The Indianapolis Colts continue to have the clock tick on Jonathan Taylor.
The NFL trade deadline isn’t moving — it’s still on Tuesday, Nov. 10. But the rest of the world keeps spinning, and so time is running short if the Colts want to trade their superstar running back.
Taylor has two years remaining on his contract, so the Colts aren’t obligated to move him. It could still be solid strategy to get value for him now, though, on a team that is otherwise going nowhere while selling off other key pieces.
Most angles of a potential Taylor trade have already been discussed, but The Athletic took a new approach on Thursday. They did what they called “mock trade negotiations” in which their beat writers for each team carried out a potential trade discussion to see if a deal could be reached.
Obviously, these writers aren’t in the teams’ front offices, so it’s an exercise more than it is a sure thing.
Still, it provided some new insight on a Taylor deal.
Jonathan Taylor Mock Trade
The Athletic’s Colts beat writer, James Boyd, negotiated with Giants beat writer Dan Duggan, Vikings beat writer Alec Lewis and Bengals beat writer Paul Dehner Jr.
Their writer Daniel Popper summed up the negotiations like this:
The Colts received offers on Taylor from three teams.
The Vikings offered a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 fourth-round pick.
The Bengals offered a 2027 third-round pick.
The Giants made the most aggressive offer: a 2027 second-round pick, a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 fourth-round pick. This package aligns pretty closely with what the 49ers gave up for Christian McCaffrey ahead of the 2022 deadline.
The Colts rejected the Vikings’ and Bengals’ offers. Those teams did not want to counter and dropped out of the race. That left the Giants’ offer.
The Colts asked the Giants to improve the offer. The specific demand was turning the 2028 fourth-round pick into a 2028 third-round pick. The Colts attempted to sweeten the deal by adding a 2028 fifth-round pick going back to New York. The Giants, in the end, refused this offer. They stood firm with their initial offer. The Colts declined.
So the conclusion at the end of all this for Taylor? No deal.
What’s Missing?
These negotiations certainly seemed to be realistic based on the rumors currently swirling around Taylor.
It seems unlikely that the Colts will be offered a first-round pick, so those offers track with that.
The only thing that might be missed here is just how much the Colts do, or don’t, want to trade Taylor. If Indy is ready to deal JT for whatever they can get, that Giants offer would feel like a pretty strong one.
If the Colts are still testing the waters and not as sure, then maybe the Giants’ deal would get denied like it did in the mock negotiations above.
Colts’ Jonathan Taylor Trade Negotiations Given New Insight