This is a good idea one several fronts. With a rookie Qb, they still must account for Taylor, so the offense isnt 2 dimensional. Play action would be better with taylor than anyone else on the roster, remember what Edge and Manning created with the stretch play. And the franchise tag is a chunk of cash up front, its not an anchor down the road if taylor gets hurt.

Having an honest to God running threat would make it easier on a rookie Qb.

We all want Taylor to be our running back. It is just how much for how long. I prefer that we don't give him a big long term contract but I don't feel super strong one way or the other except to keep him here when AR is still a young pup.

I agree. I don't see him trying to break the bank, given what has happened to RBs with high dollar contracts. Surely his agent is smart enough to guide him the right way.

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You would think that, but I have seen professional athletes and their agents take extremely questionable, mind-boggling actions of which it was clear that neither could see the forest for the trees. Alex Rodriguez is the first that comes to mind, with what he and his agent did (and said) between 2001 and 2007. Rodriguez finally fired his agent (Scott Boras) in September of 2010, but not after the two of them made collective fools of themselves on several occasions over the previous 9 years.

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i don't know how much i want to extend him due to his pass protection issues. he wasn't good last year. i am only paying a guy that can be a 3 down back. if he can get that under control then sure. a 5 year deal we can get out of after 3 or so is fine. he is a home run threat and is a playmaker. we need those guys badly

FWIW - the Spotrac website attempts to calculate the market value and provides a guesstimate about a player's next contract.


For Taylor, they are projecting a 4 year, $52M contract or about $13M per year.

They used Ezekiel Elliott, Dalvin Cook, Derrick Henry and Nick Chubb as the player / contract comps.


https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/indianap.../market-value/

He definitely needs to improve is pass-pro. A couple of encouraging things that should make a difference are A.) hopefully he gets/stays healthy and B.) DeAndre Smith as RB coach.

I liked Smith from his few years coaching my Red Raiders and he's been doing it a long time. But specifically, I'm looking at his time with NYG coaching Saquon Barkley who I think is quite similar to JT. Barkley was always dogged for his pass-pro and he's also been banged up the past few years.

Well, he A.) gets/stays healthy and B.) gets DeAndre Smith as his RB coach in 2022. He goes from a PFF pass-block grade of 34 in 2021 to a league-leading grade of 75.5 in 2022 (he's a mid-50's to low-60's guy his first few years). Hopefully Smith can have that affect on our RB room.

(Obligatory: PFF is not Gospel, just another piece of info)

All that said... he does have the added element of being the fastest RB in the league with the ability to make house calls from anywhere. That might warrant a re-signing to the FO.

That could potentially be optimistic as far as JT's point of view. Again, if he can stay healthy and have a rebound year more in the vein of 2021, then third-best RB money won't cut it for him.

That's where I have him slotted as well.

Yes.

We have a QB on a rookie deal. He is a game breaking player. He is only 24 and far away from the rb wall.

Taylor’s ability to turn any run into a TD is special. It puts a lot of pressure on a defense to be disciplined in their lanes. You don’t replace that ability with just plugging in another back. Manning and two hall of fame Wrs aren’t sitting there taking attention away from a running game. It’s Taylor who takes attention away from our passing game. With an average back, teams focus on our passing and it gets shut down.

My two cents is, yes, sign him to a "big" contract that is back loaded and that we can get out of with min cap hit after year 3.

He is too valuable for a rookie QB to not be on the field with him. AR needs JT to be a threat each and every down to keep his play action valid and take the pressure off him.

Assuming that his pass protection can be improved with a new coach and JT shows that in 2023, I think there is zero reason to not have him under contract for the next 3 seasons after that.

I, personally, do not love the concept of tagging a player for multiple seasons. Just because the rules say you can does not mean that it is a good ideal from a team/player relationship standpoint. And since the Colts have rarely done so in the past couple of decades, I would think that Irsay agrees with me.