Colts Sell Off Stars at the Deadline but Keep Jonathan Taylor After Holding Out for More

The Indianapolis Colts went into Tuesday's trade deadline as the NFL's most obvious seller, and they sold. They also learned an old lesson about the market: when you ask for the moon, sometimes the buyers walk away.

With the team sitting at 2-7 after a loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Indianapolis traded offensive lineman Quenton Nelson, defensive lineman DeForest Buckner, wide receiver Keenan Allen and wide receiver Josh Downs before the 4 p.m. Eastern deadline. Downs went to the Kansas City Chiefs for a fourth-round pick and a fifth-round pick, and Allen went to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2027 sixth-round pick.

The two biggest names on the block, however, are still Colts.

Indianapolis received several offers for running back Jonathan Taylor in the week before the deadline, according to league sources who spoke to OutKick and Fox News Digital, and several of them included multiple picks, some of them high ones. Fox Sports reported that one came from the New York Giants and would have sent a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick to Indianapolis.

The Colts wanted more. According to OutKick, they were looking for additional picks or a pick higher than a second-rounder, which in practice meant a first-round selection, and no team was willing to go that far. While Indianapolis was still weighing the Giants' offer, New York pulled it, and the Colts then told Taylor he would not be traded.

The same thing happened with defensive tackle Grover Stewart. A league source said the Colts could have moved Stewart for a fifth-round pick, and the offer was later raised to a fourth-rounder plus another late-round pick. Indianapolis held out for something better, and every offer was eventually withdrawn. NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported the same outcome: "Indy keeps Stewart, who will be a free agent in March."

That last detail is what makes the decision hard to defend. Stewart is 33, in his 10th NFL season and in the final year of his contract. The Colts drafted him in the fourth round in 2017, and through nine games this season he has half a sack, three quarterback hits and 28 tackles. A fourth-round pick for a player who may walk in four months is the kind of return a rebuilding team usually takes.

The Colts also kept quarterback Daniel Jones after talking with at least one other club, reportedly the Minnesota Vikings, according to OutKick. Minnesota went another way, sending a third-round pick to Las Vegas for Kirk Cousins.

For the Giants, losing out on Taylor was not the end of their deadline. New York had already landed quarterback J.J. McCarthy from Minnesota for a fifth-round pick, and the Giants have won both games since he took over as the starter and sit first in the NFC East. They passed on another big swing on Tuesday, a decision the New York Post described as a gamble for a team in first place.

Around the league, contenders spent big. Chicago gave up two first-round picks for Tennessee defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, and Jacksonville paid a 2027 first-rounder and a 2029 second-rounder for Philadelphia's Jordan Davis. Those prices show what teams will pay for a difference-maker. They also show why nobody was willing to pay first-round money for a running back.

Selling was the right call for a 2-7 team. Shipping out veterans for draft picks is how a franchise resets, and Indianapolis did a good part of that work. But a rebuild runs on discipline, and the Colts got greedy at the finish line. They now carry Taylor and Stewart into the second half of a lost season, and the picks they turned down are not coming back.

General managers are judged on what they do, but also on what they could have done. On Tuesday, the Colts left real value on the table.