Jonathan Taylor opens Colts camp on physically unable to perform list

[Bball]

New year... same stuff...
I suppose we'll see if it's anything to get concerned over, but in the modern NFL it just seems like the RB position is just not worth investing loads of money in it. Even if you draft a great one, the shelf-life is way too short except in rare cases. At least in the modern NFL. Sure, there are outliers... but you just need a RB that doesn't suck (looking at you TRich) and concentrate on other areas more. And I won't say RB's are a dime a dozen, but they aren't exactly hard to come by either. Especially if you're looking at a short window and then moving on.

[Sollozzo]

It’s been apparent for a long time that having an elite rusher is not the formula for winning a Super Bowl or being a top team. Look no further than the Colts - they lost one of the best ever in Edge and won the Super Bowl the next year. Yes they had Manning and the elite passing game, plus a defense that stepped up in the playoffs, but that’s the point - those things matter way more nowadays. You need a system where you can plug and chug running backs into an established foundation. The recent Super Bowl winners (Chiefs, Rams, Pats, etc) didn’t have elite rushers.

Where did Dallas go after paying Zeke? By last year he wasn’t even the best back on his team anymore as Pollard clearly was the better player.

I like watching Taylor, but the Colts are in the driver’s seat here. Everyone knows running backs can fall off a cliff immediately. Taylor had a truly elite season in 2021 but we didn’t even make the playoffs. That’s not meant to be a knock against him by any means as he was truly phenomenal that year, but the single elite rusher just isn’t how you build a top team. You need a system that revolves around a passing game and O-Line where you can plug decent RB’s in for good results. NE basically did this for almost 20 years. Belichick would have never broke the bank for a RB even if he had the top rusher in the league.

[BornIndy]

It would suck to lose Taylor.

I was listening to Ryen Russilo and he brought up a good point about the life span of a RB can be misleading. He said that most of the star RB's play longer than the average.

I believe Taylor has a lot more in the tank.

[Sollozzo]

It would suck to lose Taylor.

I was listening to Ryen Russilo and he brought up a good point about the life span of a RB can be misleading. He said that most of the star RB's play longer than the average.

I believe Taylor has a lot more in the tank.

Yeah but isn’t the average career across the board only 3 years? Obviously a lot of players are done in the blink of an eye which skews it.

The better discussion is to compare the average length of a running back’s prime to the average length of the prime at other positions (I.e. the top receivers tend to have longer primes than the top running backs).

The other issue that hurts running backs is that generally a top team can replace a running back without too much of a drop off.

Just look at the season leading yards rushers for Super Bowl winners. Most of them just aren’t even close to being big names.

It would suck to lose Taylor…but what have we accomplished with Taylor? Not much of anything. That’s not meant to be a knock on him - it’s just that his position is completely replaceable in the modern NFL.

[Pacersalltheway10]

His agent is a clown. Has been a clown for years and will probably always be a clown. By extension, if JT doesn't issue any statement contradicting his agent, he's a clown as well.

[Sollozzo]

If you have a good system, all you need at running back is a good value draft pick and a veteran. Get a young back with a smart draft pick who is young and fresh. Then get a veteran who can come in for change of pace, some third downs, goal lines, and who can do valuable things like pass block. This is what the Chiefs do. Pacheco was a 7th round pick and McKinnon has been around a long time. You would never in a million years see them break the bank on a back.

Everyone saw what happened with Zeke. Sure he was still good, but by last year Pollard was better. It’s just not smart to pay a back big money in this day in age.

This has been obvious for a while and we saw it first hand when we lost Edge and won the Super Bowl. The difference now is that appears like the entire league has finally realized it. You’re not going to see guys get a contract like Zeke got several years ago.

[Sollozzo]

Florio The Pius over at PatsFootballTalk is taking a lot of shots at the Colts and saying that Taylor should have held out.

His smug bias against the Colts is evident because he’s going all the way back to Edge’s contract situation to imply that the Colts don’t treat running backs well. He of course didn’t mention that Edge had a major injury during his Colts tenure, nor did he acknowledge the fact that the Colts won the Super Bowl the year after we lost Edge.

Someone needs to educate him that the recent Super Bowl winners don’t have an individual 1000+ yard back on their team.

I need to quit reading his PFT rag anyway. It’s extremely lame now since he decided to be super sensitive by disabling user comments. The comments were the most entertaining part of PFT.

[Basketball Fan]

[Bball]

Jonathon Taylor has met with Irsay and requested a trade.
Indystar is reporting.

So there's that to start the Colts season. Does JT have any trade value right now after last season and offseason surgery? I'm going to assume the PUP designation is BS to hide a holdout, since that would be how the Colts operate. But regardless, can they admit that now to improve his trade value (if that is the case anyway)?


I really have no issue moving on from JT. He was a non-factor last season, and I've already explained that RB's are plug in play in the modern NFL. Having a great RB, cheap, is probably great, especially on a balanced team. Having a bunch of money invested in the RB position OTOH is probably just hurting the team overall. Plus, the Colts are in a rebuilding phase anyway. Not like they need to be relying on a RB right now anyway.

[Pacersalltheway10]

Good. 1 less Colts player represented by Malki Kawa

[Trader Joe]

Irsay is an embarrassment. I'm not saying whether RBs deserve to be paid or not, though I do think the market at this point is ludicrously low, but Irsay's public statements today were absolutely off the wall per usual. A guy with literally no real skills who fell *** backwards into Daddy's football team and had two great QB's back to back for basically 20 years and got 1 whole super bowl out of it. Pathetic honestly

[Pacersalltheway10]

Trade him anywhere but Miami or let him sit out and waste his career. Win win either way

[Sollozzo]

Is there any team out there who would give the Colts what they want, PLUS be willing to give Taylor the money he’s going to want?

It would take a team who is “all-in” like the Rams a couple years ago, but even teams who are all-in aren’t going to break the bank for a RB.

Taylor and his agent couldn’t have picked a worse year to try this strategy. Irsay might be a clown with his comments, but no other organization out there would be caving to Taylor either.

[Sollozzo]

The amount of vitriol towards the Colts from some is astounding to me. Yes I understand that Irsay turns off a lot of people with his tweeting and comments, but I’m talking solely about the criticism towards the decision itself. The Colts are playing hardball with the running back position like every other team in the league. It’s one of the easiest decisions they’ve ever had to make because it would be nuts to cave to Taylor right now.

Let’s be completely honest about Taylor’s tenure too. He had a very good rookie year in 2020. He had a disappointing injury year in 2022. Sandwiched in between that was of course his 2021 season which was truly amazing, no doubt about it. But we didn’t make the playoffs that year. Not Taylor’s fault obviously, but it shows that in the modern NFL, a phenomenal RB simply isn’t enough.

The Colts were a terrible team last year. They have a new QB and HC. They need to see what they have in their team before they go break the bank on a RB largely because he had a great season two years ago.

[Sollozzo]

Stephen Holder tweeted that the trade demand was made BEFORE Irsay or the agent tweeted anything.

Way too much of a sideshow for a RB. If any team actually is willing to make a good trade offer, they gotta take it and run.