Tackling the big questions in the Jonathan Taylor contract saga

Jonathan Taylor's contract standoff with the Colts will continue, as the team opted against trading their All-Pro running back and instead kept him on the Physically Unable to Perform List, which means he must miss at least the first four games.

That likely means four more contentious weeks, unless the Colts find a trade in that time or one of the sides has a dramatic change of heart.

I'd encourage you to catch up with this deep dive on how the relationship once got so good and then became so bad in a single spring.

This situation has so many tentacles by now that it's time to sit down and address some Frequently Asked Questions:

GO DEEPER: Jonathan Taylor and the Colts were a perfect marriage. Can they avoid a messy divorce?

Question: Is Jonathan Taylor actually injured?

Answer: So, the one piece we can't truly answer without being in Taylor's body and brain is the one that's become so central to the issue.

Let's start with a timeline:

Taylor hurt his ankle three times last season, first suffering a high-ankle sprain in Week 4, and then aggravating it in Weeks 8 and 15. The team finally placed him on Injured Reserve, so it has been more than 36 weeks since he has participated in any team-related football activities.

The ankle took a pounding last season, and his explosion and efficiency dipped along the way. But he got more than a month of rest before he went in for a late January surgery. He told NFL.com that his doctor and the Colts were in "lock-step" on the type of procedure.

Taylor underwent an arthroscopic debridement, which is a clean-up procedure that carries a two- to four-week return-to-play timeline, a source with knowledge of these procedures told IndyStar. It's the same procedure that linebacker E.J. Speed underwent this offseason, though Speed did so for even more precautionary reasons. He was able to come back for the team's veteran minicamp in June.

"I bounced back perfect," Speed said.

It's been seven months since Taylor underwent the surgery. It'll be eight by the time he can come off the PUP List. The Colts said they placed him on the list due to last season's ankle injury, and no new football-related injury has taken place.

It doesn't appear the Colts believe that Taylor isn't healthy, as a team source told Fox59 that they believe he is staging a "hold-in."

We can't know without examining Taylor, and only he can say how he feels. But it's worth keeping in mind that any team trading for Taylor would need to pass him in a physical, and the Colts reportedly took their trade talks with the Dolphins right up to the buzzer.

Question: Could the Colts punish Taylor if he doesn't want to play?

Answer: Yes, they can. The question is whether they want to take it to that level -- and when.

Taylor has to miss the first four games since the team placed him on the PUP List, and the Colts can't do anything about that. That was their decision. And as a member of the PUP List, Taylor will receive the first four game checks of his $4.3 million base salary this season.

But if those four games pass and they believe he's healthy, they could suspend him for conduct detrimental to the team, Fox59 reported on Tuesday. If Taylor is insisting he isn't healthy by then, it could become a league matter involving the NFL Players Association.

He'll be eight months removed from surgery by then.

GREGG DOYEL: Colts don't trade Jonathan Taylor, so we're stuck in nightmare of his creation

Question: Why wouldn't Taylor just play out a contract year and reap the rewards?

Answer: To be fair, we don't know that he doesn't plan to, but the contract talks are zapping his energy to be involved. He took his rehab off-site for a week, has been disengaged without ever smiling at practices. He did not watch the team's preseason finale from the field, instead becoming the first player to leave the locker room for the bus in Philadelphia, within minutes of when coach Shane Steichen broke the team down.

I've covered three franchises in this league, but I'm not sure I've seen any player that checked out before.

This is ultimately about the loss of trust. The Colts have asked Taylor to play out this season and prove that he can bounce back from the ankle surgery to his 2021 self. They don't have full trust that that's still who he is.

Taylor watched this general manager and owner reward player after player entering the final year of their first contract for delivering on and off the field, from Quenton Nelson to Braden Smith to Shaquille Leonard to Nyheim Hines to Kenny Moore II. That group includes stars and role players and some non-premium positions, too. And he's the first one of his caliber they've skipped.

Zero offers feels out of character to the culture he grew up in. It's left him wondering if they value him at all. That's why he tweeted what he did just before training camp.

