The Colts wanted to pay running back Jonathan Taylor on a year-to-year basis. Taylor wanted more security than that.
Eventually (and against their wishes), the team made an offer that Taylor didn’t refuse.
The reported three-year, $42 million extension with $26.5 million in total guarantees replaces the situation that the Colts could have engineered with Taylor. Finish this year at $4.3 million, tag him in 2024 (if he’s still playing at a high level), and tag him again in 2025 (if he’s still playing at a high level). That would have allowed the Colts to walk away after this year or next year at no further expense.
The full numbers eventually will emerge. When they do, here’s a guess that could be very close to the actual numbers. Taylor likely has a fully-guaranteed salary for 2024 roughly equal to the franchise tag and an injury-guaranteed salary in 2025 roughly equal to the second tag.
Any signing bonus Taylor gets now would potentially come from the 2024 guarantee, another sweetener aimed at getting Taylor to accept.
And that’s ultimately how deals like this get done. The Colts made Taylor an offer he couldn’t refuse. Not with only $4.3 million in hand. He now has plenty more fully guaranteed at signing, plus more guaranteed against potential injury.
The Colts would have preferred to play it out one year at a time, or Taylor would have gotten an offer on a long-term deal a while ago. The relationship went sideways because the Colts were fine with letting it play out on a year-to-year basis, and Taylor was not.
And so they found a way to make it work, with Taylor sticking around and the Colts giving him a level of security that, before today, they were not required to provide. It’s not great, but it’s far better than what Taylor was entitled to receive.
