Doyel: Colts think they can fix this with Jonathan Taylor. Why are they always last to know?
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Colts hang on too long. It’s what they do. Say what you want about the direction of this franchise, but don’t say it hasn’t been consistent. When things go wrong, they go wrong for the same reason every time.
Here they go again, desperately hanging onto running back Jonathan Taylor, who has sent clear messages in every conceivable way – most of them childish and pathetic – that he’s done with the Colts.
But listen Wednesday to Colts General Manager Chris Ballard, and you’ll hear this franchise making the same mistake it made with Andrew Luck, Adam Vinatieri, Chuck Pagano, Ryan Grigson, even Frank Reich.
More: Colts GM Chris Ballard believes relationship with Jonathan Taylor can be fixed. How is unclear
“I care deeply for Jonathan Taylor,” Ballard said in emotional opening remarks before he took questions from reporters. Ballard has this news conference every preseason, on the day after roster cutdowns, but he’s never had one like this, when almost every question was another version of this one:
What happened?
“I have great respect for Jonathan Taylor,” Ballard said, still during his opening remarks. “Even when it gets hard, I won’t quit on the relationship. Won’t do it. I think too much of the young man, think too much of what he’s given to our organization and how hard he’s played for us. (But) the situation sucks.
“I could sit here and give you some rosy picture, ‘Oh, everything’s OK.’ No, it sucks. It sucks for the Colts, it sucks for Jonathan Taylor and it sucks for our fans. It just does. It’s where we’re at and we’re going to work through it. Relationships are repairable. They’re repairable.”
You want to tell Ballard, or should I?
This relationship isn’t repairable.
Not unless Taylor has a lobotomy to reverse the damage done this offseason by his new agent. That sweet, selfless young man from Wisconsin? That Jonathan Taylor?
He’s gone.
Luck, Vinatieri, Pagano, Grigson, Taylor – see a pattern?
Go through the Colts' recent history, which is to say the post-Peyton Manning era. See where it went wrong.
The Colts hung on too long to the fantasy that Andrew Luck’s torn shoulder and bruised emotional psyche would heal. Remember in 2017 when Colts owner Jim Irsay changed the subject on Luck from his shoulder to that “4-inch field between (his ears)?” That’s when Irsay should have known:
The Andrew Luck you drafted, the guy who loved football so much he went looking for linebackers to hit? He was gone.
The Colts didn’t get the message until almost two years later, when Luck was standing behind a microphone in August 2019, crying, retiring at age 29, leaving the quarterback position in the hands of Jacoby Brissett and all the guys that came after.
The Colts made the same mistake just a few months after Luck's retirement, hanging on too long to Adam Vinatieri, arguably one of the best kickers of all-time but definitely the worst kicker in the league in 2019. Only when Vinny’s body gave out for good did the Colts move on from their 46-year-old kicker.
In 2022 the Colts hung on too long to the idea that mild-mannered Frank Reich, absolutely the right man in 2017 to lead a team with wind in its sails, was the one to pull them from churning seas.
Are they hanging on too long to Chris Ballard? Rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson will decide that for us. If Ballard got it right with Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, he deserves to stay. If Richardson flops, he and Ballard will share an Uber out of town.
Problem is, the Colts have surrounded Richardson with mediocre receivers, a mediocre offensive line and a running back room currently empty of legitimate NFL running backs. Richardson, through no fault of his own, is in deep trouble.
The problem with the Colts, their tendency to hang on too long, starts with Jim Irsay, whose loyalty knows no bounds – a wonderful attribute in a friend, but a fatal flaw in an NFL owner. Irsay’s the one who hastened this franchise along the path to purgatory on Jan. 4, 2016, by hanging onto his buddies, coach Chuck Pagano and GM Ryan Grigson.
Irsay went to work that day planning to fire one or both after the 2015 season, but Pagano and Grigson talked him out of it.
This franchise can’t let the past stay in the past. Good Lord, Jeff Saturday actually coached this team last season.
Now they’re doing it again with Jonathan Taylor, hanging onto somebody who has already let go of them. How can everybody in the city see it – everybody but the employees at the Colts’ complex on 56th Street?
You know it's serious: Taylor follows Pacers, not Colts on Instagram
Jonathan Taylor has stopped following the Colts on Twitter and Instagram.
You know it’s serious when a millennial athlete ghosts his current team on social media. It’s also passive-aggressive and more than a little pathetic, but Taylor isn’t hiding what he has become. He has gone onto Twitter to pout and whine and play the victim card to a blue-collar fan base that (mostly) doesn’t understand how a player just three years into a four-year NFL rookie contract can essentially decide the $4.3 million he’s due this season isn’t enough.
Doyel on Tuesday: We're stuck in a nightmare of Jonathan Taylor's creation
Taylor also has allowed, maybe even empowered, his agent to use Twitter as a bargaining tool. That guy, that clown in Miami, mocked the Colts for not paying Taylor and said the relationship has been broken beyond repair. And that was more than a month ago.
Has anything gotten better since late July? No. When Taylor wasn’t watching practice at training camp from the sideline, scowling for two hours straight every day – impressive, really – he has left the team twice, once for more rehab on an ankle that should’ve been ready to go one month after surgery in January. The other time Taylor left for personal reasons. He’s back now, but only because he has to be, contractually. He’s on the Physically Unable to Perform list, reporting pain in his ankle.
Me, I’m reporting an issue with my rear end. Because Taylor has become a real pain in the—
Anyway.
The Colts allowed Taylor’s advisor, some dude named Malki Kawa, to seek a trade partner last week. Whatever that football savant Kawa found, it didn’t work. The Colts hung onto Taylor at Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline for 53-man rosters across the NFL. The Dolphins reportedly made an offer for Taylor. ESPN’s Adam Schefter said so.
Jonathan Taylor follows Adam Schefter on Twitter. He also follows the Indiana Pacers.
Just not the Indianapolis Colts.
Ballard isn’t giving up.
“I’m not going to sit here and say I’ve got the magic answer,” he said. “This is complex.”
It’s not, though. It’s as simple as it is repetitive:
Jonathan Taylor is no longer worth keeping around, but the Colts are the last to know.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts GM Chris Ballard wants Jonathan Taylor back, but he's long gone
