Warning Doyle article 8/21

[JAFF]

Doyel: Colts, Jonathan Taylor better give a little, make deal to protect Anthony Richardson

Gregg Doyel
Indianapolis Star







INDIANAPOLIS – The Jonathan Taylor situation isn’t going away, and by that I mean, Jonathan Taylor isn’t going away. He’s untradeable right now for anything but pennies on the dollar, and even though the Colts reportedly have given Taylor’s agent permission to look for a trade, the Colts aren’t stupid. At least, not when it relates to making trades and negotiating contracts.

Not playing Anthony Richardson on Saturday night in the team’s only home preseason game? OK, that’s a point for you: That was stupid.

But when it comes to contracts, when it comes to money, the Colts are smart like serpents. Again, refer to that decision not to play Richardson on Saturday night. The Colts didn’t inform the paying public until the game had begun and the offense was trotting onto the field and what on earth? Why is backup QB Gardner Minshew II running onto the field? Did he get lost on his way to the surf shop?


Richardson had been on the field, in full uniform, more than an hour before kickoff. He was warming up. Pictures were taken. Word spread on social media: AR-5 is playing! Let’s go to the game and pay $40 to park and buy some $12 beers, and watch the first home action of…

Gardner Minshew?


Doyel: Only home preseason game, and raw rookie Anthony Richardson sits?

Point being: The Colts know how to waste your money – but not theirs. This is important, as it relates to the Jonathan Taylor situation. Anthony Richardson’s development is another significant factor as it relates to the resolution – and a resolution is coming – of the Jonathan Taylor’s holdout*.


*Nobody’s buying the Physically Unable to Perform nonsense. That’s his bargaining position for not practicing – for leaving the team twice, for scowling and pouting on the sideline when he is in town? That’s his position as he seeks a record-setting contract … that he’s hurt right now?

Is his agent a moron?

Oh wait.


Jonathan Taylor's pity party

Look, we’re not here to take any more shots at Taylor’s agent, other than to point out the obvious: Something fundamental in Jonathan Taylor has changed in the last few months, which coincides with his change in representation to a guy who made his bones representing professional wrestlers and cage fighters. That’s a different world, rasslin’ and the like, where villains move the needle and make the money.


The NFL doesn’t like villains, Jonathan. What are you doing?

The same goes for the Colts. What are you doing?

Let’s go back to where this started, on the Colts’ end, and I stress those four words – on the Colts’ end – because this situation didn’t start with the Colts’ bizarre stretch of public negotiations with Taylor and his agent. No, this started behind the scenes, with discussions we didn’t hear and therefore don’t know their content, where Taylor and his agent clearly did something to tick off the Colts.

Insider Nate Atkins: Jonathan Taylor and the Colts were perfect together. What happened?

What did Taylor and the agent, some dude named Malki Kawa, say to make the Colts so angry? No idea. Maybe the Colts will tell us some day. You have my number, Mr. (Jim) Irsay. So do you, Chris (Ballard). But you can believe the agent said something stupid. He’s the same guy who once described Irsay, years ago on Twitter, as “an ego maniac. (Bill) Polian took that sorry franchise and turned it around.”


Taylor went onto Twitter himself on July 17, as his goal for a new contract went unfilled, to publicly pout:

1. If you’re good enough, they’ll find you.

2. If you work hard enough, you’ll succeed.

…If you succeed…

3. You boost the Organization

…and then…

Doesn’t matter, you’re a RB

Nothing says “hard-nosed, mentally strong NFL running back” like a public pity party.

Weird response by Chris Ballard, Jim Irsay

By then Taylor had spoken at length with Ballard, back in May during rookie minicamp when Taylor was in town for his annual event with Chunky Soup – donating 1 million meals to people in need – but nothing came of their talk. No contract, anyway. Then Taylor sends out that epic passive-aggressive fail of a tweet on July 17 (Doesn’t matter, you’re a RB). Whatever else Taylor or his agent said in private, the Colts lashed out in public.


Ballard met with reporters on July 25, the day before training camp, and laid out his negotiations strategy with Taylor for the world to see.

“Our history is really good,” Ballard said of extending players like Taylor. “But saying that, we’re coming off a four-win season. We have a new coaching staff. We’ll let it play out as it does, and make those decisions when we make those decisions…

“We think very highly of Jonathan. Unfortunately we didn’t have a great season as a team, and he’s coming off the injury.”

Doyel on July 26: Why did Chris Ballard just say that about Jonathan Taylor???

Whatever happened next behind the scenes – and something happened from Taylor’s side, some sort of reaction to Ballard’s comments – Irsay went on Twitter within 24 hours to write:

“We have negotiated a CBA that took years of effort and hard work and compromise in good faith by both sides. To say now that a specific player category wants another negotiation after the fact is inappropriate. Some agents are selling ‘bad faith.’”

See how Irsay didn’t reference Taylor or his agent or even this particular negotiation? That’s called sub-tweeting. It’s immature, passive-aggressive, ridiculous.

Kawa, to his credit, responded directly to Irsay’s subtweet:

“Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player.”

Next thing you know, Taylor is missing practice with an ankle issue that hasn’t healed* since January surgery, and the holdout continues.

*I don’t believe that for a second.

What’s next? How does this end? Thanks for asking. The adult in the room* has entered the chat.

*Me, I’m saying. I’m the adult in the room. What does that tell you about the way everyone else has handled this?

The solution is obvious

Irsay isn’t going to cave. He values NFL players greatly – Irsay makes that clear every time he speaks about his team – but he also values his camaraderie among the other 31 NFL owners. If there’s one way to tick off the other owners, it’s to reset the market. That’s what Taylor seems to want, a reset of a running back market that is moving backward.


It’s the kind of thing despised former Washington owner Daniel Snyder might’ve done, just to spite everyone else, but not Irsay. Never Irsay.

And Jonathan Taylor, I’m speaking directly to you now: If you don’t know that, you’re not nearly as smart as I think you are. And I’ve always believed you to be brilliant.

There is room to compromise, but both sides have to budge. Taylor needs a muti-year deal that will eat up some of the seasons the Colts can place the franchise tag on him, and he needs the contract to be worth slightly more than the franchise tag – just so he can feel he won something. What Taylor needs, in other words, is a deal like running back Saquon Barkley signed with the New York Giants earlier this summer.

The Colts need to go light on the guaranteed money, though, because Taylor himself has said his ankle hasn’t fully healed nearly seven months after a routine surgery that typically requires 2-4 weeks to heal. Want to play it that way, Taylor? Fine. Guess you are injured. Your contract has to reflect that.


Even so Taylor would get a contract that, on paper, looks like a win – and if he is healthy, he’d earn every penny of it. The Colts get their best offensive weapon to help the development of Anthony Richardson in many ways, most notably this one: Preventing opposing defenses from focusing entirely on his mobility, because without Taylor around, Richardson might as well change his No. 5 to a bull’s eye.

This isn’t that difficult, Colts. It’s really not, JT.

As for you, Malki Kawa, go back to pro rasslin.’ The adult in the room has spoken, and as the Colts and Taylor should say soon: I’m done talking to you.

[Racehorse]

Doyel makes a strong case, but ruins it with his whining, and his absurd statement hat he is the adult in the room immediately afterwards. Sorry, but adults don't self-promote and whine at the same time.

His contract idea is a pretty good one, though. I think he may have read that idea on here, because he is devoid of good ideas on his own.