GREEN BAY, Wis. — I get why the Packers reportedly had (have?) “legitimate interest” in Jonathan Taylor.
This year in Green Bay is about trying to win now while also building for the future. That’s why the likes of Jordan Love, Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft, Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks have replaced Aaron Rodgers, Marcedes Lewis, Robert Tonyan, Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb in coach Matt LaFleur’s offense.
Taylor is 24 years old and on the last year of his rookie deal. He led the NFL in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in 2021 en route to first-team All-Pro honors. When healthy — he played only 11 games last season because of an ankle injury — he can be one of the best running backs in the NFL, if not the best.
Aaron Jones, albeit an elite back when he’s in form, is 28 years old with two seasons left on his second contract with the Packers.
AJ Dillon, taken 21 picks after Taylor, is in the final year of his rookie contract but has yet to prove he can be a feature back.
AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones celebrate after a drill at training camp. (Tork Mason / USA Today)
Forget your opinion about the value of star running backs in the NFL and how important or not they are to contending teams. Which of those aforementioned guys is the best long-term option in terms of talent alone? The answer is Taylor, without a doubt.
ESPN’s Stephen Holder, a longtime Indianapolis Colts reporter, first reported Wednesday morning that the Packers were the mystery team involved in talks with the Colts for the disgruntled Taylor, who attended the University of Wisconsin from 2017 to 2019 before the Colts took him in the second round of the 2020 draft. Holder wrote the Packers “had legitimate interest in trading for the star running back,” but the Colts didn’t receive a sufficient offer for Taylor by their “self-imposed” deadline of 3 p.m. CT Tuesday.
Taylor will miss the first four games of the season while on the physically unable to perform list with an ankle injury (whether he’s on PUP more because of the injury or the contract stalemate is up for debate), but this wouldn’t figure to be a rental for the Packers, rather a long-term investment in a running back who can make a convincing case he should be paid among or more than the game’s best. Holder wrote there’s still trade interest in Taylor, though it’s unclear what the Packers offered the Colts and what their current level of interest is. Holder also wrote that Taylor would still welcome a trade since the Colts previously told Taylor he wouldn’t get an extension until after this season.
In other words, don’t rule the Packers out of this just yet.
Brian Gutekunst on Jonathan Taylor: “I can’t talk about players on other teams. We try to be in every conversation.” pic.twitter.com/FWUuVwvJ9q
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 30, 2023
There are ways for the Packers to make a trade work financially for Taylor, whose base salary is $4.304 million in 2023. Whether or not you believe the Packers should give a big-money extension to a running back the cycle after doing so with Jones is another story. Then there’s what the Packers would offer in a trade. The Colts are reportedly looking for a first-round pick in return for Taylor. The Packers are scheduled to have two of them next year if Rodgers plays at least 65 percent of the New York Jets’ offensive snaps this season, but they wouldn’t know for certain whether they will until Rodgers hits that threshold and it’s too risky to ship a first-round pick (not that the Packers would do it, anyway) without knowing whether you’ll have a second one. It’s evident the Packers are unwilling to part with a first-rounder right now, but they might have offered, say, Dillon and a third-round pick.
Jones, who took a $5 million pay cut to stay with the Packers this season, might be in his last year with the team. He’ll be 29 on Dec. 2, and cutting him ahead of the final year of his contract, on which his base salary is $11.1 million, would free up almost $5 million in cap space. Granted, moving on from a player and person like Jones wouldn’t be done just for cap space. That’s simply part of the equation. Dillon, however, might not be re-signed in the offseason. The Packers could find a new No. 2 back for cheaper than what Dillon would earn on his second contract if they don’t think he’s fit to be a No. 1.
But which back would the Colts prefer in a hypothetical trade? Even if they’d take just a first-round pick and no players, the Packers can’t feasibly have Taylor, Jones and Dillon in the same room. Would Indianapolis want the running back in Dillon who’s three years and five months younger than Jones to be a long-term player for them either as a No. 1 or No. 2 running back? He’s also still on his rookie deal and not demanding an extension before the season starts. Or would they want Jones as a more talented stopgap No. 1 before drafting their next long-term feature back in the coming years?
Whichever side budges, if any, remains to be seen, but negotiations can continue in the coming weeks and months. The trade deadline isn’t until 3 p.m. CT Oct. 31. The Packers have built a reputation for often being in the mix for players like these — see: Odell Beckham Jr. before he signed with the Los Angeles Rams in the middle of the 2021 season — and this might be another one of those scenarios. The Packers’ interest could really be “legitimate,” as the Colts are seeming to say, or the Colts could simply be exaggerating to add more suitors to try to up the return for Taylor. Maybe Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst envisions Taylor and Emanuel Wilson as the one-two punch of the future at the position in Green Bay, considering all financial and talent aspects of the situation. Maybe his inquiries about Taylor were simply the sixth-year general manager doing his due diligence.
Gutekunst wouldn’t touch any of this when he spoke Wednesday afternoon in a scheduled news conference.
“Let’s get the checklist out,” Gutekunst said. “First of all, I can’t talk about players on other teams. We try to be in every conversation. Anytime we have good players available to us, we’d like to make the Green Bay Packers better and we’ll look at those opportunities. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
In what was assuredly intentional, neither Jones nor Dillon was in the locker room for any time during the 45 minutes it was open to reporters Wednesday evening. Both running backs are always in the locker room during media availability, and two of the best on the team talking with reporters at that.
“Some guys will respond to a foot up their ass.” — Matt LaFleur
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 30, 2023
By my count, there were fewer than 10 players on the 53-man roster who weren’t in the locker room during media availability. One of the players present was Wilson, who spoke with a large group of reporters after making the team as an undrafted rookie, so it wasn’t like the running backs had their own meeting that prevented the top two guys in the room from coming into the locker room.
Jones and Dillon will have to address the situation at some point this week or next, which could add another intriguing layer to what is already a fascinating season ahead in Green Bay.
“AJ’s part of this team and he was going to be regardless,” Gutekunst said in response to a question about Dillon’s potentially thinking he’s being shopped. “Again, there’s a lot of conversations. We are used at times for leverage situations at times, as well. But we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing if we’re not investigating these things, at least listening to things. But yeah, I think it’s the nature of the world now. There’s all kinds of things out there. Some are true. Some aren’t.
“I don’t know how these things get out there. I don’t particularly care. You guys know how we do business around here. That’s just not how we do them and I don’t really want to react to them. We have conversations about players throughout the National Football League, players on our team, with other teams, all the time. People ask about our guys all the time. That’s just part of it. I can’t be running or worried about what our players think every time somebody calls and asks us just because it might get out in the media. Not really too consumed with that. We have a great running back room. Really excited about it. I think they’re a strength of our football team. Again, we have a lot of conversations. If people perceive it’s one thing or another, I can’t control that.”
(Top photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
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