Per The Athletic’s James Boyd, Indianapolis Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor offered a cryptic response when asked whether he has recently requested a trade from the organization, only essentially indicating that “the hay is in the barn now, and he’s preparing for the Dallas Cowboys at home”:
As recently as last week, Taylor indicated that he hadn’t requested a trade from the Colts, despite a few of his (former) teammates such as DeForest Buckner and Josh Downs presumably going down that road as of late.
While it was reported that the Colts haven’t been actively shopping Taylor around the league and potentially consider him a cornerstone of their ongoing rebuild to build around and complement, there are a number of heavily interested league suitors, and Indianapolis is clearly listening to prospective offers.
It’s been reported that the Colts are hoping for at least a ‘Christian McCaffrey-esque draft capital package”,and who knows, maybe even a first round pick to recoup some of the value lost from losing their own 2027 first round pick, which is a likely Top 5 pick that now belongs to the New York Jets as part of the surrendered trade package from last year’s Sauce Gardner trade deadline deal.
At any rate, Taylor is one of the last key remaining longstanding veteran pillars of the Colts prior regime and remains a Top 5 player at the running back position—albeit an elite player who turns 28-years-old in January and realistically may only have 2-3 prime seasons left at a running back position that isn’t forgiving for 30-year-olds.
That may be at best, the amount of time that it takes for the Colts to complete an expedited and successful rebuild (if all goes according to plan) given they don’t have a first round pick in 2027, still lack a viable franchise quarterback answer, and the current sad state of their diminished roster collectively (thanks, Chris Ballard!).
There’s probably some sentiment for Taylor, who’s a strong franchise Ring of Honor candidate some day, remains on a Pro Football Hall of Fame track, and trails only Edgerrin James as the franchise’s all-time leading rusher in yards and carries, while already holding the record for most rushing touchdowns in Colts history.
It won’t be an easy decision to make either way, unless the Colts are blown away, and it appears as though it may take that type of “king’s ransom” running back package for Indianapolis to seriously entertain moving Taylor.
