This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Christian D’Andrea.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has decided to make a move when it comes to star tailback Jonathan Taylor’s contract impasse. A vague and ultimately frustrating move whose most obvious outcome is no outcome at all.
On Monday, reports swirled that the Colts were willing to allow Taylor, 2021’s NFL rushing leader and the franchise’s only offensive skill player to make a Pro Bowl since Andrew Luck’s retirement, to seek a trade. Rather than pay something approaching the four year, $64 million contract extension Christian McCaffrey got more than three years ago, Irsay would rather start from scratch. But while he doesn’t see the value in big time compensation for a running back, he sure hopes other teams out there do.
Source: The Colts are seeking a first-round pick — or package of picks that equates to as much — in a potential Jonathan Taylor trade.
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) August 21, 2023
This is, almost certainly, a pipe dream. In Irsay’s mind there might be a team desperate enough to meet those parameters. The Washington Commanders dealt a second-round pick swap and a pair of third-rounders just to let a washed Carson Wentz steer their offense into a bridge truss before last season. If we’re willing to go back a decade, Irsay himself okayed a trade that sent a first-round pick for Trent Richardson who was, at the time, very bad at football. It could happen.
But it almost certainly won’t. Not because Taylor isn’t worth it, but because he’s in the final year of his rookie contract and banking on a massive payday (the issue that opened this rift in the first place). The market for running backs was cool to begin with, but trading away a Day 1 pick for the right to give Taylor $15 million annually is the kind of thing that gets written five paragraphs in to the news report about a general manager’s firing.
There’s also the fact that Taylor could be available as a free agent next spring, though the Colts could always franchise tag and further infuriate Taylor. Either way, there’s no real rush to go out and make a deal, especially with depth charts taking shape and few teams — aside from Indianapolis, naturally — with a dire need for Taylor in the backfield.
This has all the trappings of a half-baked effort. Irsay has been challenged to unclutter his basement, and at his yard sale he’s changing thousands of dollars for a bunch of cool looking stuff he doesn’t really use but still doesn’t want anyone else to have. No one’s going to meet the asking price and he’ll shrug and say “well, we tried.” Later, when Taylor brings up a contract extension again, Irsay can try to use the lack of suitors as leverage when it comes to selling his star tailback — the genesis of 37.5 percent of his total yards and 41 percent of his touchdowns in 2021 — a contract worth a fraction of his actual value.
No one is going to give the Colts a first-round pick to alleviate the mess Irsay has created. Taylor’s value, with free agency looming, is closer in line to a mid-draft pick. Indianapolis wants a Christian McCaffrey-sized return while ignoring the fact that the 49ers were willing to pay up for the All-Pro back last fall because he was under contract through 2025 and, importantly, cost roughly $4 million total in salary cap hits for San Francisco in 2022 and 2023 combined.
Thus, the illusion of progress is created even though no progress will be made. Irsay and the Colts are saying one thing with their stance on running back value when it comes to contracts, then another when it comes to trade packages for the guy who could be instrumental in aiding rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson’s career. It’s an empty statement that only benefits Irsay (outside the court of public opinion). Either he gets his big asking price, or he doesn’t and he spins that as proof Taylor isn’t as valuable as he thinks.
But it’s a transparent move, and it’ll likely only further alienate arguably the best player on his roster. There was a smart way to handle this negotiation in a landscape where running backs are underpaid and under-respected. That is not the way the Colts decided to play it.
Quick Hits: College Football previews are here! … The Little Leaguer that stole everyone’s hearts … and more
— Tyler Nettuno has one burning question for each of the Power 5 conferences in college football.
— This Little Leaguer told everyone that Shohei Ohtani was his superhero and it was the cutest thing in the world. Here’s more from Andrew Joseph.
— Charles Curtis has updated MLB power rankings as we inch closer and closer to September.
— Mary Clarke has this thrilling angle of Sha’Carri Richardson’s incredible win at the Track and Field World Championships that you need to see.
That’s all, folks. Happy Tuesday. Be good to one another.
