MY COUCH, Ind. -- The Colts have one opportunity to get significant draft compensation – even a first-round draft choice -- for Jonathan Taylor. That is, if he stays healthy between now and the Nov. 10 trade deadline.
There’s only one way to guarantee Taylor stays healthy until that day, and that’s by encasing him in bubble wrap and stapling him to the bench. Or by deactivating him. Or by leaving him back in Indianapolis. The Colts absolutely should have sat him down for this Jacksonville disaster, and, assuming a deal isn’t done by next Sunday, they need to shut him down at home against the Cowboys.
But they didn’t.
And they won’t – assuming he’s still here come Nov. 9.
What the Colts’ clueless leadership did Sunday in the haunted city of Jacksonville, site of Sunday’s 42-7 loss to the Jaguars, was absolute malpractice – from ownership on down to the coaching staff.
There was no earthly reason why Taylor should have been active and receiving starter snaps – hell, any snaps. To be damned sure, there was no conceivable reason why he was still getting snaps with the Jags leading 35-0 in the first half.
Tell me, what would have happened if Taylor had suffered the same injury fate as two previous Colts starters down in Jacksonville? Will Fries fractured his leg in 2024 and Daniel Jones tore his Achilles last season. If Taylor plays and gets hurt, the trade talk is silenced. Whatever trade packages the Colts were considering are rendered moot. Taylor represents Indy’s one and only opportunity to get an attractive draft package, and yet, they risked it by playing Taylor his normal number of snaps until the team fell behind 42-0 early in the third quarter.
I swear, this is the most inept organization in all of football, having accepted that mantle from the New York Jets.
