Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts, Jonathan Taylor FINALLY Agree to New Contract

Starting point is 00:00:00 The saga is finally over. Not only is Jonathan Taylor ready to play again this Sunday, but he's a lot richer doing it after striking a new deal with the Colts. Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts. Your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:37 All right. Thanks for joining for this special breaking news edition of Locked On Colts. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And we are gathered here today to talk about Jonathan Taylor, but it's actual news and it's actually good. All right, so the day starts. We're all out running our errands or whatever, and boom, Jonathan Taylor's been activated from PUP.

Starting point is 00:01:05 No more injury designation, not questionable. Looks like he's going to play Sunday, but then here comes what everyone has been waiting for forever. All the big wigs. I'm going to throw specific shout outs to Steven Holder on this one. He's been on top of it the whole time. New three-year contract extension between the Colts and Jonathan Taylor, $42 million. And boy, that's a big chunk of change. It finally mends fences between both sides. So we're obviously going to talk about that new contract here, what it means for the Colts, the offense, Anthony Richardson, all that long-term. And then short-term, what's it mean for this weekend Sunday

Starting point is 00:01:45 against the Titans uh so again let's look at this thing three years 42 million dollars uh that carries him through 2026 intentionally maybe unintentionally ties him to the first four years of Anthony Richardson's contract as well uh the Colts will obviously have a fifth year option on Richardson uh but you know I think both sides were willing to bend a little bit. There were reports about Jonathan Taylor's asking price being a good amount higher than that. You know, 14 million is pretty decent, but we had heard a little higher coming into this thing. But again, 26 and a half million guaranteed. This contract in general is the, in terms of average, is the third highest in the NFL only behind Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara. It's the second most in guarantees only behind

Starting point is 00:02:34 McCaffrey. So the Colts definitely find some figures that give Jonathan Taylor the assurance that they think he is a phenomenal player. Taylor perhaps bends a little bit, but still, I think this is good for all sides. The Colts saying that they didn't want to give any contract extensions just based on the whole we won four games thing last year. That kind of threw me off a little bit because what does no one else on that four win team get a contract extension either i just didn't love that answer uh and in terms of we got a new head coach new offense jonathan taylor fits into every offense you know so a good thing that these two sides were able to get this whole thing fixed because we all could see the potential here of

Starting point is 00:03:23 what this could do for the next few years with Shane Steichen calling the shots and Jonathan Taylor in a backfield with Anthony Richardson. The whole thing right there is just, it's really enticing. It makes the Colts very, very dangerous. And now knowing Taylor's future, that he's a Colt for at least the next few years, it gives some definition to expectations for the Colts. Because I feel like, yes, a lot of people thought this was a young team. But one of the biggest question marks about forecasting how good the Colts would be is,

Starting point is 00:03:55 yeah, but we got to see how good this offense is going to be without Jonathan Taylor. And now we don't have to worry anymore. After four games, we're now into week five. Taylor will be rejoining. And it's time to move on. All the drama from the past is hopefully behind them. You know, we talked to Taylor this week, and it was really awkward. And there wasn't anything of substance said regarding this whole drama.

Starting point is 00:04:22 Maybe after the game on Sunday, we can get in the locker room and maybe we can get some more details from guys more than just this thing is in the past. So that'll be good. Again, this whole thing has been going on for months. It's really been the dominating storyline around the Colts and it hasn't been a positive one. I know the Colts have really wanted to focus on the excitement surrounding Shane Steichen and Anthony Richardson, and now the big cloud that's been hanging over them, they can just throw it behind them and they can move forward. So here in a second, we're going to look at what this all looks like long-term, but first a word from our friends. Everyone should be empowered

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Starting point is 00:06:00 in the backfield. And Zach Moss has been awesome. He's had at minimum 70 yards from scrimmage in these seven games being the Colts, you know, go to running back. And he's really been a bell cow for the Colts since being appointed that. But now, you know, Anthony Richardson is a physical freak. Everyone knows that he's the most athletic player on the field in terms of his size and speed and everything but now you have a running back who dominated the league just two years ago like 1800 yards rushing led the league by 500 yards rushing over the next guy uh last time we saw him of course that it wasn't great the ankle injury plagued him all last season and to me you know, he's obviously passed all the medical stuff. Now he's

Starting point is 00:06:46 passed a physical, he's gotten activated off of pup, the Colts, obviously what they have seen from him physically, they thought enough to say here's 26 and a half million dollars guaranteed. So I think the Colts are confident they're getting Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor back and not some shell of a guy, you know, that that they once held in such high regard. So moving forward, you automatically have to say this might be the most dangerous backfield in football because you have one, a top three Russian quarterback in the league, and then a guy who has shown top three running back ability before he was the best running back in the league in 2021.

Starting point is 00:07:26 We'll see what he looks like now because, again, the last sample size we saw from him was not great. But we've also seen incredibly elite play out of him before. Maybe what the Colts get out of him is somewhere in the middle. Maybe it's closer to 2021. Before the ankle injury last year, he'd been totally healthy. He'd never really missed a practice before. The guy was bionic. And so now we're looking at an instance where there's a lot of potential. If Anthony Richardson can stay healthy and do his thing, we saw just in an early

Starting point is 00:08:00 glimpse of that Houston Texans game where he had two quick 15 plus yard rushing touchdowns. He looked really good running the ball against the Rams last week as well. And then you've got a guy who you know can get a thousand yards rushing. Like even last year when he didn't look very good at all, he was still on pace to have a bunch of rushing yards. I think he was going to finish well beyond 1,000 rushing yards, and that was a bad-looking season for him. So the Colts, I mean, they should be able to control things pretty well with this run game.

