The Indianapolis Colts are a huge mess right now. Jonathan Taylor's sudden trade request on Saturday sent the entire team into a frenzy. After failing to agree to a contract extension, the star RB decided that he wanted to find a new home. In response, owner Jim Irsay not only said that they won't be paying Taylor, but he also won't be trading him.

Immediately, fans expected things to get messy. It didn't take long for the mess to start: a day after his trade request, rumors about the Colts placing Jonathan Taylor on the NFI list started to emerge. Apparently, Taylor suffered a back injury during a personal workout. There was some suspicion about this rumor, and Taylor's subsequent response validated these concerns.

But what's the reason for all of this mess? Why would the Colts want to place Taylor on the NFI list, when he's already listed as Physically Unable to Perform? And why is Taylor out here disputing these injuries? Let's talk about what the NFI list really is and the significance of that designation in relation to the RBs' trade request and contract demands.

What is the NFI list?

The NFI list stands for Non-football Injury list. In a lot of ways, this list functions similarly to the PUP (Physically Unable to Perform) list. The key difference, though, is that NFI is designated for players that suffered an injury unrelated to regular NFL activities. That includes college injuries for rookie to various everyday injuries. A recent example is Pittsburgh Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who landed on the NFI list in 2022 after falling off a bike.

While it's functionally the same with the PUP list, there's a key difference between the NFI and PUP list that affect the Colts and Jonathan Taylor. First, players on the NFI list are not entitled to their base salary. A team can continue paying him… but legally, they are allowed not to. This is one of the reasons why many fans found the timing of Taylor's supposed injury to be questionable.

That's not the biggest cause of concern for Taylor, though. There's another stipulation in the NFI rules that the Colts might be trying to exploit.

Why do the Colts want Jonathan Taylor on the NFI list?

The real reason why the Colts want to place Jonathan Taylor on the injured list lies in what happens if a player is unable to play after the six-week period designated for players on the list. This is the best explanation of what happens, according to NFL.com.

“If such a player (designated as NFI)  is in the last year of his contract (including option years), his contract will toll, provided the player is not physically able to provide his services by the team's sixth regular-season game and the team pays his prorated base salary for the balance of the season after that date. If the player is taken off of NFI during the league-allotted window, his contract will not toll.”

What does this mean? Well, it means that if the Colts place Taylor on the NFI list, they could potentially force him to play the 2024 season without playing a down in 2023… while taking a cut of his base salary. That can only happen if they deem that he cannot play, something that they could conceivably do. It would almost be like they fined the star running back (not paying him his salary for the six games) and then still have him under contract for 2024 under that same base salary.

It's also worth noting that the PUP list has a similar rule, where a player on the last year of his contract will have said contract tolled if he's unable to perform by Week 6. However, the key difference is that a) the player in question will be paid the full base salary, and b) should he be activated at any point during the regular season OR postseason, his contract won't be tolled.

What this means for Jonathan Taylor, Colts

Currently, Jonathan Taylor is on the PUP list due to the ankle injury he suffered in 2022. That means that until he is ready to play, Taylor should be paid the full salary he is owed. If the Colts place him on the NFI list, and then proceed to deem him unable to play, Taylor would be forced to forego one more year of playing without getting the contract he deserves.

If Taylor is telling the truth, and that he did not in fact suffer an injury during his personal workouts, then the Colts are clearly in the wrong here. Either way, it's still a weird decision to refuse to pay a player that gave you a near-OPOY level season just a couple of years ago. We'll see just how messy this situation can get.