The Colts have a Jonathan Taylor decision looming, and the case for paying him starts with the simplest thing in football: he keeps showing you who he is.
Taylor is pushing for a new deal, and while he’s said all the right things about wanting to stay in Indianapolis, this isn’t the first time his contract has been part of the conversation. There’s the football side of it, where the Colts’ best offensive player feels like the obvious guy to take care of. Then there’s the financial reality, where big running back contracts have not always aged well.
Even with that tension, the expectation is still that Indianapolis will eventually do right by him again. Former teammate Phillip Lindsay made the argument plainly in a sit-down with Action Network’s Kyle Odegard, and the reason he gave says plenty about Taylor’s mindset.
“The year before I got there, the man almost went for 2,000 yards. The next year I get there, and he’s talking about, ‘Hey, Phil, how can I get better?
Hey Phil, what can I do to make sure I stay healthy?’ Doing stuff like that means he cares, and that he’s not bigger than the game, ” Lindsay told Odegard.
That’s the kind of detail that sticks. Lindsay barely played in Indianapolis and was never a real threat to Taylor’s job, but Taylor still wanted his input.
He wanted ideas, and he wanted ways to stay on the field and keep improving. That kind of curiosity is not common, especially for a player already operating at Taylor’s level.
It also helps explain why so many around the game see him differently. Players can get comfortable fast.
They can lean on the people around them, listen only to the voices that tell them what they want to hear, and stop asking hard questions. Taylor has never sounded like that kind of player.
He has become, in many ways, the most underrated running back in the league. The production is there, but it’s almost as if people have gotten so used to it that they no longer react the way they would if those numbers were coming from a bigger market.
That’s part of why the Colts’ decision matters. Taylor has already been through the holdout that put the team in a difficult spot years ago, and he’s still shown that he wants to be a Colt for life. There are risks involved, sure, but the front office has to weigh those against everything he’s already given them.
Because talent alone doesn’t separate players for long. The great ones keep digging, keep learning, and keep looking for the next edge. That’s what Taylor has done, and it’s what has taken him from a three-star prospect to what looks like a future Hall of Famer.
He’ll once again be Shane Steichen’s most important soldier, and even in his seventh year in the league, there’s a chance he still has a few new tricks waiting.
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