When the dust settled on the trade deadline, the Colts still had running back Jonathan Taylor under contract. This was not the result most players in the league expected.
All signs pointed to the Colts accepting the top offer at 3:45 p.m. ET and processing the paperwork before the hour was up. Whatever the best deal.
But that’s what a functional organization would have done. The Colts are not currently.
The Giants were willing to give up a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick for Taylor. It’s unclear at this point if anyone else was willing to do better than that.
In the meantime, Taylor spent two weeks not knowing what was going to happen. He didn’t receive assurance that he wouldn’t be traded until about an hour before the window closed. (Even then, the leak felt more like a “last call” to interested suitors.)
Fans spent the same amount of time wondering what the Colts were doing. And Taylor had just eight carries in the 42-7 loss to Jacksonville, at a time when it seemed like a trade was imminent.
So, what’s next for Taylor? If they try to trade him this offseason, they’re not going to do any better than they would have done when a contender was willing to pay a premium to try to win now. And if they don’t get at least as much as they could have gotten on Tuesday, will they refuse to trade him again?
Taylor could end up getting stuck on the Colts in an obvious rebuild. Then, by the time it’s rebuilt (if it ever is), Taylor will be past his prime.
The simplest explanation is that the Colts fell into dysfunction on this one. And that’s no surprise. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is still relatively new to the job. The general manager was fired. And coach Shane Steichen hopes to win enough games to have a chance to keep his job; he surely wasn’t pushing to lose his best player.
So what should the Colts have done? When they were making deals for guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, they should have asked Taylor’s various suitors to make their latest and greatest offers. And the Colts should have made a final decision right then and there on whether he would be traded or retained.
Instead, they decided to wait and see if the deals would improve. Taylor had to wonder about his future. After the Week 9 loss to the Cowboys, he essentially said goodbye to Indianapolis.
The Eagles haven’t played that way with running back Saquon Barkley. They knew what was going on, they decided not to accept the best offer and informed Barkley that he would not be changing teams.
The Colts instead kicked it, not accepting the best offer and hoping it would improve. That gave Taylor two weeks to think about the possibility of playing for a contender before the Colts decided not to pull the trigger on a trade.
They’ll never admit it, but the Colts will eventually regret not accepting the better offer. Because the deals won’t get better after the season. At some point, Taylor will realize that it is in his best interest to request a trade.
This will be a problem that the next general manager will have to solve. And this particularity will not make the position more attractive for a candidate who has options.
Gn sports
