

After a dreary several months that included an NFL grievance against the NFLPA, the state of the running back position perked up over the weekend. Jonathan Taylor secured a surprising extension agreement, ending his standoff with the Colts and giving a depressed market a vital update as the year winds down.

Taylor’s $14MM AAV checks in third among running backs, behind only the extensions Christian McCaffrey ($16MM per year) and Alvin Kamara ($15MM) signed in 2020. With Kamara needing an inflated $22MM salary in the contract’s final season to prop up the per-year number, McCaffrey’s deal has stood alone since the Cowboys released Ezekiel Elliott. Taylor’s three-year, $42MM pact contains no dummy contract year, making this a true $14MM-AAV agreement.

[RELATED: Colts Did Not Engage In Serious Taylor Trade Talks]

The fine print for the former rushing champion is in, per OverTheCap, which indicates Taylor signed for $19.35MM fully guaranteed. The $26.5MM reported guarantee covers some additional injury guarantees, which pertain to the 2025 season. In terms of fully guaranteed money, Taylor’s deal sits behind McCaffrey ($30.1MM), Derrick Henry ($25.5MM) and Bijan Robinson‘s rookie deal ($21.96MM). Taylor became the first back since Nick Chubb in July 2021 to sign an eight-figure-per-year contract, and the Colts agreement resembles the one the Browns authorized two summers ago.

Like Chubb, Taylor signed a three-year extension. The rest of the active big-ticket RB contracts covered four (McCaffrey, Henry, Joe Mixon) or five (Kamara). CMC’s deal tied him to the Panthers for six years since he signed it with two years left on his rookie contract. Jones re-signed with the Packers in 2021, serving the same purpose as the Chubb and Taylor three-year re-ups due to those being contract-year extensions.

This timeline would allow Taylor to potentially cash in again, albeit ahead of his age-28 season. Although Taylor’s deal is not as friendly as McCaffrey’s, the Colts deviating from their stance against extending him provided a nice reward for his rookie-contract production.

Taylor received a $10.25MM signing bonus and will see his 2023 and ’24 base salaries ($1.74MM, $7.8MM) fully guaranteed. Taylor’s new agent did well to secure a year-out guarantee structure for his 2025 salary as well. The contract calls for an $11.98MM base salary in 2025; $7.15MM of that total is guaranteed for injury at signing, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes. That sum becomes fully guaranteed on Day 5 of the 2024 league year. This stands to give Taylor three years’ worth of security, seeing as the Colts would need to cut or trade him before that March 2024 date to avoid that $7.15MM 2025 guarantee vesting. Taylor’s 2026 base salary ($11.98MM) is nonguaranteed.

The Colts give pay Taylor’s signing bonus in two installments, per Florio, with a $2.56MM payment coming Oct. 20 and a $7.69MM guarantee coming March 29, 2024. The 2020 second-round pick was tied to a $4.3MM base salary this season; Saturday’s agreement obviously generated a better outcome. This contract gives Taylor some security for his age-25 and age-26 seasons and removes a big name from the 2024 free agent market. Although the threat of an Indianapolis 2024 franchise tag helped drive the wedge between Taylor and the team, the Colts bending in ways the Giants and Raiders did not helped produce a resolution. (The Giants, Raiders and Cowboys also have veteran quarterbacks under contract for 2024; the Colts pivoting away from that years-long strategy, via Anthony Richardson, helped Taylor’s cause.)

Henry, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard, Austin Ekeler and Taylor fill-in Zack Moss are among the backs on track to hit free agency. Taylor’s deal likely will not lead to that lot of high-profile backs matching him, as an even snazzier buyer’s market could form in 2024. But it does provide a positive development after an offseason filled with releases, pay cuts and trade requests going nowhere.

While Taylor previously had the Indy backfield to himself, it should be expected Moss will retain a role after his early-season production. The 2022 trade-deadline acquisition amassed 195 scrimmage yards in Indy’s win over Tennessee on Sunday. That showing does help to illustrate why teams have shied away from big payments to RBs, but Taylor’s ramp-up period will undoubtedly end with him back in the starter role.

