Things have gone from bad to worse on the running back front very quickly. Saquon Barkley took a one-year deal at just slightly over the tag number with no clause preventing the Giants from running it back next season on the tag, and now Jonathan Taylor has requested a trade from the Indianapolis Colts. How’d we get here, and just how rude of an awakening is the 24-year-old going to receive?
Jonathan Taylor Requests Trade
It’s rare that things progress this quickly. But with training camp in full swing for a football team with one of the few owners in the NFL that isn’t afraid to speak his mind, even if the consequences resemble placing his foot in his mouth, the outcome was never going to be pretty.
MORE: Jonathan Taylor’s Potential Landing Spots
Jim Irsay wasn’t the only NFL owner to reign down mob-boss nostalgia on us in regard to contract talks today. Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones didn’t mince words when speaking publicly about six-time first-team All-Pro right guard Zack Martin’s holdout for a new deal. In short, the message was, “You have a contract, be happy with the piece of pie we have already given you.”
But Jones at least shifted the blame. “It’s about facts,” Jones said. “We need the money to pay Parsons. We need the money to pay the players we want to pay in the future. It’s a fact,” said Jones.
The message from Irsay reads defiantly.
#Colts owner Jim Irsay: “If I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor is out of the league, no one’s gonna miss us. The league goes on. We know that. The National Football (League) rolls on. It doesn’t matter who comes and who goes, and it’s a privilege to be a part of it.”
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) July 30, 2023
According to ESPN reporter Stephen Holder, Irsay said that a contract extension was not something the team was planning on.
It appears on the surface that Taylor is making the right call. He’s an All-Pro-caliber player, and the team that used a second-round draft pick on him just a few seasons ago doesn’t care to keep him around past his rookie deal. And this all started with a tweet.
“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,” Irsay tweeted. “To say now that a specific Player category wants another negotiation after the fact, is inappropriate. Some Agents are selling ‘bad faith.’”
He followed up his comments by claiming that the statement wasn’t “really” directed toward Taylor but toward Najee Harris’s comments about structuring RB deals differently. But everything that’s happened since sure seems personal.
“If I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor is out of the league, no one’s gonna miss us. The league goes on,” Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay told media on Saturday.
This is all just the sad reality of playing running back in the modern NFL. It’s spiraled to a point that the nerds likely couldn’t have ever imagined it going, and the league hasn’t even become radicalized in the battle between run and pass. They just don’t seem to care who is running the ball.
And Now … We Wait
Trying to figure out who might even want to trade for Taylor was like trying to find your keys when you’re in a hurry to leave the house. Who, in the current market, would be willing to trade pick(s) AND THEN pay Taylor a long-term deal worth near the top of the league?
Christian McCaffrey makes $16 million annually, and Alvin Kamara sits at $15 million. What team features a single back enough to make that worthwhile? What team is devoid of a veteran QB contract over the next few seasons?
The Tennessee Titans are the only organization that makes sense, but it’s a year early. Derrick Henry is in the final year of his deal, and Ryan Tannehill is in the final year of his as well. The only way paying an RB makes sense is if the team is paying a QB on a rookie deal.
And while it’s easy to joke about trading him to the Titans because running backs don’t matter and you’d be taking draft capital directly from a division rival, even Irsay (probably) isn’t crazy enough to actually do it.
The Bears have money to spend and are built around a dangerous rushing attack. They’ve already paid inordinate sums on linebackers this offseason, so why not double down on devalued positions when you lead the league in salary cap space?
In the end, it only takes one team to make an offer. But Indianapolis is likely going to be stuck pulling teeth to try and find a suitor. And they don’t have to do anything. They can let him hit free agency, get paid there, and still get a decent enough compensatory pick for him the year after.
It’s unfortunate, but the players simply have no leverage in this particular game.