Colts' owner Jim Irsay: RB comment wasn't aimed at Jonathan Taylor

Irsay on Wednesday took aim at statements made by Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris, who said the league's top running backs were discussing, among other things, the idea of altering the way salaries of franchise-tagged players are determined so that elite backs earn more money. Irsay balked at the idea, saying "some agents are selling bad faith.”

But the ill-timed comment was made in the midst of Taylor's increasingly impatient search for a new deal, prompting an angry reply from Taylor's agent. "The comment wasn't really directed at Jonathan,” Irsay said in a phone interview with 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. I think we had a tough season last year. Didn't win a lot of games. 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."

Taylor — who led the NFL in rushing with 1,811 yards in 2021 — is scheduled to earn $4.304 million this season. That ranks 18th among running back salaries in 2023. Taylor, who Tuesday was placed on the physically unable to perform list after offseason ankle surgery, has not commented since making his displeasure known last month. His agent, Malki Kawa, declined comment Thursday but spoke to Taylor's frustrations by replying to Irsay's tweet, "Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player." And Thursday, in a reply to a tweet about the possibility of mending the relationship between Taylor and the Colts, Kawa simply wrote, "I doubt it."