[JAFF]

Why Jonathan Taylor's contract should keep him with the Colts through at least 2025
Joel A. Erickson
Indianapolis Star


INDIANAPOLIS — The contract extension Jonathan Taylor signed last Saturday is a fairly straightforward deal, a contract that realistically binds Taylor to Indianapolis for the next three seasons, given the guarantees involved.

Taylor’s three-year extension carries a signing bonus of $10,248,000, $26.5 million in guaranteed money and $42 million in new money, adding the extra on top of what he was already scheduled to earn in 2023, the final year of his rookie contract.

The cap figure for the 2023 season remained the same, although the structure changed.

Taylor was initially scheduled to earn $4.304 million in base salary, carrying a cap figure of $5,126,922. The rest of the cap figure, $813,482, is the final portion of the $3,253,928 signing bonus on his rookie contract. Under NFL rules, a player is paid the entire signing bonus right away, but the salary cap hit is spread out evenly over the years of the contract.


Taylor’s new signing bonus changed some of that math, reducing his base salary this season to $1.742 million and adding a signing bonus charge of $2.562 million to the previous proration, ultimately resulting in the same cap figure this year.

From this point on, the deal is relatively straightforward. Taylor’s signing bonus of $10.248 million and base salary of $7.804 million in 2024 are fully guaranteed, and although $7,152,444 of his base salary in 2025 is guaranteed only for injury at this point, it will ultimately become fully guaranteed if Taylor is on the roster on the fifth day of the 2024 league year, and it would take highly unusual circumstances for Taylor to be off the roster by that point, considering the Colts would lose more than $5 million in salary cap space if they cut the running back by then, in addition to taking a $16 million dead hit.


Like most NFL contracts, the deal has a potential out, although Indianapolis hasn't cut players on big deals before the end of their contracts often under general manager Chris Ballard. If the Colts wanted to release Taylor before the start of the 2026 season, they would save $13 million in cap space and only take a $2.562 million dead hit.

Jonathan Taylor contract

2023


Cap Number: $5,126,992

Base salary: $1.742 million ($785,556 guaranteed)

Workout bonus: $9,440

Signing bonus: $2.562 million

Previous signing bonus: $813,482

2024

Cap Number: $10,876,000

Base salary: $7,804,000, fully guaranteed

Per-game roster bonus: $510,000 ($30,000 per game)

Signing bonus: $2.562 million

2025

Cap Number: $15,562,000

Base salary: $11,980,000 ($7,152,444, guaranteed for injury, fully guaranteed if Taylor’s on roster on the 5th day of the 2024 league year)

Per-game roster bonus: $1.02 million ($60,000 per game)

Signing bonus: $2.562 million

2026

Cap Number: $15,562,000

Base salary: $11,980,000

Per-game roster bonus: $1.02 million ($60,000 per game)

Signing bonus: $2.562 million