Colts owner says recent remarks not a shot at Jonathan Taylor

However, just 24 hours later, he denied that those remarks were aimed at his running back, Jonathan Taylor, who just so happens to need a new contract after the 2023 season.

"The comment wasn't really directed at Jonathan," Irsay told ESPN. "We haven't exchanged any contract numbers with each other or anything like that. So, it's not like we're in the midst of that. This is a year about coming back together and having a great year and we're really depending on Jonathan to team up with [quarterback] Anthony Richardson to try and pull together to have a great year."

True or not, Irsay’s inflammatory comments show where he and the Colts stand regarding arguably the best player on their roster. It appears that Indianapolis is content letting Taylor play out the final year of his rookie deal, earning a $4.3 million base salary, and revisiting contract negotiations next offseason.

"We love Jonathan, we need Jonathan," Irsay added. "Our hope is Jonathan has an outstanding year and that we have a good year as a team and then we get his next contract done. That's the hope. We think the world of him as a person, as a player. It's just timing. When your time comes to get paid, then you get paid."

Though he was limited to just 11 games last season, Taylor is just one year removed from leading the NFL in pretty much every major statistic including carries (332), yards (1,811), touchdowns (18) total yards from scrimmage (2,171) and total touchdowns (20). He finished second in Offensive Player of the Year voting, was named a First Team All-Pro and made his first Pro Bowl team.

Though Taylor hasn’t said anything publicly since Irsay seemingly threw him and the rest of the league’s running backs under the bus, his agent, Malki Kawa, did reply to Irsay’s tweet stating, “Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player." He then fired off an ominous quote tweet.