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Stephen Holder
INDIANAPOLIS — A month after Daniel Jones sustained a torn right Achilles tendon, with his rehabilitation barely underway and his lower leg still entirely immobilized, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback was wheeling his way around NRG Stadium in Houston, roughly 1,000 miles away from the comforts of his living room.
Jones didn’t need to be there.
It was the final game of the season, with the Colts already eliminated from the playoffs. And navigating his way onto the team flight, with his right leg of little use to him, could not have been easy. What’s more, Jones is headed for potential free agency in the spring, as he is not under contract with the Colts for 2026.
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And, yet, there was, doing what he could to help rookie quarterback Riley Leonard, conducting himself like a player very much invested in his team.
«He’s in every meeting,» coach Shane Steichen said a few days prior to the season finale. «… He comes to every practice. He’s always around. Still in the QB meetings. Off days, he’s in the QB room, studying the tape, preparing, even though he’s not playing. Still going through everything. So, he’s still fully engaged.»
When asked about his presence, Jones joked, «It’s not like I’d be doing anything else.»
The whole scene said quite a bit about Jones’ intentions for the future. He wants to be in Indianapolis, and the Colts want him there.
But that’s where the questions begin.
Among them: How will negotiations play out given Jones’ significant injury? Does signing Jones to a multiyear deal make sense, and how much skepticism should the Colts have that Jones will be ready for the start of the 2026 season?
Jones had a career year in the 13 games he played before his injury, with career highs in passing yards (3,101), yards per attempt (8.1), completion rate (68%) and QBR (63.5). He knows coming back to Indianapolis to pair with Steichen and his offensive expertise makes sense.
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There are bound to be some variables that will need to be confronted during contract talks. The Colts, for example, might wish to be conservative with guaranteed money given the uncertainty the injury creates. How Jones’ camp responds is a key question. If consensus is hard to achieve, does the franchise tag — projected to be north of $45 million for one year — come into play?
A related issue: What is the appropriate length of the contract? The Colts think Jones has the potential to be a solution at quarterback for the foreseeable future, with Ballard saying, «I’m looking at him both near and long [term]. … When you’re chasing the quarterback all the time, it makes it very hard. Like, your margin for error really shrinks down. And I feel very good about Daniel Jones and where he’s at, where he’s going.»
As for the injury itself, the Colts are extremely optimistic. Jones, for his part, has little doubt about the outcome despite the injury occurring on Dec. 7.
«I think, obviously, it’s a long process in recovery and there’s a time frame to it,» he said. «You’ve got to check a lot of boxes along the way, but I expect to be ready to go by training camp. So, we’ll attack the process and make sure I’m ready to go.»
Said Ballard: «I do feel confident that he will make it back. Will he be the version you saw right away? Maybe not, but he’s still going to be really good. I think as he goes along and plays, he’ll be fine.»
Are the Colts being too confident about Jones’ availability for the start of the 2026 season? The Colts are taking their cues from other quarterbacks who have successfully bounced back from the injury.
That list includes Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins, who tore an Achilles in Week 8 of the 2023 season and returned for the start of 2024 season. He played at an acceptable level, completing 65% of his attempts and averaging 216 passing yards per game in the first month of the season.
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Aaron Rodgers, then with the New York Jets, had a full year to recover from an Achilles injury heading into the 2024 season. He started well enough, completing 64.1% of his attempts and averaging 212 passing yards in his first month back. Rodgers has offered Jones advice on attacking his rehab during phone conversations in the weeks since Jones was injured.
But there are also horror stories, like that of Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson. He re-ruptured his Achilles during rehab following his original October 2024 injury. That issue is considered a rare occurrence among athletes who undergo surgical repair, as Jones and these other quarterbacks have.
The Colts are still evaluating what other quarterback moves they might make, but they currently seem inclined to consider Leonard as a backup option to Jones in the event there are delays in his recovery. The future of Anthony Richardson Sr., the team’s 2023 first-round pick, is uncertain.
In any case, barring a stunning turn of events, Jones will be the Colts’ starting quarterback in 2026.
Said Ballard: «I think Daniel Jones has got a really bright future here in Indianapolis.»
