Insider: Jonathan Taylor ended up getting the contract he deserved all along

INDIANAPOLIS — From the start, all Jonathan Taylor wanted was a contract.

A deal that represented financial security, to be sure, but a deal that also recognized what he’s meant to the Colts organization, to the position he’d carved out as one of the NFL’s best running backs.

When the franchise told Taylor it planned to alter the course it had previously set with its drafted stars, planned to wait to talk about a long-term extension until the end of his rookie deal because the timing wasn’t right; he pulled the only lever a player has available to him, requesting a trade.

For a lot of reasons, Taylor’s contract fight became more public than it needed to be, but the running back’s true desire remained the same.

Taylor finally got what he wanted on Saturday, a three-year deal worth $26.5 million guaranteed and up to $42 million overall, a deal that makes him the third-highest paid running back in the NFL, trailing only San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey and New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara in terms of average annual value.

The deal he always deserved.

“You look at the past, and guys who have shown their value on and off the field tend to stay here,” Taylor said in June. “Hopefully, (the Colts) can see the value, hopefully we can explain the value, not that it needs explanation. But we just want to be here. … It’s kind of on them right now.”

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For a long time, Indianapolis did not reciprocate.

Colts owner Jim Irsay told reporters at the beginning of training camp that the team hadn’t offered Taylor an extension at all, that the timing wasn’t right, and general manager Chris Ballard repeatedly said the team wanted to see how Taylor fit in new coach Shane Steichen’s offense, that the franchise didn’t want commit to anyone coming off a 4-12-1 season.

A lot of other stuff was said (and leaked) publicly, ratcheting up the animosity publicly, to the point that Taylor’s agent, Malki Kawa wrote on his X account that he doubted a solution could be reached, although Ballard said at the end of training camp that he believed the relationship was repairable.

The best way to repair the relationship was always obvious.

When NFL stars get into contract disputes with their teams, there are typically two solutions: Pay the player, the way San Francisco paid defensive end Nick Bosa after a lengthy training camp holdout, or trade him, the way the Chiefs and Packers traded Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams, respectively, last season.

From that standpoint, Taylor’s trade request wasn’t all that out of the ordinary. Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson requested a trade last spring. After Irsay initially drew a line in the sand, saying the Colts would not trade Taylor, the team ended up giving the running back permission to seek a trade at the end of training camp.

The Colts fielded interest. But the team’s heart never seemed to be in trading Taylor.

“When guys get emotional and take a stance, you’ve got to be able to work through those,” Ballard said at the end of training camp. “We’ve got work to do. We’ve got work to do on the relationship, we’ve got work to do to find a solution to the problem.”

The solution was always obvious.

Hand Taylor the contract he wanted.

When Taylor’s healthy and at his best, he’s one of the best running backs in the NFL, an explosive weapon capable of elevating a running game beyond its typical capablities. When Taylor rushed for 1,811 yards in 2021, he nearly dragged Indianapolis to the playoffs despite working with one of the NFL’s worst passing games down the stretch.

The Colts always agreed that Taylor was a special back.

But the team also seemed, at times, to be unsure about the value of a running back in an NFL dominated by passing games, even though Indianapolis has a rookie quarterback, Anthony Richardson, who is the perfect complement to Taylor in the backfield, another explosive weapon capable of taking any carry to the end zone.

From a financial standpoint, the risk for Indianapolis was probably always a little bit overstated.

Taylor’s extension is far from crippling to a Colts team that has financial flexibility going forward, a team with a quarterback and left tackle on rookie deals, without obvious top-of-market deals looming at cornerback or defensive end in the near future.

Taylor’s deal looks a lot like the deal Browns star Nick Chubb signed in 2021, a three-year, $36.6 million adjusted for the rise of the salary cap. When Chubb agreed to his extension, the salary cap was set at $182.5 million; Chubb’s $12 million per year was roughly 6.5% of the overall cap.

The NFL set the 2023 cap at $224.8 million this season and expected to rise significantly in the next couple of years. Taylor’s $14 million in average annual value? 6.2% of the cap.

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Not exactly the kind of commitment that will tie the Colts’ hands through the end of Taylor’s deal in 2026.

Taylor opened the season on the physically unable to perform list, prompting plenty of speculation about what his future might be when healthy, returned to the practice field this week and was activated on Saturday, a move that means he’ll make his season debut against Tennessee on Sunday.

When Taylor met with the media this week, making his first public comments since June, he dodged, sidestepped or ran through any questions about the contract standoff, preferring to focus on his return to the field.

Knowing what everybody knows now, Taylor probably stayed quiet on the contract because he knew a deal was in the works.

Taylor ended up getting exactly what he’d wanted all along: A contract that recognized how good he’s been in a Colts uniform so far.

And although a contract extension is the perfect elixir to repair a relationship, it’s fair to wonder if everything else that’s happened could have been avoided, if the Colts should have just signed Taylor to a deal like this a long time ago.

The deal he deserved all along.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts RB Jonathan Taylor ended up getting what he deserved all along