The Indianapolis Colts are ready to start a new rebuilding process. After Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck walked away from the game, the franchise was never the same in the NFL.
The Matt Ryan’s experiment failed, Frank Reich was fired as head coach, Jeff Saturday arrived as interim, but nothing really worked. Now, Shane Steichen, the former offensive coordinator of the Eagles, will be the new man in charge. They believe Anthony Richardson is their future franchise quarterback.
The problem is one of their best players wants to be traded. A few weeks ago, Jonathan Taylor confirmed the Indianapolis Colts that final decision. He had approval to negotiate with other teams, but there could be a big shift for the running back.
Indianapolis Colts want to keep Jonathan Taylor
Jonathan Taylor is entering the final year of his rookie contract and, as it has happened with many players at the position, wanted to be paid. When the Colts said ‘no’, a big controversy started.
The star wanted out of Indianapolis, but, the truth is no team offered the trade package Jim Irsay was expecting. Now, even with a broken relationship, the Colts GM, Chris Ballard, had a shocking point of view about the situation.
“It sucks for the Colts. It sucks for Jonathan Taylor and it sucks for our fans. It just does. It’s where we’re at and we’ve got to work through it. We’re going to do everything we can to work through it. Relationships are repairable. They’re repairable.”
So, the messages are totally mixed. The owner didn’t want to fix anything at all, but, suddenly, the front office will make a big effort to retain Jonathan Taylor. At least that’s what Ballard expects.
“I won’t quit on the relationship. I want everybody to know, Jonathan is a well-respected and a really good human being and a damn good football player. Things like this happen. There’s going to be a point when we disagree and it’s usually about money and it’s going to be hard. That doesn’t change my care level for you. I care deeply for Jonathan Taylor.”
Right now, the Colts won’t have Taylor available at least for the first four weeks of the season as he’s still having problems with an ankle injury. The NFL’s trade deadline is on October 31st.
