WESTFIELD, Ind. – Daniel Jones pinged consecutive completions to Tyler Warren to begin practice, hit Josh Downs after a play-action rollout to his right and even took off to scramble.
So you could be forgiven if you spent the entirety of Wednesday's Colts training camp practice at Grand Park forgetting about the torn Achilles' Jones sustained seven and a half months ago.
"I thought he looked really good," head coach Shane Steichen said.
Wednesday was not only the Colts' first training camp practice of the summer, it was Jones' first opportunity to play football in a full team setting since Dec. 7, 2025 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. This was a non-padded practice, and Jones – like every other quarterback in the NFL in training camp – donned a red non-contact jersey.
But forget the qualifiers for a moment. There were no signs of rust and no signs of Jones holding anything back. And there weren't all that many balls that hit the ground while Jones was slinging it around Field 1 at Grand Park.
In other words: Jones looked like himself.
"It definitely was a goal of mine to be back for the first day of training camp," Jones said. "There's some satisfaction in that and being back for the first day. But it's still a process, still a lot of work to be done with my process and then as a team. So we're just starting out, it's important to have a good first day but there's a lot of work left."
Neither Jones nor anyone with the Colts, though, is going to get ahead of themselves here. While Jones moved well and threw the ball with the sort of timing and accuracy that vaulted the Colts to be the NFL's best offense halfway through 2025, Wednesday's practice was one small part of a lengthy process leading up to Week 1 of the 2026 season.
"It's building the strength back and building the repetition and getting your body used to doing it again," Jones said. "I think every time you do it, you get a little stronger, a little better, a little more used to it. I'll continue to do that over training camp, over the six-week period before we play our first game."
While Jones' recovery process to get to the point of being cleared to practice in full relatively speedy, he didn't skip any steps or rush anything along the way. And, with one practice done, he's still sticking to the same mentality.
"You're doing all the same stuff but feeling better about doing it — feeling quicker, more explosive," Jones said. "And that's a process, a gradual process. Being out there playing football, getting those reps, you get more used to it and it'll come. Boxes to check, it's more a feeling of gradual improvement over time."
So with that, we'll keep checking in on that gradual progress over the next few weeks at Grand Park. But Jones looking like himself wasn't the only notable thing from Wednesday's practice.
Other news and notes:
- While Jones did complete most of his passes, toward the end of practice, cornerbacks Charvarius Ward Sr. and Sauce Gardner each logged a pass break-up.
- Running back Jonathan Taylor looked like his usual self, too, with a handful of flashy rushes. He also snagged a deep ball down the far sideline from Jones in seven-on-seven.
- Anthony Richardson Sr. primarily worked with the second-team offense and completed nice throws to wide receiver Anthony Gould and tight ends Mo Alie-Cox and Will Mallory.
- Look for Richardson and Riley Leonard to alternate days with the second-team offense as those two compete to be Jones' backup.
- Safety Jonathan Owens broke up a pass in 11-on-11 and safety Trey Washington recorded the first interception of camp in seven-on-seven.
- The Colts rotated in plenty of players at linebacker and wide receiver, two of the most competitive positions on the team (and positions where likely starters in CJ Allen and Alec Pierce began camp on PUP). At linebacker, Akeem Davis-Gaither, Bryce Boettcher and Austin Ajiake took first-team reps, while at wide receiver a mix of Josh Downs, Ashton Dulin, Laquon Treadwell, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Anthony Gould and Eli Pancol saw varying amounts of time with the first-team offense.