Week 5 saw the return of Jonathan Taylor to the Colts’ lineup, after he agreed to a three-year extension over the weekend. That deal marked an end to the questions surrounding his future in Indianapolis, and confirmed a lack of interest on the part of other teams with respect to acquiring him.

Taylor’s trade request – borne out of the team’s decision not to engage in extension talks – was initially denied, but in time the 2021 rushing champion was allowed to seek out a deal sending him elsewhere. The teams most closely linked with Taylor were the Dolphins and Packers, both of which were reported to be willing to pay him at or near the top of the market. That ended up being the case for the former second-rounder, but his $42MM pact came from Indianapolis after trade talks slowed down.

As The Athletic’s Dianna Russini confirms, the Colts did not receive any firm offers or engage in “serious conversations” regarding a potential Taylor swap (subscription required). Indianapolis was believed to have included wideouts Jaylen Waddle and Christian Watson in their asking price for hypothetical deals with Miami and Green Bay, respectively. To no surprise, those players proved to be non-starters. Another factor which represented a barrier to a deal getting done, of course, was Taylor’s contract status.

2023 marks the final year of the Wisconsin alum’s rookie contract, meaning he would have needed to be franchise tagged or signed to a multi-year extension by an acquiring team to justify sending draft capital to the Colts to finalize a trade. Indianapolis initially set the price at a first-round pick (or a package of similar value), but that later came down as the relationship between team and player seemed to be beyond saving. Instead, Taylor’s return to practice paved the way for a warming of relations and an agreement being struck which will seem him earn $26.5MM in guaranteed money. Russini notes that the commitment required on a new deal, rather than the cost of a trade, was the main roadblock to a swap being worked out.

With Taylor having secured the third-highest AAV ($14MM) amongst running backs, it will be interesting to see if the position’s market can rebound in the coming free agent period after seeing its downward trend continue in 2023. With a long list of notable names on expiring contracts, though, it would come as a surprise if teams spent considerable resources at the RB spot, as their aversion to acquiring Taylor illustrated.

The Colts-Jonathan Taylor saga came to an end on Saturday with the parties finalizing a three-year, $42MM extension. The deal coincides with the former rushing champion’s return to game action, and it illustrates the degree to which fences were mended before an agreement was reached.

As Taylor rehabbed his lingering ankle injury – an ailment which led to his PUP designation to start the year and invited questions about his true health status – it seemed clear his relationship with the Colts was beyond repair. Indianapolis had denied the 24-year-old’s extension request, and allowed his agent to explore a trade. No deal materialized, though, setting Taylor up for a return to action in Week 5.

The former second-rounder added to the uncertainty surrounding his tenure with the Colts when speaking publicly for the first time this season, but that is now no longer in doubt. Attitudes on both sides seemed to improve recently as Taylor rehabbed; that process drew praise from the organization, SI’s Albert Breer notes. Now that a multi-year pact is in place, Taylor will look to return to his 2021 form while the Colts move forward with their top rushing option.

Having previously taken a public stance against running backs meeting to discuss the position’s downward financial outlook, owner Jim Irsay made one of the league’s top commitments with this Taylor contract. The former’s remarks in the wake of the deal – which will see Taylor earn $26.5MM guaranteed – confirm his expectation that a return to full health and productiveness will take place following a brief easing-in period.

In a conference call with local reporters, Irsay acknowledged (via Fox 59’s Mike Chappell) that he felt the extension was put together “too soon” in Taylor’s contract year but expressed enthusiasm over the prospect of having the Wisconsin alum in the fold through 2026. Talks on a deal – and, along the way, attempts to thaw relations – took part recently, with Chappell noting franchise icon Edgerrin James was involved in the process. If all goes according to plan, the team’s offense will be founded on the play of Taylor and rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson for the foreseeable future, a prospect Irsay added he is encouraged by.

“[Taylor’s] a SPECIAL player and this extension is important knowing the impact he’ll make as our team develops under [head coach] Shane [Steichen],” a statement from Irsay reads in part. “I have no doubt he’ll continue to create highlight plays and memories for our fans. He deserves this deal and I’m happy for him.”