Will Colts RB Jonathan Taylor play in Week 5 vs. Titans?

Update, Oct. 2 — Nothing is official yet, but Colts head coach Shane Steichen says that Taylor will be taken off of PUP and should practice on Wednesday. As long as that happens, it would appear he has a real chance of playing against the Titans.

The Indianapolis Colts will host the Tennessee Titans for their Week 5 matchup this Sunday and there’s a chance that star running back Jonathan Taylor will be on the field to make his season debut.

Taylor is eligible to return after spending the first four weeks of the regular season on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list due to a season-ending ankle injury he suffered last year. The Colts will open a 21-day practice window for him and if he isn’t placed on the active 53-man roster by Week 8, he will be placed back on the PUP list for the rest of the season.

Of course, there is still friction between the running back and the organization stemming back to the beginning of training camp in July. Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Taylor was actively seeking a long-term deal with the Colts and was publicly rebuffed by owner Jim Irsay on multiple occassions. The tailback and his agent then requested a trade and after Irsay initially shot it down, the organization granted the All-Pro permission to seek out trade partners. However, no trade materialized by the end of training camp as the Colts felt like they didn’t receive a fair value offer.

One can speculate over whether the organization acted in good faith with the trade negotiations to begin with, but nevertheless, they ended up placing Taylor on the PUP list to begin the 2023 season. The running back is still seeking a trade from the organization, but there have reportedly been no recent trade discussions between the Colts and other teams.

Is Jonathan Taylor healthy?

While Taylor hasn’t been eligible to practice, he has been rehabbing and working out at the team’s training facility. He posted a brief video to his Instagram story a few weeks back on September 15 and it appears that his right ankle will be ready to go.

One could interpret the video as Taylor’s camp strategically releasing it to show that he’s healthy, in case the Colts try to place him back on the PUP list out of spite.

For contract purposes, Taylor must play at least six games to accrue a full season.

What are the possible next moves for the Colts and Taylor?

As mentioned before, a potential trade could still possibly happen and the Colts will have until the October 31 deadline to make a deal happen. There’s also a chance that both sides simply decide to play out the rest of the season and go their separate ways when Taylor becomes an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.

We’ll update this post with news coming out of Indianapolis this week.