After never appearing in a game for them, Daniel Jones' short-lived tenure with the Minnesota Vikings is officially over. He's headed to the Indianapolis Colts and will jockey with Anthony Richardson for the team's starting quarterback job.
Jones and Richardson are set up for a competition of disappointing former top-10 NFL draft picks. Neither instills much confidence at this point in their respective careers, so the Colts are ostensibly hoping one pans out as a reclamation project. Otherwise, Indianapolis will have to settle for the lesser of two evils.
Alternatively, if things go haywire, the Colts may even have to tap back into the open market at one point during the 2025 campaign. And based on one stat from Ian Hartitz Of Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life, there's a very real chance Jones and Richardson flop miserably.
Colts plan with Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson appears to be making chicken salad out of QB room
As Hartitz points out, Jones and Richardson have registered the two lowest passer ratings in football over the past two seasons. In other words, they've been the least efficient throwers -- and there has been plenty of awful play under center beyond them.
Backups like Desmond Ridder, Bailey Zappe and the recently traded Dorian Thompson-Robinson struggled mightily in 2024 (and 2023). Their offenses were stuck in mud whenever they were called upon. They each looked like players on the way out of the league. Yet, somehow, Jones and Richardson ranked below them in a noteworthy albeit fundamentally flawed metric.
Moreover, Hartitz provided additional data points for those skeptical of passer rating. He cited that Richardson and Jones were dead last in completion rate and fewest adjusted yards per attempt, respectively, in 2023-24. This highlights the former's inaccuracy woes and the latter's inability to generate explosive aerial strikes.
Iron sharpens iron, or so they say. The Colts made it clear they wanted to bring someone in who will challenge Richardson for his spot atop the depth chart this coming year. But instead, Indy added another potential liability, à la Jones. With that in mind, it's hard to paint an optimistic picture regarding this situation. A scenario in which head coach Shane Steichen is platooning the two is easy to envision.
Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Indianapolis signed Jones to a one-year, $14 million "prove it" deal. While the Vikings were interested in retaining the dual-threat signal-caller, he saw a more realistic path to playing time with the Colts.