COLTS QB PREVIEW: Jones Back Week 1? Richardson vs. Leonard for QB2

The Indianapolis Colts are hoping for better luck with their quarterback room this season, as injuries last year helped lead to the team's demise and a fifth consecutive playoff miss.

Daniel Jones trudged through a fractured left fibula for a few weeks before his right Achilles gave out, ending his season in Week 14. Backup Anthony Richardson Sr. wasn't able to help, as he suffered a freak pregame eye injury in Week 6, which also ended his season. Rookie sixth-round pick Riley Leonard filled in for Jones initially when he went down, but Leonard, too, tweaked a knee in that game, which led to the Colts calling 43-year-old Philip Rivers out of retirement to make three starts at the end of the year. Ultimately, Leonard made the team's final start of the season.

With that load of context, here are how things are shaping up ahead of the 2026 season.

Daniel Jones

There's no question that Jones is the Colts' starting quarterback, but whether he'll return to his early-2025 form is the real query. Whether Jones will be ready for Week 1 is trending toward more of a foregone conclusion.

Jones was playing the best football of his career through the first half of last season. The Colts were 8-2, Jones was casually mentioned in the NFL MVP race, and he set new career bests in completion percentage (68.0%), pass success rate (52.0%), yards per attempt (8.1), yards per completion (11.9), yards per game (238.5), and passer rating (100.2) before his season-ending Achilles injury in Week 14.

The Colts locked Jones up with a two-year, $88 million contract this offseason for him to return from his injury and back to the level of play that had the Colts on top of the football world for several weeks.

Mentally, Jones and head coach Shane Steichen are a year further into their partnership, but physically, how much of a step back will Jones takes, and what adjustments will the Colts' offense need to make?

Anthony Richardson Sr. vs. Riley Leonard

This is an awkward battle for QB2 because Richardson lost his starting job to Jones last summer, was injured in a non-football pregame incident before midseason, requested a trade in February, which has yet to develop, and now is competing with Leonard for the backup quarterback role.

Richardson could still be traded anytime now, especially considering he's healthy again, and a $4.2 million roster bonus falls off of his cost at the end of July.

With Jones and Richardson recovering from injuries early in the offseason and the presumption that Richardson would ultimately be traded, Leonard was the obvious choice as the backup. But when Richardson returned to the team, the Colts were in a position to let him compete.

Leonard could still win the QB2 role outright based on merit, as he was surprisingly effective in limited action last year as a sixth-round rookie.

We can watch this competition unfold throughout training camp, but onlookers will wait for the other shoe to drop until Richardson is either traded or until the November NFL trade deadline arrives.

Easton Stick

The Colts signed veteran backup quarterback Stick at the beginning of June, which raised some eyebrows. He spent the first two years of his career being coached by Steichen with the Los Angeles Chargers, and he's been the second or third quarterback throughout his career, so being the Colts' fourth seemed unlikely given Richardson's situation.

However, on the surface, Stick is simply an upgrade over Seth Henigan, whom he replaced on the roster. Stick could, innocently enough, be the Colts' QB4, or he could be the next player in the pecking order if Richardson is traded.