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<\/p>\nHe\u2019s the epitome of understated, with a public persona that screams accountant more than NFL quarterback. Probe his teammates for something interesting about him, something revealing, something that proves he\u2019s more than a robot who happens to play football, and you get a lot of pursed lips, tilted heads and long silences.<\/p>\n
Even Daniel Jones owns up to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really do much besides this stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
This stuff would be piloting the NFL\u2019s most efficient offense through six weeks, a year after the Giants cast Jones aside and he ended the season buried on the Vikings\u2019 depth chart, running the scout-team offense. Even this summer, Jones was an afterthought everywhere except for the Indianapolis Colts\u2019 own building, overshadowed by the outsized talent and endless intrigue of Anthony Richardson, Jones\u2019 competition for the starting job.<\/p>\n
It was a job the vast majority of the fan base desperately wanted Richardson to win.<\/p>\n
Courting the spotlight has never been Jones\u2019 thing. One year in New York, after his season had ended with a torn ACL in his right knee, Jones agreed to meet his old offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, in the city for dinner. The QB showed up a few minutes late.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so pissed,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Then he explained. He typically jogged from his place in Hoboken, N.J., and took the ferry across the Hudson River, then rented an e-bike and pedaled into the city. But due to his injured knee, Jones couldn\u2019t jog. He missed the ferry and had to settle for an Uber.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese days you\u2019ve got all these NFL stars who won\u2019t go anywhere without their bodyguards,\u201d Garrett says. \u201cAnd this guy rides a city bike on the West Side Highway. That\u2019s about the most Daniel Jones thing I can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point during dinner, Garrett had to ask: Anybody ever recognize you when you\u2019re on the bike?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI get plenty of double-takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pasta and play sheets<\/p>\n
He arrived in Indianapolis with little fanfare, then quietly began to win over coaches and teammates with the habits he\u2019d built in New York. Back then, every Friday night was the same: after a plate of Bolognese pasta, Jones would call up his offensive coordinator and run through the entire play sheet.<\/p>\n
Jones has gotten better over the years, he says, at knowing what to study and what answers to seek out. In Indy, his teammates have started ribbing him for being tardy to group dinners. Jones\u2019 excuse: he\u2019s usually still at the team facility, poring through film.<\/p>\n
It was in Saturday night\u2019s quarterback meeting, 16 hours before the Colts hosted the Cardinals, that Jones asked a few specific cut-ups be played on the screen. \u201cHey, let\u2019s pull up Carolina No. 42,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Carolina No. 38.\u201d They were looks the Cardinals\u2019 defense showed the Panthers during a Week 2 game a month earlier. \u201cLet\u2019s make sure we\u2019re good on this,\u201d Jones told the room.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that obsession, that hunt for the little details that can swing a game, that has made this marriage with coach and play-caller Shane Steichen work so well. Steichen is a former quarterback himself, the teenager who\u2019d ditch parties in high school so he could sneak into the stadium and throw to his receivers. The coach is all ball, all the time, with little room \u2014 or interest \u2014 in much else.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you want at that position,\u201d Steichen says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re preparing like the way he does, you don\u2019t blink.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones hasn\u2019t. The Colts haven\u2019t. They\u2019re 5-1, leading the league in scoring and leading a division they haven\u2019t won in over a decade. The 194 points the Colts have put up are the most in club history through six games, which is saying something when there\u2019s a bronze statue of Peyton Manning outside the stadium.<\/p>\n
Go figure: a wounded franchise\u2019s missing piece turned out to be a quarterback who, 11 months ago, found himself at the low point of his professional career.<\/p>\n
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\n Jones won fewer than 35 percent of his starts over six seasons in New York. (Al Bello \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It was about the same time that the dam started to break in Indianapolis, after Richardson tapped out of a divisional road game because, he would later admit, he was \u201ctired.\u201d For the next 10 weeks, the Colts were a soap opera. A few veterans felt the need to meet with Richardson privately and urge him to take the job more seriously. Others vented publicly, calling out the team\u2019s effort, urgency and focus. The end was so familiar \u2014 a fourth straight winter without a playoff berth \u2014 that one longtime starter directed his blame at the top. \u201cThere\u2019s no vision,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Privately, those words stung Chris Ballard. They pissed him off, too. But his team\u2019s listless finish to another disappointing season also forced the longtime general manager to realize something: He\u2019d grown stubborn and hard-headed, convinced his approach would prove him right over time. Eight years in, it hadn\u2019t. It was time to do things differently.<\/p>\n In a fiery season-ending news conference, Ballard vowed to be more aggressive in free agency. He was. He also promised a legitimate quarterback competition in training camp. If Richardson wanted to keep his job, Ballard said, he\u2019d have to earn it. Plenty around the league remained skeptical, to say nothing of the fan base. Were the Colts really going to sideline the fourth pick in the draft three years into his career?<\/p>\n That Ballard handed Jones a one-year, $14 million deal in free agency said something. It wasn\u2019t backup QB money. It wasn\u2019t starter money, either. It was open-competition money. Lodged in Ballard\u2019s mind were some of his narrow misses in free agency over the years, namely edge rusher Danielle Hunter, who signed with the rival Texans in 2024 after the Colts chased him hard. With Jones, Ballard wanted to make certain he didn\u2019t come in second.<\/p>\n What helped sell him on the quarterback were long conversations with two Colts\u2019 assistants, offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. and new passing game coordinator Alex Tanney, both of whom had spent time with Jones in New York. They raved about his approach. They vouched for his character. Ballard knew Steichen would grow to love Jones\u2019 no-nonsense style. No one in the building would need to ask him to work harder.<\/p>\n Then Jones went out and won the job, and most of the fan base fumed. Ballard heard it. He knew the narrative taking shape: that Jones was the wrong choice, that Jones would fail, same as he had in New York. Ballard spent the bulk of his season-opening news conference trying to shift the conversation, growing defensive at times. He didn\u2019t want the season to be about the quarterback who wasn\u2019t playing. He wanted it to be about the one who was<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the players were starting to buy in. Jones, along with wideout Michael Pittman Jr., had organized a private week of work in California before training camp, footing a good chunk of the bill. Pro Bowl left guard Quenton Nelson, as well-versed in the Colts\u2019 quarterback carousel as any player on the roster, felt the momentum start to build during camp. \u201cWe\u2019re having more good days on offense than we used to,\u201d he told himself at one point. \u201cThis is starting to click.\u201d<\/p>\n Wideout Alec Pierce credits some rugged practices. Steichen introduced more live sessions this summer, including a few that were completely unscripted. In other words: forget the practice plan, let\u2019s play football. The coaches were forced to dial up play calls in real time, same as they do on Sundays. \u201cSo you\u2019ve got the players competing and the coaches competing,\u201d Pierce explains. \u201cThat was different. That was good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n There was also the stain of last season.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery person had their own battle that they fought and lost in their own way,\u201d says linebacker Zaire Franklin, whose mouth wrote checks the Colts\u2019 defense couldn\u2019t cash in 2024. \u201cEverybody was like, \u2018Alright, you know what? Let\u2019s start fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
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