Colts RB Jonathan Taylor won't answer questions about recovery, future, trade request

INDIANAPOLIS — The first words Jonathan Taylor has spoken publicly this season revealed little about the running back’s recovery from ankle injury, his availability for the week, his desire for a contract extension, his commitment to the Colts, his trade request or the public acrimony between the running back and the franchise that drafted him.

Taylor tried to focus instead on his return to the field, blatantly ignoring pointed questions about his contractual status by trying to turn all questions back to his return to the practice field.

Asked repeatedly if he still wants to be a Colt, Taylor would only say that he’s a Colt right now.

“I’m here right now, and my No. 1 thing is to take care of my teammates,” Taylor said. “A lot of people are worried about what I want, what I want. It doesn’t matter what, necessarily, I want. What matters is what this team needs, what this team wants, what this city wants, what this city needs, and what this city needs is a championship. While I’m here, that’s what I’m going to work my tail off to do.”

Meet IndyStar's Insiders: Talking Colts football with reporters Nate and Joel

Taylor is still here in Indianapolis, in part, because the running back could not find a team that would meet the Colts’ demands to trade for his services.

The former first-team All-Pro requested a trade at the beginning of training camp, and after Colts owner Jim Irsay initially said the team would never entertain the possibility, Indianapolis granted Taylor and his agent, Malki Kawa, permission to seek a trade.

Indianapolis drew interest from Green Bay and Miami.

But the Colts’ price was too high to meet.

Colts news: Jonathan Taylor returns to Colts, Pat McAfee and social media react

“Jonathan is valuable, and at the end of the day, I’m not going to just let him walk out the door,” Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard said at the time. “I’m not going to do that. That’s not the best thing for the Colts and the organization.”

In light of Taylor’s trade request, the running back was asked if he’s committed to the Colts, or if his trade request still stands.

Taylor did not answer either of those questions.

“I don’t think it matters if I’m saying I’m committed or not,” Taylor said. “I’m here. If somebody wasn’t committed, they wouldn’t be here. My No. 1 goal is to attack this practice. It’s been over 290 days, I believe.”

Publicly, the reason for Taylor’s absence was that he needed the time to rehabilitate from January surgery on his ankle, an arthroscopic debridement to clean up debris from the high ankle sprain that cost him six games last season, the first games he’d missed in his career due to injury.

Taylor tried to keep the focus on that rehabilitation.

“Feels really good to finally be healthy. The whole time, the main goal was to be healthy,” Taylor said. “Going through that journey this whole time, there’s been a lot of things said, a lot of things done, but at the end of the day, the No. 1 overall goal was to be healthy, and everybody was on the same page with that.”

But Taylor was reluctant to get into details on the surgery, his rehabilitation or the timeline. Taylor was placed on the physically unable to perform list at the beginning of training camp, kept there when the Colts cut down to the NFL-mandated roster of 53 players, and at the time Ballard said there was still pain in the ankle.

Two weeks later, Taylor was reportedly healthy, according to reports by ESPN and NFL Network, and ready to return to action.

Taylor did not offer any concrete insight into the recovery process.

“Over the course of this whole offseason,” Taylor said when asked about the process. “There’s never a specific date, because there’s always progressions. We’ve got to break through this wall, we’ve got to break through that next wall.

Taylor’s initial surgery, the arthroscopic debridement, is a procedure designed to help an athlete recover faster from a high ankle sprain, an injury that can be notoriously difficult to heal on its own. A team source, at one point, told Fox59’s Mike Chappell that the Colts believed Taylor’s ankle was healthy.

But Taylor did not offer any concrete reasons for his recovery taking seven months.

“Everyone heals differently,” Taylor said. “No surgery is the same.”

From this point on, it appears, Taylor is going to publicly try to focus only on the task at hand.

The former second-round pick remains in the final year of his rookie contract, is eligible to hit free agency next offseason unless franchise tagged and said last summer that he wanted the long-term contract extension he’d seen given to teammates like Quenton Nelson, Shaquille Leonard, Braden Smith and Nyheim Hines — all former Indianapolis draft picks who signed their extensions before the final year of their rookie contracts began.

If Taylor is still open to a potential future extension with the Colts, or if he is still looking for a way out of Indianapolis, he is not going to say it publicly.

Or say anything about his contract at all.

“I’m not here to get into any contract things,” Taylor said. “Those were over the course of the season, but the season is here.”

For the first time, Taylor is back on the practice field.

But the situation remains as unclear as it’s ever been.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts Jonathan Taylor won't address recovery, future, trade request