Colts head coach Shane Steichen on Tuesday named Daniel Jones his team’s starting quarterback.
“He’s our starting quarterback for the season,” Steichen said. “I don’t want to have a quick leash on that. I feel confident in his abilities.”
Jones emerges from a preseason competition with Anthony Richardson Sr. to take command of the Colts’ offense with less than three weeks left until Sept. 7’s season opener against the Miami Dolphins at Lucas Oil Stadium. Jones and Richardson had previously split reps with the Colts’ first-team offense in practice and two preseason games; Jones will now proceed forward in practice with the Colts’ starters.
“When they both came in, I made it very clear that this is going to be a battle, and they’re going to compete for the job,” Steichen said after Saturday’s preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. “And like I said, I’m going to make the decision I feel is best for the football team.”
Over 46 snaps between the Colts’ preseason games against the Baltimore Ravens and Packers, Jones completed 17 of 32 passes for 245 yards (7.7 yards/attempt). He did not throw for a touchdown nor did he turn the ball over, and Jones was sacked just once on 34 dropbacks.
Steichen has said since the spring a major determining factor in the Colts’ quarterback competition is consistency, which encompasses more than what can be seen in a box score.
“I think it’s everything, right?” Steichen said Saturday. “The operation, the communication in the huddle, the checks, getting guys on the same page. The consistency of all that, obviously, is going to play a big factor in this.”
In his career, Jones has played in 70 games (69 starts) and completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 14,582 yards with 70 touchdowns, 47 interceptions and 15 rushing touchdowns. The No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft was released by the New York Giants last season and caught on with the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad down the stretch of 2024.
Jones also won a playoff game in 2022 – he completed 24 of 35 passes for 301 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in the Giants’ 31-24 Wild Card win over the Vikings – and, that year, he had the lowest interception rate (1.1 percent of his 472 passes) in the NFL.
“Daniel does a nice job,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said on Monday when asked about Jones. “First off, he is a veteran quarterback who’s played a lot of football. And the more football you play, the more you see, the more experience you have of dealing with problems, problem solving on the field, handling different situations.
“… I would say the experience that he has has been something that’s been valuable for him to be able to manage all those situations, which he’s done well.”
Source link
