Jonathan Taylor’s push to be a “Colt for life” just got a whole lot more real.
The Indianapolis running back agreed to a two-year, $44 million extension with the Colts on Thursday, according to league sources. The deal can climb to $47 million and includes $39 million guaranteed, keeping Taylor under contract through the 2028 season.
It’s a major reward for a player who has already become one of the defining pieces of the franchise. Taylor was heading into the final year of the three-year, $42 million extension he signed in October 2023, but this latest agreement gives him another payday after a much smoother round of negotiations than the public standoff that followed his previous deal. Back then, Taylor and his agent, Malki Kawa, had a bitter back-and-forth with late Colts owner Jim Irsay, even trading jabs on social media before the running back finally landed that contract.
This time, Taylor stayed in camp, and the Colts stayed invested. That matters, especially at a position where second and third contracts are increasingly hard to come by. Indianapolis is now giving the 2020 second-round pick a third contract, and Taylor is being paid like the centerpiece he has become.
His new average annual salary lands at $22 million, second only among running backs to the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson, who signed a three-year, $66.8 million deal Tuesday and checks in at $22.25 million per year. Taylor learned about Robinson’s deal after practice and was quick to note both the significance of another back getting paid and the reality of his own situation.
“I gotta go talk to my agent, too,” Taylor said Tuesday. “… I have faith, so I’m gonna tap in and check in with him, now that you guys broke the news to me.”
Two days later, the Colts made it official.
The move fits with everything Indianapolis has said about Taylor this offseason. Principal owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon and GM Chris Ballard have both praised him, calling him a franchise pillar.
Taylor himself has been clear about where he wants to be, saying during minicamp in June, “I’d definitely love to be a Colt for life. I think I’ve already expressed that to them throughout the years,” Taylor said during minicamp in June.
“… Hopefully they feel the same (way) because this is a special place. Not every building is like this, and I’ve heard some stories now, especially from guys coming from other places, and it’s not like this elsewhere.”
At 27, Taylor is coming off a 2025 season that briefly put him in the MVP conversation. He played in every game and piled up 1,585 rushing yards, his best total since his first-team All-Pro season in 2021.
He also scored 20 total touchdowns - 18 on the ground and two through the air - a mark that tied Hall of Famer Lenny Moore for the most in a single season in Colts history. Taylor is the only Colts player to hit that number twice, doing it in 2021 and again in 2025.
The extension also underlines how much the Colts still believe in Taylor as part of their future, even with some uncertainty elsewhere in the building. Ballard is in the final year of his contract, and if Indianapolis misses the playoffs for a sixth straight season, his job could be in jeopardy.
For Taylor, though, the résumé keeps growing. Ballard traded up three spots to grab him with the No. 41 pick in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, and despite durability issues that have cost him at least three games in each of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons, he has still developed into one of the league’s premier backs.
His 90.5 rushing yards per game are the best among active players and fifth all-time behind Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis and Eric Dickerson. Taylor, a three-time Pro Bowler, also owns the Colts’ career lead with 69 rushing touchdowns and ranks second in franchise history with 7,598 rushing yards, trailing only Edgerrin James and his 9,226.
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