Jonathan Taylor deserved better during his six and a half years with the Indianapolis Colts. He deserved to play meaningful, winning football in December, deserved to be highlighted on more nationally televised games. But the Colts, who could never get the quarterback issue straightened out, wasted most of his prime.
Now, after a 27-23 loss Sunday to the underachieving Dallas Cowboys Sunday, the Colts have lost 14 of their last 16 games, and Taylor is wasting his talent by continuing to play in Indy.
For his sake, I hope he’s traded by the deadline Tuesday afternoon.
I hope he gets a chance to play important football games, rather than playing out the string while the Colts are falling to 2-6 and trading away their two leaders, DeForest Buckner and Quenton Nelson. He has been too good, too loyal, too professional to have to play out this rapidly deteriorating season with the Colts.
So where do things stand?
Currently, the Colts and Giants seem to be at something of a stalemate. Fox’s Jay Glazer reported the Giants offered the Colts second- and fifth-round draft picks, which the Colts declined. As the days have worn on, there’s been more reports from various insiders hinting that Taylor may not get dealt after all, that the Colts will instead wait to trade him in March of thereabouts. That would give the new general manager the freedom to build the way he wants. On the flip side, teams are more desperate to improve their playoff-bound teams. Wait a few months, and the market might dry up.
Just keep this in mind: Tuesday at 4 p.m. is the deadline, and deadlines have a tendency to spur action. Right now, the Colts and Giants are playing a game of “chicken,” waiting each other out to see who blinks first.