Starting point is 00:08:33 The offensive line, if they can get back and healthy, they look like a group that has reasserted themselves as one that you can truly run the ball behind, protect the passer and things like that. So, I mean, it's really positive. We know that Richardson is only 21 years old. Jonathan Taylor is still just 24 years old. And now you've got an incredibly explosive backfield.

Starting point is 00:08:57 And this has got to open up things quite a bit for Shane Syke. And I'm sure he is just salivating thinking of the possibilities moving forward. And that's a guy who just wants to focus on football. Us as reporters, we've had to badger him about Jonathan Taylor for a couple months now. And I'm sure he almost as much as anyone is just so glad that this whole thing can be put behind them. So that's long term. That's Taylor's contract. What does this mean this weekend?

Starting point is 00:09:25 Because like I mentioned at the top of the show, the first news we got was that Taylor's injury designation had been removed for Sunday and that it looked like he was going to be playing. So we will talk about that here in a second, but first, in other words from our sponsors, price fix is the most fun that I've had winning up to 25 times my money this football season, just select two or more players, sponsors. Price Picks is the most fun that I've had winning up to 25 times my money this football season. Just select two or more players, pick more or less than their projected stats, and then place

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Starting point is 00:10:30 All right. So Sunday. Colts, Titans, Lucas Oil Stadium. This game just had a bunch more juice added to it because, you know, looking into this, it was, is Jonathan Taylor going to play? I don't know. The Colts are really banged up. Now, knowing that Taylor has got a new contract, knowing that it looks like he's got

Starting point is 00:10:49 the green light to play, I think everyone and all of you who are going to be there at Lucas Oil Stadium are going to be fired up. I think it's going to be an awesome atmosphere. And that's what they're going to need to beat this thing against the Titans. The Titans have won the last five against the Colts, including six of the last seven. I mean, do you guys remember the days when, I mean, those were hard fought games, but like by no means did the Titans really ever own that, that matchup Peyton Manning was always, he was good against everybody, but Peyton dictated that, that matchup Andrew Luck was 11 and O, but ever since Andrew retired, it's just been all Titans. And that's probably the Colts fans most hated rival within the division, you know, non Patriots.

Starting point is 00:11:33 So it's really time for the Colts to flip this against the Titans. Again, I think everyone in the building tomorrow is going to be really ready for that. Now that's going to be easier said than done because Tennessee is really good against the run. They're fourth overall against the run. They're only allowing 70 yards per game, and they're first in yards per carry, which is an even more telling metric. Just 2.9 yards per carry.

Starting point is 00:11:57 Now, I'm going to add a couple asterisks to this. That's probably going to come back and bite me. They played the Saints without Alvin Kamara, the Chargers austin eckler the browns without uh nick chubb and then they played the bangles who they were just killing the whole time basically the bangles who are having to play from behind by a wide margin basically for three quarters uh so it's they have the tennessee titans have not yet faced a backfield like this because I want to throw Zach Moss into this as well. Because I also don't think Zach Moss is probably still going to be the primary running back in this one, if I had to guess. I don't think they're just going to throw Taylor in there and give him 20 carries.

Starting point is 00:12:39 So I think Zach Moss, Jonathan Taylor, Anthony Richardson, that's a very interesting backfield that Tennessee's going to have to play. And they're doing it without one of their best run defenders, T.R. Tartt. He's going to be out with an injury. That's a huge break for the Colts. I mean, Tartt has been a thorn in their side every matchup, it seems like, for the last few years. He just wreaks havoc on them up front. He's always penetrating the backfield, and it just seems like they have so many problems with him. So they kind of get a break there with him being out. Now the Colts, I mentioned, you know, the Titans haven't necessarily faced a backfield like this yet. Over the last three weeks, the Colts are averaging 132.7 yards on the ground. That is pretty good.

Starting point is 00:13:25 I mean, Zach Moss himself, he's got 280 yards now. You know, he missed week one. If he would have played week one, all it would have taken him was like 30, 35 yards to currently be in the top five in the NFL in rushing. So the Colts have been really good since Zach Moss got back. Zach Moss has been really good individually Zach Moss got back. Zach Moss has been really good individually since he returned in week two. So yeah, I don't know about you guys. Shoot, JT has a million things to prove, but even he has got to be looking to

Starting point is 00:13:57 turn the tides against the Titans. This is obviously year four for him. His career high rushing yards against the Titans is only 70. So they've always been able to kind of hold him in check. The Colts got to turn this thing around. JT is going to be really ready to go. I think he's going to run angry. I don't know how much they're going to use him if he plays tomorrow. But shoot, this matchup just got a whole lot more intriguing.

Starting point is 00:14:26 I think, again, everyone who's going to be there at Lucas Oil Stadium is going to be really, really ready for this as well. Man, I'm ready. So I don't know about you guys. Let's get back to our Saturday because I was out running errands before all this came back. So I'm going to go get the burger that I intended to go get when all this started happening. So if you guys don't already, at locked on Colts at Jake Arthur,

Starting point is 00:14:47 NFL and at Zach Hicks too on Twitter. Also, please be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts, get those ratings and reviews. And we always love those. It helps us get up to charts. And with that,

Starting point is 00:15:00 I will see you guys tomorrow before the game at never more. And then we will bring you coverage immediately after the game as well.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts, Jonathan Taylor FINALLY Agree to New Contract

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