Rich on Bijan Robinson’s New Contract’s Ripple Effect on Other NFL Running Backs

When somebody signs a deal that sets the market in the NFL, Rich has a phrase for it. A big fat stone thrown in a rippling pond.

Bijan Robinson just threw it. The record-setting contract in Atlanta reportedly puts him at 25 million a year, and the entire running back position now has a number to point at.

The obvious next name is Jahmyr Gibbs, and the assumption has been that Bijan's deal complicates Detroit's math. Rich reads it the other way.

"That one I think can actually help sign Jahmyr Gibbs, because there's now a target on the wall," he said. One guy went first. The next guy gets to walk in and ask for something similar, or a scooch better. Dan Campbell has already suggested the Bijan number does not hurt his cause, and that he simply wants Gibbs back.

The player this actually scrambles is not the one waiting on a first big payday. It is the one who already got his second contract and now has to watch the market move past it.

Which brings it to Jonathan Taylor, and to the memory of how hard that second deal was to get in the first place.

Asked about Bijan's number, Taylor did not pretend he was above it.

"Hopefully, I got to go talk to my agent," Taylor said. "I've been trying to just focus on getting better, making sure I'm staying in shape. I have faith, so I'm going to tap in and check in with him after you guys are done with the news today."

Rich had a suggestion for the order of operations. Before Taylor calls his agent, he might check whether the family bus is parked at Colts training camp, because Jimmy Irsay, may he rest in peace, once brought Taylor onto that bus to explain that the NFL outlives everybody, and that in the grand scheme of things this does not matter.

Said with a smile, of course. The translation was still take what I'm offering.

The show's consensus was that Taylor would not wait for a press conference to place that call. He would make it before the pads came off.

Whether Indianapolis picks up is another question. Lobbing one in to Mr. Biceps himself at the outset of a season is probably the last call a general manager wants to take.

That is simply what happens when one contract resets a market. Everyone else looks up with the same question. What about me?

And Rich's advice to any back holding even a whiff of leverage right now was unambiguous. Become Darrelle Revis on the spot. Darrelle Revis on his worst day.