stitches

For me any decision that takes into account draft position is tanking. In other words - you can play suboptimal lineups or make subptimal moves for variety of reasons(bad coaching, bad GMing, prioritizing development of youth over wins, etc.), but the moment your draft position is even partially the reason you are making a decision... this makes it tanking automatically. And for the record - I do NOT object to tanking in general with some minor exceptions. As long as you are playing within the rules of the league, everything is fair game IMO. As long as the players themselves don't lose on purpose I'm OK with it for the most part.

This is a distinct type of QBs we are working out. Steichen definitely likes his run option QBs.

Yeah, it probably is not clearcut decision and that means it's serious enough where surgery is a legit option

Same, preparing for the worst...

Agreed. I have no idea how he has any clients. You cannot convince me that the same outcome(or even better for Taylor) couldn't have been reached in a much more conventional manner.

Isn't Kamara paid over 15 too?

I hope I'm wrong and I hope I am jinxing this, but I have a bad feeling about this thing. Seems to me like more serious than the initial 1 month projection... Just something about the waiting for multiple opinions and going to some of the best specialists from the get go has me nervous.

You know my stance - in a salary cap where you can move unused cap space into future years, I will never understand why people count the current year and current salary that was already guaranteed into the new contract. I care about the new money and new years when talking about extensions and contracts. Seems like new money - 42, new years 3. So it seems fair to me to count this as a 14M a year contract extension. Malki Kawa doing victory laps too:

Fries is making me eat my words. I wanted us to get someone else at his spot and didn't believe he can play at high level, but he's been one of our best OLinemen. Good for him! Great development. I felt Freeland played a solid game too...

Yep... on a serious note. This was a great team win and every group contributed. OL was impressive! I don't know when was the last time we've donimated like this... must be when Luck was still playing. I really hope AR's injury is not too serious. Some twitter docs saying he's probably gotten away with AC joint sprain, which is not great but not horrible either... fingers crossed.

JT looked amazing after he got his new contract and changed his number! Fantastic!

At this point I'm letting it go. I see this thing very different than most people here. And that's OK. I said what I wanted to say earlier and there is no point in regurgitating it. I don't mind the outcome as much as I mind the process of how we got here. Although... I'm not as in love with the outcome as many here too, but this probably has more to do with how I see RBs in general. Anyways... just like the Colts and JT are moving on, I'm moving on too... hope he kills it and justifies his new contract. Hope in 2025-2026 he's faking another injury for even bigger payday.

Because it goes against everything he's been saying all off-season.

He was open to being engaged for most of the offseason. That's for sure...

I just don't think you create that much of a mess if that "change of mind" was so easily achieved. Because nothing has really changed since July. If they were that close to offering him a contract... if the plan all along was to offer him a contract, this shouldn't have become this toxic and confrontational. I just hope he's truly healthy and he hasn't lost anything, because the experience we have with big Ballard extensions coming off injuries is kind of scary....

Oh, I'm OK with it. I just think it makes Ballard look like a fool and I will keep that in mind every time he talks in the future. And the players of this team nearing an extensionw will keep it in their minds too, I bet. Every single reason Ballard has stated for not extending him(yet)... every single one... is still valid and nothing has changed(well maybe except for him passing a physical - still doesn't answer how he will look after that injury, how he will look with the new coach and in new system, still rewards a player after 4 win season(I thought this was a nonsense reason but it's a reason Ballard gave) )... For the record - right now I'm more sympathetic with Taylor than I am with Ballard, and this was the complete opposite way before today. Do you know why? Because if all it took for them to give Taylor a contract was for JT to be engaged and pass a physical, I have NO FREAKING IDEA what the last 4 months were about... from Colts' side!!! How do you allow it to get to that point if all you needed was for him to pass a physical? How do you not communicate that with him and his reps in a way that smooths things over and there is no distraction and missed games while you work on the details of that contract? And it completely validates everything Taylor has been doing. It just shows that all the reasons Ballard was giving were flimsy nonsense reasons. If we were this close to offering him contract, the last 4 months should not have happened at all.

With all my objections about how the Colts handled this, I'm glad that it's over. I wish we could have avoided all the drama. I hope JT is healthy and stays healthy for his career and plays well for the team. I think our running game has the potetial to be truly dynamic with him and AR. My hope is that Ballard will not sacrifice the pass catching weapons and will keep looking for and investing in high end talent at WR and TE.

BTW... that press-conference yesterday... WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?! It's even weirder now than it was yesterday. Why would you give those answers if him and the team were on the final stretch of a contract extension? Did this come about... like literally today? Did Ballard just decide to give him contract today(or yesterday after he talked???!?!?)?

So what was the point of all this drama and negative PR FOR BOTH parties for 4 months? The Colts and especially Ballard look like amateurs who don't know how to do their business right now.

Either Ballard massively screwed up the initial talks and didn't convey to Taylor and his agent that we are willing to give him a contract as soon as he passes a physical... OR everything Ballard was saying this whole off-season about why we haven't offered contract was compelete and utter nonsense.

This is the weirdest thing ever. Why did we go through all this nonsense, if you are going to reward him for the stuff he pulled before he's even proven he's healthy and back to his top form? What does that tell every other player you refuse to give contract at the exact moment they decide they need it and at the exact terms they decide they want? It tells them - sit out, fake injury, miss games while being paid for them... and Ballard will pay you. I don't get the timing and the number and ... anything of this really. Ballard just took a big smelly dump on everything he's said this off-season. He wanted to see him healthy, he wanted to see him play for the new coach and system, he didn't want to reward anyone after 4 wins season. Scratch all of this... we just went through 4 months of nonsense for him to just give him the contract he could have given him in April.

I think both JMV and Kevin Bowen have hinted if not straight up said it.

I guess my stance on Taylor's return is the following: I'm glad he's back and ready to play. If he truly means it and is prepared to play and not just accrue a season and fake another injury, I'm good with whatever the ultimate outcome is - be it him being traded at the trade deadline, be it him playing out the season and becoming a FA in the end of the season... be it the Colts offering him an extension(I might not like the extension but I would be good with the knowledge that he actually worked for it and played his butt off for it. The decision itself we can discuss more in a separate thread about Ballard's decisions. My real fear though is that he will either fake another injury relatively soon after he accrues a season or after the Colts are not able to get a good enough offer for him at the trade deadline. I guess we will see in due time...

We can always franchise tag him. I guess the question is - if he really does something like this - do we even want to go that way and franchise tag him?