Jonathan Taylor agreed to a two-year, $44 million extension with the Indianapolis Colts, a deal that can grow to $47 million with incentives and carries $39 million in guarantees. The numbers, announced August 6, 2026, place Taylor squarely in the middle of a running back market that has shifted dramatically this offseason, as Yahoo Sports reported.
Taylor’s $22 million average annual value trails Bijan Robinson’s $22.25 million per year on a three-year, up to $75 million contract that had been described as the richest deal ever signed by a running back. It also puts Taylor behind Jahmyr Gibbs, who signed his own three-year, $67.5 million extension in the same training camp window.
A second extension, not a first
This is not new territory for Taylor and the Colts. The two sides had already reworked his contract once before, agreeing to a three-year, $42 million deal in October 2023. That agreement was set to run through the coming season, meaning Indianapolis moved to extend him again before he could reach the open market. Since Indianapolis drafted him in 2020, Taylor has piled up 7,598 rushing yards at 4.9 yards per carry, 1,469 receiving yards and 76 total touchdowns.
Team owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon framed the move as a statement about Taylor’s standing inside the organization. “I love Jonathan, and I’m really proud of the leader he’s become on our team. He’s one of our pillars,” she said. Taylor echoed the sentiment about his future in Indianapolis. “I’d definitely love to be a Colt for life,” he said.
The production behind the price tag
The Colts had ample recent evidence to justify the investment. Taylor led the NFL in rushing attempts with 323 last season, along with 18 rushing touchdowns and 20 total touchdowns, while finishing third in the league with 1,585 rushing yards. He also caught 46 passes for 378 yards in 2025, his best season as a receiver, rounding out a year that showed a back who has expanded his game beyond pure volume rushing.
Those totals pushed his career rushing touchdown count to 69, a franchise record. He has made three Pro Bowls, in 2021, 2024 and 2025, and earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2021.
Where Taylor fits among the league’s top backs
The gap between Taylor’s deal and the contracts signed by Robinson and Gibbs is narrow in raw average value but tells a broader story about how teams are now willing to pay running backs who combine volume, efficiency and receiving production. Robinson’s Atlanta contract set the positional ceiling this offseason, and Gibbs followed with Detroit within the same camp window before Indianapolis locked up Taylor. All three deals landed within weeks of each other, a cluster of spending that has reset expectations for what a top-tier back can command after a run of thinner running back markets in prior years.
For the Colts, the extension answers a question that had loomed over training camp: whether the team would let its most productive back play out the final year of his 2023 deal or move early to secure him. Indianapolis chose the latter, betting that the numbers Taylor produced in 2025, the league lead in carries and rushing scores, the career-best receiving output, the franchise touchdown mark, were worth paying for before another team could make an offer of its own.
“I’d definitely love to be a Colt for life,” Taylor said, a sentiment that now carries the weight of a second contract rewrite in three years and a payday that ranks second only to Robinson’s among running backs league-wide.