And it's also why he hired Malki Kawa. For three years, Taylor believed the path of least resistance was the one that would reward him here, and he rode that tight, sounding like a team commercial in his interviews. He said his rookie contract was an obligation. He was that positive an extension would come this summer, like it did for everyone else.

So when it didn't, and he felt that submissive attitude used against him, he flipped the negotiation tactic 180 degrees. He went looking for someone to ramp up the temperature using the only leverage he had -- himself -- and landed on an agent with a Mixed Martial Arts background and a willingness to punch back. Kawa does mirror Taylor’s shifting attitude, but it's important not to mistake the cause for the effect.

Shortly after hiring Kawa, Taylor was on a Zoom call with other star running backs facing this crumbling market. He got to hear the experiences of Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs, who received the franchise tag this summer. In the days after Taylor reported to training camp, Irsay took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with suggestions to alter the franchise tag for running backs.

This sent a message to Taylor, and that's when Kawa fired back with, "Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player.” With the tag costing just $10.09 million this season, the Colts could be in a position to use it more than once on Taylor after this year. A player obsessed with maintaining his body has become worried about what he will look like when he's through with all of that.

Ballard likes to say that the locker room always knows in reference to how the franchise has treated the players, who it rewards and why or why not. He has a right and in some ways an obligation to change his ways when they don't produce results, and that can mean abandoning those promises of the past. Perhaps he's learning from those past deals, and this is the evolution he promised.

It's just left Taylor wondering why he has to be the one to pay. He doesn't believe they have his health and best interests at heart if they aren't willing to make a commitment to him.

The Colts want Taylor to prove he's healthy and explosive again out of surgery before they talk about a contract, and Taylor wants a contract before he risks getting injured for them again.

Question: What can Taylor gain by sitting out?

Answer: It could become the best of the bad options.

Because of the looming threat of the franchise tag, Taylor could see the $10.09 million franchise tag as not only the likely outcome of this season but maybe even the best that's even possible. If he suffers a major injury late next season, the team might not even want to tag him.

This is the dilemma facing running backs right now: If Taylor manages to play 17 games and dominates, the narrative about him on the open market will be that he's added a lot of tread on his tires. If he gets hurt, it'd be two injury-riddled seasons in four years and thus questionable durability. It can feel like there's no way to win.

If Taylor can find a way to play a minimum number of games this year for an accrued season, then he could minimize the risk of injury and lower the mileage for potentially the same reward. It is a risk, as losing time in a short season will hurt his image. But you lose something in a long season anyway.

In the end, if Taylor is looking out for his body and does not trust the team to take care of it, then he could try to find a way to limit the number of games that team gets out of him. At some point, it gets so personal that he just might not want to play for this team again.

We won't really know until Taylor decides to speak publicly and tells us how he feels. I've let him know he has an open invitation to talk.

Question: Why don't the Colts trade Taylor if they don't want to extend him?

Answer: Teams look for value in every move they make. Value can come in on-field production, in cap savings or in draft pick compensation. The Colts do still value Taylor's production this season. This week, they measured that value up against what they could land in a trade.

They know he can add a rare dose of explosiveness to their offense and can take quality hits away from Anthony Richardson, whose health and development are their top priorities. Taylor's ability to end drives early by making a defender miss and taking it to the house can save Richardson from having to be the hero. It could limit his exposure to the red-zone, which is where he knows he must develop most as a passer, with all the quick decisions and pinpoint ball placement and so little space.

They value those traits, but they don't know how long they'll maintain their shelf life. And like all teams, they're not going to pay a player more than they have to.

What they might have to decide eventually is how much of that value they will actually see this season and what kind of toll Taylor's absence and conflict could add to their rookie coach and quarterback.

Having been around this team all but a few days since this saga began, let me assure you nobody is enjoying how this situation is playing out. It's been difficult for coaches and players to talk about, and it's taken some juice out of a new season with a new offensive scheme and a rookie quarterback taken in the top five. The building badly needed excitement and found it with Shane Steichen and Richardson.

They could use some more of that again.

Contact Colts insider Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Tackling the big questions in the Jonathan Taylor contract saga