‘Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player’: Taylor’s agent fires back at Irsay

INDIANAPOLIS — Contract talks between the Colts and Jonathan Taylor that have largely taken place behind the scenes became publicly contentious Wednesday night, following Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay's decision to throw his weight into the debate surrounding the diminishing value of running backs in today’s game.

Irsay fired a warning shot in response to suggestions that the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement should be changed to avoid franchise-tagging players by position, an idea that came from a Zoom meeting last week involving the league’s top running backs, according to an ESPN report.

“We have negotiated a CBA that took years of effort and hard work and compromise in good faith by both sides,” Irsay wrote on his Twitter account. “To say now that a specific player category wants another negotiation after the fact is inappropriate. Some agents are selling ‘bad faith.’”

Taylor's agent, Malki Kawa, fired back at Irsay a little more than an hour later.

"Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player," Kawa wrote on his own Twitter account.

Taylor desires a contract extension and has been one of the running backs advocating for better pay as he heads into the final year of his rookie deal.

Pittsburgh running back Najee Harris publicly suggested a potential change to the CBA on Wednesday, according to ESPN.

Harris indicated that the running back group has talked to the NFL Player’s Association about potential ways to improve pay for running backs, and he brought up a potential change.

“For them to say that the running back position, you’re slotted at this much money, I don’t think that’s right, because of what we’re asked to do,” Harris told reporters in Pittsburgh. “There’s a lot of running backs who’s doing receiving. There’s a lot of running backs blocking and all that stuff. For you to just say ‘running back’ and that’s our market, and if it doesn’t hit that, then it goes down lower, that’s not right. They need to change that.”

Three running backs — the Giants’ Saquon Barkley, Cowboys’ Tony Pollard and Raiders’ Josh Jacobs — were franchise tagged this offseason, a designation that pays the players $10.1 million if they sign the tag. Barkley agreed to a slightly altered one-year deal to report to camp, Pollard is playing on the tag and Jacobs is currently holding out of training camp.

Taylor, for his part, has not met with the Indianapolis media since reporting to training camp Tuesday.

The Colts star reported to Grand Park for camp, was set to sit down for a long talk with general manager Chris Ballard the same day and then was placed on the active/physically unable to perform list Tuesday afternoon, a decision possibly stemming from the arthroscopic debridement he underwent in January to repair damage left by the high ankle sprain that ended his 2022 season prematurely. Taylor, like other players on PUP, was on the practice field but not participating for the team’s first practice of training camp Wednesday.

Taylor’s agency has not responded to requests for comment made by IndyStar about the running back’s status.

Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen did not specifically address the injury that placed Taylor on the list in his comments Wednesday. Ballard did not mention Taylor’s injury in his Tuesday press conference, either.

“We will see how long it takes,” Steichen said. “But once he’s 100% healthy, he will be out there.”

But Taylor made it clear, both in interviews and on his social media accounts, that he’s frustrated by the state of running back pay in the NFL.

“Seeing guys fight, you just hope that things work out for them,” Taylor said in his last media availability in June. “You see why guys, they request trades. They just want to feel valued, not only by their coaches, their teammates, but the organization as well, and I think it’s something you’ve got to continue to do.”

Taylor initially responded to the franchise tag deadline passing without a big deal for any of the running backs with one word on his Twitter account — “Wow” — and then expounded on his frustration later.

“1. If you’re good enough, they’ll find you. 2. If you work hard enough, you’ll succeed. … If you succeed. … 3. You boost the organization. … and then,” Taylor wrote, ‘doesn’t matter, you’re a RB.”

The team’s initial comments on a potential extension for Taylor seemed to be positive earlier this year.

Ballard has repeatedly said that he believes “you pay guys that are going to help you win, regardless of the position,” and Irsay has called Taylor “special” throughout the offseason, citing the running back’s health as a key factor for the Colts heading into the 2023 season.

But it’s unclear if the franchise’s position has changed.

Ballard does not comment on contract negotiations, and Tuesday he stopped short of saying the team would definitely sign Taylor to an extension, the way the Colts made sure to keep other drafted stars — left guard Quenton Nelson, linebacker Shaquille Leonard, right tackle Braden Smith, nose tackle Grover Stewart, among others — in the fold at the end of their rookie deals.

Irsay’s Twitter statement and Kawa’s response on Wednesday further muddies the picture.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts:Jonathan Taylor’s agent fires back at team owner Jim Irsay