The Indianapolis Colts were busy in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, but Jonathan Taylor was not one of the players who got to join a different team.
Josh Downs and Keenan Allen both secured moves away from Indianapolis on Tuesday as they joined the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, respectively. However, star running back Taylor remains in Indy ahead of what could be a long stretch until the end of the season.
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The Colts have been nothing short of a disaster this year, having won just two of their nine games this season. Many around the league feel as if Taylor deserves much better than this, which has led to Devin McCourty insisting the 27-year-old must go on strike in the offseason – if needed – to earn himself a trade.
The Colts were open to trading away Taylor, but it was apparent that teams were not willing to cough up a first-round pick for the running back. As a result, the 27-year-old remains in Indy while some of his former teammates may now compete for a Super Bowl.
“Like, if I’m Jonathan Taylor, I’m trying as much as I can to force my way out of Indy this offseason. Like, I don’t want to be here. I’m not coming to offseason workouts. I’m doing whatever I can because you already told me that you didn’t really want me here. Or not that you didn’t want me here, you were going to turn my value into picks and try to get better for the future,” McCourty said on NBC.
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“Why do I want to line up and run behind an offensive line when you got rid of our best player? Like, it just doesn’t make sense.
Despite playing for one of the worst teams in the NFL, Taylor has still been able to provide a solid return from the running back position. Taylor has racked up 656 rushing yards this season, and eight touchdowns.
“I think when you do this as an organisation, and for weeks we’re talking about guys that are going to get traded and you decide to keep them, I just think the message you sent to your team was that not only are we failing on the football field, we failed as a front office to actually trade these guys when we knew we wanted to trade them. We suck at that, too.
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“Like, I just think it’s bad business as a team for the guys in the locker room. You don’t want to be a part of that. And even if you understand the business, be good at the business. Get rid of these guys. Let’s suck. Let’s let these young guys play. Let’s lose. Let’s get draft picks and then figure it out from there.
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