INDIANAPOLIS – Shane Steichen promised his quarterback decision would be rooted around consistency, on and off the field.
And that has led to Steichen naming Daniel Jones his quarterback to start the 2025 Colts season.
Steichen shared this in his opening statement on Tuesday morning, announcing the decision.
“I thought the competition in training camp was great by both guys and they competed really hard,” Steichen said. “It was good to see cheering for each other and battling the way they did. You guys heard me talk about the consistency, that’s really what I was looking forward, and really the operation at the line of scrimmages the checks, protection, the ball placement, the completion percentage, all of that played a factor in it. I think Daniel did a great job doing that and I think AR has made strides in that area but I do feel that needs to continue to develop in those areas.
“I had a chance to talk to both (Tuesday) morning. They were both great. AR was great. He knows that he still needs to develop and learn in those areas. He knows that he is one play away. I let the team know this morning. The team is very supportive of Daniel but also supportive of AR in his new role. He’s got to attack it the right way.”
Throughout the offseason, it was clear Steichen was much more open to the idea of going with Jones, versus those believing that getting more answers on Anthony Richardson Sr. was the better route.
The Colts are thinking (hoping?) that their infrastructure around Jones is in a better situation than what the former 6th overall pick had with the Giants.
Jones is 24-44-1 as a starter in his 6 NFL seasons. He’s completed 64.1 percentage of his passes with 70 touchdowns and 47 interceptions. In his last two years, Jones is 3-13 as a starter.
Not going with Richardson is quite the message to send to the former 4th overall pick.
While Richardson will be the backup to Jones, and very well could play in 2025, another benching to the former top-5 pick with those decision makers in Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen still in Indy is one step closer to such a selection not working out.
Several times during his Tuesday press conference, Steichen made it clear that Richardson needs more growth in the operation at the line of scrimmage. Further development in that area will have to come away from the playing field, running the scout team in practice, with limited reps.
On Tuesday, following being informed of the decision, Richardson was asked if he had doubts about his future with the Colts organization.
“I have faith in God in whatever He has in store for me,” Richardson said. “I am trusting in him. I can’t really think about everything else because if I do that, then I’m going to put myself in a hole. I just have to trust in the Lord and I have to be where I am right now. And right now I’m an Indianapolis Colt.”
In practice this week, Jones will now ascend to the first-team reps, with a regular season type practice schedule coming Tuesday-Thursday.
Steichen added that, acknowledging the Colts injury situation, neither Jones nor Richardson will play in Saturday’s preseason finale. The Colts will have Riley Leonard and Jason Bean take all the quarterback reps against the Bengals.
The Colts will open up the regular season on September 7th vs the Dolphins.
Tuesday Practice Notes
-The Colts have 3 open practices to the media this week before shifting to regular season mode. So, Tuesday was a steamy 75-minute session back at the team’s complex.
-Good news on the injury front? WR-Alec Pierce (groin), CB-Kenny Moore II (knee), LT-Bernhard Raimann (ankle) all returned to practice on Tuesday.
-Bad news on the injury front? It appeared that both WR-Ashton Dulin and CB-Samuel Womack III left Tuesday’s practice early due to injury. Dulin is a definite 53-man roster guy and Womack III is in competition for one of the cornerback spots.
-Speaking of cornerback, newcomer Xavien Howard got plenty of first-team work in his first practice with the Colts. If healthy, the Colts are tracking to have one of the most veteran cornerback trios in the entire league with Howard, Moore II and Charvarius Ward.
-We didn’t really see any Daniel Jones deep ball at Grand Park, but he threw a beautiful one on Tuesday, into the the hands of AD Mitchell for a long touchdown. Jones had a pretty solid afternoon with his only real blemish being a near interception with Zaire Franklin deflecting one in the air, before rookie Tyler Warren caught the floating ball.
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