One fine mess

Hey, I know! Let's shove our best football player out the door!

-- The Indianapolis Colts

And, OK, so that's a lie. 

No one in the Colts organization has ever spoken those words about Jonathan Taylor, at least as far as we know. They're only acting as if they have.

And Jonathan Taylor?

Remember when he was one of the best running backs in the NFL, and the Colts loved him and he loved the Colts?

Yeah, well. Look at him over there now, a ghost in a hoodie, watching training camp go on without him because the Colts put him on the Physically Unable to Perform list even though he's apparently Physically Able to Perform.

Ye gods. It's the most Colts thing ever, this mess.

Taylor wants a chunky new deal before his current deal runs out, because he's a running back and running backs have the shelf life of potato salad left out in the sun on steamy summer day. The Colts don't want to give him a chunky enough deal to suit him, for the very same reason.

And so Taylor, previously the sunniest of souls, has gone into full-on pout mode, his attitude apparently having been adjusted by his Dollar General agent. And Colts owner Jim Irsay said some stuff about running backs and how they don't have the market value they used to -- which is true, but now was not the time to say it.

Now Taylor wants a trade.

And Irsay says he's not trading him. 

And there's all this weird stuff about Taylor going on PUP because of an alleged back injury suffered in the offseason, while Taylor tweets he doesn't have an ouchy back, never has, nuh-uh, no way.

Here's the thing: When Irsay said what he said about running backs (again, at the worst possible time), it wasn't much different than Taylor carping on social media about running backs being devalued, which is what kicked off this whole poop show. Both are right -- but they're coming at it from two different perspectives.

Taylor, the running back, is complaining about this state of affairs. Irsay, the owner, is simply saying, yeah, well, that's how it is, and I don't set the market.

Both are right.

Both are about to be horrendously, categorically wrong.

Irsay, for acting as if Ballard's best-ever draft pick has next to zero value. Taylor, for thinking (or believing his agent's thinking) that he's going to get any better deal from another team than he would ultimately get from the Colts.  

It's a quarterback/wide receiver market these days, and that's all there is to it. Running backs, if not quite a dime a dozen, do not carry anywhere near the same value. They depreciate faster; they get hurt more often; they generally peak at 26, 27, 28.

Them's the facts. 

And what you're hearing out of the Colts training camp these days?

Who knows?