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Which teams would trade for — and pay — Jonathan Taylor?

Jonathan Taylor wants out. The Colts don’t want to trade him. One way to break the impasse could be to let Taylor try to find a trade partner.

Indy could do what the Texans did last year with Deshaun Watson. Set a minimum expectation for compensation, secure an agreement from one or more teams that they’ll satisfy the Colts’ expectations, and allow Taylor to see who will pay him what he’s looking for.

The problem could be that there’s no one that would do it. No one that would give the Colts the compensation they’d seek. No one that would pay Taylor what he wants.

Sure, if the Colts were simply trading Taylor’s current contract, they’d find someone to pounce on one year at $4.3 million and the ability to apply the franchise tag one or twice. But that’s surely not the solution Taylor is looking for.

He doesn’t want different. He wants more. And, frankly, it’s too late in the offseason to get anyone to give Taylor a massive deal. Cash has been spent. Cap space has been used. As mentioned on Monday, Taylor should have brought this issue to a head months ago, when teams could have: (1) noticed his potential availability; and (2) done something about it.

Even as Colts owner Jim Irsay insists Taylor won’t be traded, teams that could be interested will call G.M. Chris Ballard to inquire. How many have called with a serious inquiry? Probably fewer than you would think.

Thus, Taylor is already in checkmate — barely after the game began. What is he going to do? Sit out the 2023 season? Then what? Demand a trade in March? Who will pay him what he wants then, after he has played a total of 11 games in two seasons?

The problem continues to be the system, coupled with the Colts’ historic willingness to take full advantage of it. They drafted Marshall Faulk in 1994, and they traded him before ever having to give him a second contract. They drafted Edgerrin James to replace Faulk in 1999, and they let him leave via free agency before ever having to give him a second contract. (They replaced James with Joseph Addai, and they won a Super Bowl in Addai’s rookie year.) Now, they’ve drafted Taylor with the apparent intention of: (1) using him for four years; (2) tagging him once or twice; (3) letting him walk; and (4) drafting another running back to replace him.

Football is family? Right. Football is business, and they say “football is family” because it’s good for business to say “football is family.” Situations like this prove it, conclusively.

Running backs are another interchangeable piece in the overall football machine. They are important, but they are affordable. Why pay a lot for a piece that is a little bit better than a much cheaper but roughly equally effective version of the same piece?

It’s dehumanizing to think of the game this way, but that’s how the teams think of the game. Players come and go and go and come and go and go and come and go. Over and over and over again. The relationships are temporary, and the caretakers of the football machines are always thinking of when and how to replace parts that inevitably will be replaced.

The only solution for running backs is, frankly, to not play running back. Play a position that becomes a more rare and valuable part of the football machine.

While that might be far easier said than done, it’s the only way for players like Taylor to alter their reality. For Taylor, his reality is that the team that drafted him holds his rights for, as a practical matter, up to three more seasons.

At that point, he’ll likely become a free agent. And, at that point, he’ll likely experience the depressed market for veteran running backs who are closing in on 30.

As youth football practice prepares to get started, parents should take heed. If your child is a truly dominant, freaky athlete with real potential to go far in the sport, don’t let the coach deploy a one-play game plan — give the ball to the dominant, freaky athlete and let him run through and around the defense. The sooner that dominant, freaky athlete finds his way to quarterback, receiver, pass rusher, or cornerback, the more likely he’ll be to have an NFL career that lasts a long time, and that pays him much more than he’d make as a running back.