Daniel Jones took half the season off last year after he was traded from the New York Giants to the Minnesota Vikings, and then gambled on himself in free agency before landing with the Indianapolis Colts this offseason. Now, just three games into his Colts career, he has one of the coldest nicknames, Indiana Jones, and is defying all odds as one of the top statistical quarterbacks in the league.
Not even Colts fans themselves believed in Jones just a few weeks ago. Who is Anthony Richardson again? To Colts fans, he’s a bust that will probably be traded by the deadline or at latest next offseason. What was once viewed as a terrible quarterback room has now become a revelation within the first month of the season.
All Jones had to do was leave the Giants to reach the potential he was supposed to as the No. 8 overall pick in his draft class. There just might be a curse hanging over New York at this point, as their season from hell continues to plummet following a third straight loss on Sunday night.
The Colts viewed themselves the last few years as being a quarterback away, and everybody laughed at them for it. With how Jones is finally looking like a starter in the NFL, he's having the last laugh and is now the catalyst to the Colts’ success this season.
Daniel Jones saved the Colts from an Anthony Richardson mistake that would have set them back years
Jones’ biggest flex for the Colts this season is that he bailed them out of making a bad decision on Richardson. The Colts weren’t patient with the former top-five pick to start his NFL career and he quickly became a bust rather than a developmental project that could one day be a starter in the NFL. He was very inexperienced, and the Colts had expectations for him that were simply too high.
Now the Colts have to decide what to do with Richardson moving forward, as he’ll probably never take another snap in Indianapolis again. They said they weren’t ready to give up on him and wanted him to develop in the background. Truthfully, whether he’s traded or simply not re-signed, if Jones keeps playing like this then they have every reason to let Richardson go for good.
There’s quite a few quarterback-hungry teams that would take a flier on Richardson just because of his draft pedigree and physical tools. Jones has proven that he’s the quarterback answer the Colts had been looking for all along. Don’t get it twisted, I blame the Colts for the Richardson situation, but Jones gave them the perfect out completely out of nowhere.
Indiana Jones isn’t just making himself a name with the Colts, but the NFL too
There's something about Kevin O’Connell: He just knows how to relate to quarterbacks in a way most coaches can only dream of. In one season, he could technically be responsible for turning both Sam Darnold and Jones into reputable starting quarterbacks. His biggest task now will be what happens with J.J. McCarthy, but the fact that Jones has done a complete 180 from his time in New York is truly incredible. Jones isn’t just a name that Colts fans can get behind, he’s turning some NFL fans into believers too.
The Colts’ first punt of the year came in the second quarter of Sunday’s game. After Week 3, Jones is the only quarterback to have at least three passing touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns and no turnovers in a three-game stretch. This isn’t the same Jones that was relegated to practice squad safety before he was released by the Giants.
The difference with Jones in Indianapolis vs. New York is that the Giants needed him to make all the plays. They didn’t put enough weapons around him, and by the time he got at least one good one, the franchise was already giving up on him. With the Colts, Jones doesn’t have to do much other than not lose them games.
He’s not trying to force plays, and instead trusting his targets to get open and make the plays. He has an All-Pro in the backfield in Jonathan Taylor who can actually impact the offense, and Shane Steichen is helping him get the ball into the hands of guys like Michael Pittman, Josh Downs and Tyler Warren. And the Colts’ start to the season is that their next four games are winnable, too: The Los Angeles Rams and L.A. Chargers will be tough matchups, but the Las Vegas Raiders and the Arizona Cardinals are sandwiched in between those two showdown.
If the Colts come out of that stretch at potentially 5-2, they can definitely make the argument to win the division. If they come out of that stretch without a loss or even just one loss, we need to start taking them seriously as an AFC contender this year.
That all hinges on how well Jones plays. With the struggles he's gone through in his career, it feels like we’re just waiting for he and this Colts team to come back to earth. But what if this new version of Jones is for real? It’s a scary sight for the AFC South, and even scarier for the rest of the NFL.