Jonathan Taylor remains with Colts at roster cutdown, will miss first 4 games per report

INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL’s roster deadline has come and gone.

Jonathan Taylor remains a Colt.

The former All-Pro running back is expected to remain on the physically unable to perform list, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Indianapolis moved Taylor to the reserve/physically unable to perform list as part of its roster reduction on Tuesday, ensuring that Taylor will miss at least the first four weeks of the regular season.

A stalemate in an ugly contract dispute that has dominated the first six weeks of the 2023 season.

For Taylor, the move to the reserve/PUP list represents a big loss.

Frustrated by the franchise’s decision to hold back any offer of a contract extension until the start of the regular season, Taylor requested a trade, a request Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay initially rebuffed, although the Colts ultimately relented, granting Taylor permission last week to find a trade partner.

A handful of teams, most notably the Miami Dolphins, were reportedly interested, but Indianapolis could not find a team willing to meet its asking price of a first-round pick or a package of picks equivalent to a first-rounder, underscoring the lack of leverage Taylor has in a league that no longer values the running back position.

No team was willing to meet the Colts’ trade demands for Taylor, even though the fourth-year back has rushed for 3,841 yards and 33 touchdowns in just three seasons, all while averaging 5.1 yards per carry, the best mark of any back in NFL history who was given at least 750 carries in his first three seasons.

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Taylor is also coming off his worst season, an 861-yard campaign in just 11 games, the other six lost to a lingering high ankle sprain.

The running back, who had never missed a game due to injury before the 2022 season, underwent an arthroscopic debridement in the offseason, a procedure designed to clean up the ankle joint and help a player return to full strength.

Taylor has not practiced or played since the Vikings game last December, and now he remains on the reserve/PUP list, leading to questions about the long-term implications of a surgery that was initially supposed to fix the issue quickly.

Questions only Taylor can answer. The Colts running back has not spoken publicly since June, save for a few statements issued on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account.

If Taylor is not traded before the Oct. 31 deadline, he will have to return to the field at some point. Under NFL rules, a player on reserve/PUP is paid his entire base salary, “unless he is in the last year of his deal and he is both not able to perform football services as of the sixth regular season game and is not activated during that regular season or postseason,” according to the NFL.

If Taylor returns to the lineup and plays up to his record-breaking, playmaking potential, there is no guarantee he’ll get the long-term extension he wants, even though the Colts chief decision-makers, Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard, have tried to hint that will be the case.

Indianapolis could still place the franchise tag on Taylor in that scenario, forcing the running back to sign a one-year deal that likely will not be worth more than the $10.1 million it is paying running backs in other cities this season.

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But Taylor is not the only party who lost out in the team’s inability to strike a trade this week.

The Colts, particularly Irsay, have spoken hopefully throughout the offseason about pairing the explosive talents of Taylor with rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson, who has a similar blend of incredible speed and explosive power. Pairing Taylor with Richardson would allow new Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen to force opposing defensive coordinators to choose between two incredible options, rather than focusing all their energy on the rookie quarterback.

Instead, a defensive game plan against Indianapolis seems obvious for at least the first four games. Backup running back Zack Moss is coming off his best season, but he doesn’t have Taylor’s explosive qualities, and neither does Deon Jackson or Evan Hull. A defensive coordinator will likely focus on limiting Richardson’s explosive plays, putting extra attention on the rookie quarterback.

The Colts must also deal with the unenviable problem they’ve had throughout training camp, the spectre of a disgruntled star, one who remains loved in the locker room, hanging over the team as a distraction. Indianapolis has not given any indication it plans to reverse its position on paying Taylor, and as a result, the running back is unlikely to feel his problems met.

Instead of a resolution, Indianapolis and Taylor remain in the same place they started this ugly, far-too-public dispute.

On opposite sides, neither willing to move to the middle.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Jonathan Taylor remains a Colt, will miss 1st 4 games