Colts RB Jonathan Taylor requests trade, team owner Jim Irsay says they won't deal him

WESTFIELD — Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has requested a trade, a league source confirmed to IndyStar, despite a meeting with franchise owner Jim Irsay during the team’s training camp practice on Saturday night.

Irsay responded to the breaking news with a statement on Saturday night.

“We will not trade Jonathan Taylor,” Irsay said in an audio file sent to IndyStar. “That is a certainty. Not now, or not in October.”

Irsay declined to reveal any of the conversation that took place between the two men.  

“It’s something that’s going to stay between us, but it was just a good conversation,” Irsay said. “We’re just hopeful in going forward, looking forward to a great season, hoping Jonathan’s a big part of that.”   

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Taylor has one season left on his rookie contract, and the Colts have signed several key stars, including left guard Quenton Nelson and linebacker Shaquille Leonard, before the final season of their rookie contracts began.

But the Indianapolis philosophy has changed, a shift in philosophy that Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard have attributed this week to the team’s ugly 4-12-1 season in 2022 and a desire to evaluate what they have in Richardson before making any other moves.

Irsay reiterated the team’s position Saturday night.

“At this point, a (contract extension) is not something that we’re discussing right now,” Irsay said. “This isn’t a comment that has to do with Jonathan Taylor’s situation, but it’s about what my responsibilities are. I’m responsible for everyone on the team, and to look at the cap money that you have, to look at contracts as you go forward.”

Indianapolis has $19.928 million available in cap space, the sixth-most in the NFL according to NFL Player’s Association records, and when Irsay talked about the team’s position in March, he touted the spending flexibility a team has with a quarterback on a rookie deal.

Irsay struck a different tone in his comments about the franchise’s salary-cap flexibility on Saturday night.  

“My responsibility is to represent every single player on the team,” Irsay said. “It’s my responsibility to be fair, and to make sure everyone’s treated as fairly, to get their piece of the cap. I don’t take that job lightly.”

From Taylor’s perspective, the way he’s being treated is different than other drafted Colts stars in the Ballard era, including players at positions that aren’t considered a premium. Nelson, Leonard, center Ryan Kelly, right tackle Braden Smith, cornerback Kenny Moore II and former running back Nyheim Hines were all signed to big-money extensions before the final year of their rookie contracts began.

Taylor took note of that history, referencing the team’s track record in his last public comments in June.  

The Colts star running back was not talking about leaving Indianapolis six weeks ago. Back then, Taylor was talking about earning his place in Indianapolis.

“You look at the past, and guys who have shown their value on and off the field tend to stay here,” Taylor said at the time. “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.”

The team’s position has changed Taylor’s stance.

Taylor has not spoken publicly since reporting to training camp Thursday night.

The running back was placed on the active/physically unable to perform list immediately — Irsay said the arthroscopic debridement Taylor underwent on his ankle is not a surgery the Colts expect to have long-lasting implications — and although he has been present at practices, Taylor has not been available for an interview.

But a contract standoff that was largely playing out behind the scenes was thrust into the public eye by Irsay and Taylor’s agent, Malki Kawa, on Twitter earlier this week. Irsay tweeted that he does not believe the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement should be changed to appease running back’s issues with the franchise tag, and Kawa fired back by saying “bad faith is not paying your best offensive player.”

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Irsay tried to move past the exchange Saturday night by putting the focus on the upcoming season, expressing hope that Taylor would be on the field. If Taylor does not play, the team's No. 2 back is veteran Zack Moss, who rushed for 365 yards last season after coming over from the Bills in the trade that sent Hines to Buffalo.

“It’s my hope that we have an outstanding year, that Jonathan and Anthony Richardson have a chance to do great things,” Irsay said. “We’re excited about a lot of things, but we have a lot to prove. Last year, we know what our record was, we know what happened, we know obviously Jonathan had an untimely injury that took him away from us. It was really difficult, but every single person. … We have a lot of hard work to do, pulling together and moving forward.”