Jonathan Taylor is the next man up in the ongoing running back contract saga, which isn’t exactly a great place for an NFL player to be in 2023. Around the league, Josh Jacobs is still holding out from the Las Vegas Raiders’ training camp, while fellow franchise-tagged RB Saquon Barkley reported to the New York Giants after having several incentives added to his one-year contract.
Neither Jacobs nor Barkley received a long-term contract from their respective clubs, while the veteran running back market has all but dried up NFL-wide. As Taylor enters the final year of his rookie contract with the Indianapolis Colts, his chances of securing an extension — at least, at the salary he once might’ve hoped for — appear to be dwindling.
Will the Indianapolis Colts Extend Jonathan Taylor?
Colts owner Jim Irsay, typically liable to say just about anything on social media, took to Twitter earlier this week to bemoan the recent complaints by running backs and their agents that their positional market has become unfairly maligned.
NFL Running Back situation- We have negotiated a CBA,that took years of effort and hard work and compromise in good faith by both sides..to say now that a specific Player category wants another negotiation after the fact,is inappropriate. Some Agents are selling ‘bad faith’..
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) July 26, 2023
Taylor’s agent, Malki Kawa, quote-tweeted Irsay’s message and responded, “Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player.” Kawa then responded to a tweet from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport by suggesting that he doubts Taylor’s relationship with the Colts can be repaired.
For his part, Taylor hasn’t been shy about sharing his thoughts on the state of the running back market. “You see why guys, they request trades,” Taylor said in June. “They just want to feel valued, not only by their coaches, but the organization as well, and I think it’s something you’ve got to continue to do.”
Taylor is set to wrap up his rookie deal by earning a $4.3 million base salary in 2023. The 24-year-old said he and Kawa had approached the Colts about an extension, but Irsay told ESPN’s Stephen Holder this week that Indianapolis has “not exchanged any contract numbers or anything like that” with Taylor.
Irsay, who said his Twitter broadside was not directed at Taylor (sure, Jim), also strongly suggested the Colts do not plan to offer Taylor an extension before next offseason.
“We love Jonathan, we need Jonathan,” Irsay said. “Our hope is Jonathan has an outstanding year and that we have a good year as a team, and then we get his next contract done. That’s the hope. We think the world of him as a person, as a player. It’s just timing. When your time comes to get paid, then you get paid.”
The Franchise Tag Looms for Jonathan Taylor
Taylor is currently on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list as he recovers from offseason ankle surgery, and it’s unclear if his current roster designation is related to his contract situation.
If the Colts aren’t planning to extend him before his contract expires, Taylor will likely be looking at a $13 million franchise tag in 2024. Unfortunately for Taylor, the better he plays in 2023, the more likely it might be that Indianapolis assigns him the franchise tender.
Even if Taylor recreates his first-team All-Pro 2021 campaign (when he led the NFL with 1,811 yards and 18 touchdowns), the Colts may have no reason to extend him. At that point, he’d be a running back with nearly 2,000 rushing attempts on his track record between his college career and the NFL.
Why would Indy offer Taylor significant guaranteed money when they could lock him in for a single season at a much lower rate?
“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. “My goal, the first season after I got drafted, I’m like, ‘I want to retire a Colt.’ Hopefully, the organization sees that the same, because I do.”
Taylor is correct that the Colts have been willing to extend other players before their rookie contracts expired. Guard Quenton Nelson, center Ryan Kelly, and linebacker Shaquille Leonard all received new contracts with Indianapolis with time remaining on their existing deals.
As Tej Seth of Sumer Sports recently noted, the Colts were open to extending those other players even though they don’t play one of the NFL’s premium positions. Interior offensive linemen and off-ball linebackers are generally considered further down the positional spectrum, but they’re still ahead of running backs.
Indianapolis ranks eighth in projected 2024 salary cap space with nearly $55 million, and they’ll benefit from having first-round quarterback Anthony Richardson on a cheap rookie deal for the next several seasons. The Colts have the money to extend Taylor, but the running back contract paradigm suggests they might not.
