Colts' Daniel Jones Recent Ranking Goes Beyond Injury

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones revived his career in 2025.

He went from a highly touted first-round rookie with the New York Giants in 2019, earning a lucrative contract extension in 2023, to being benched and quickly released in 2024. He signed with the Colts last offseason to a one-year "prove-it" deal and won the team's starting quarterback role.

Jones meshed seamlessly with head coach and play-caller Shane Steichen, leading the Colts' offense to a start they hadn't seen in nearly 20 years while the Colts entered their bye week with a league-leading 8-2 record.

Jones returned from the bye week with a new injury, later revealed to be a fracture of the left fibula. He hobbled through three games with the ailment before his right Achilles tendon gave out in the third game, ending his season in Week 14, with four more games to play and the Colts still technically alive in the playoff hunt.

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The Colts lost their final seven games — Jones started the first three of the streak — and missed the playoffs for the fifth straight year. Still, the Colts sent a strong signal of faith in Jones by re-signing him to a two-year, $88 million contract in the offseason.

Jones' injuries are easy to point at as his main issue, but as Dalton Wasserman and Max Chadwick of Pro Football Focus, who ranked Jones 23rd of the 32 NFL starting quarterbacks, pointed out, the cracks in Jones' season began earlier.

"Jones was a legitimate MVP candidate through the first eight weeks of the 2025 season as he led the league’s most efficient offense. During that stretch, the Colts won seven of eight games, and Jones ranked fourth in the NFL in yards per pass attempt (8.5) while throwing 13 touchdowns against three interceptions.

"However, things quickly unraveled for Jones, as he earned just a 53.2 PFF passing grade over his final five appearances before tearing his Achilles in Week 14. Ball security was at the heart of those struggles, as he led the NFL in turnover-worthy plays (11) during that stretch. Jones signed a new two-year deal as the Colts pinned their hopes on his recovery, but it’s a risky proposition given his lack of arm strength and recent injury."

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Two weeks before the Colts' bye week, Jones had his ugliest performance of the season, turning the ball over five times in a road loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. No other games were quite that bad, but Jones turned the ball over twice the next week in an overtime win against the Atlanta Falcons, and just once more in the next three games.

It was the other turnover-worthy plays, though, as Wasserman and Chadwick mention, that were still an issue.

Jones has since had surgery for his Achilles injury in December and participated in a limited fashion in the Colts' OTAs and mandatory minicamp in May and June. He's expected to be full go at some point during training camp, which begins at the end of July.

Physically, Jones should be good to go for the start of the regular season, but will the late-season issues with ball security and handling defensive pressure be a thing of the pass, or rear their head once again?