1. The real reason why the Colts are keeping Daniel Jones around is...

"What we saw in that first half is we were, in a record way, dominating offensively."

That sentence was part of Colts Owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon's analysis in January of her team's 2025 season. The other part, of course, was charging general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen with handling adversity better to avoid the seven-game losing streak that knocked the Colts from near the top of the AFC to out of the playoffs.

But the goal for the 2026 Colts is to re-capture the success they had over the first 10 games of last season, in which they led the NFL in points per game (31.7), point differential (+115) and just about every other offensive metric you could find.

And the clearest way to accomplish that goal has always been to bring back Daniel Jones, who over his first 10 games with the Colts completed 69.8 percent of his passe for 2,659 yards (8.3 yards/attempt) with a passer rating of 101.6. Starting over at quarterback, especially for a team that's had near-annual turnover at that position for the better part of a decade, was never a realistic outcome here.

It's why Ballard said back in January he viewed the 28-year-old Jones as both a near-term and long-term solution for the Colts at quarterback.

"When you're chasing the quarterback all the time, it makes it very – it's hard," Ballard said. "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. Yes, he's got the Achilles, but I think Daniel Jones has got a really bright future here in Indianapolis. And look, there is some comfort knowing that, okay, we know we've got a guy that's proven, that's done it, and done some really good things. So, that does give you some confidence."

2. Let's talk about the Achilles'.

Throughout this process, the Colts did not view the Achilles' injury Jones sustained on Dec. 7 as a significantly complicating factor in retaining him. Jones said a month after the injury he expects to be ready for training camp in the summer, a belief buoyed by the quarterback rehabbing "like a wild man," as Ballard put it.

"He's attacking his rehab the right way," Steichen said. "And so feel confident that he'll be ready to go for training camp."

On Thursday, Jones said he's progressing well and expects to be "100 percent" by Week 1 of the 2026 season.

There certainly still are plenty of steps for Jones to clear in the rehab process, and those can't be rushed or skipped. But all indications are Jones is doing what it takes to get himself ready for training camp; if he makes it back for Week 1, he'll take the field just over nine months after sustaining the injury.

But if Jones is back to start the 2026 season, will he be the same player we saw over those first 10 games?

Ballard addressed that question in January.

"The history of guys coming back has been pretty good, and they've been older than Daniel," Ballard said, pointing to a 36-year-old Kirk Cousins and a 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers returning from Achilles' injuries. "Daniel is 28 years old. He's a pretty freaky talent in terms of athletic ability. 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."

3. If Jones isn't immediately the same version of himself, why can he still be successful?

A few things here. I had ESPN's Benjamin Solak on this week's episode of The Colts Show podcast, and something he emphasized is the Colts don't need that same version of Jones to thrive as an offense. Solak's point was, as he put it, the Colts need "enough of a passing game" to keep defenses honest – as in, they can't over-commit to stopping the run.

Becuase, as you might remember, the Colts have Jonathan Taylor in the backfield.

Jones' mobility was already limited by a leg injury in the two full games he played prior to his Achilles' injury, which in turn did hinder the Colts' running game. But the expectation here is Jones' mobility will be better in 2026 than it was over those post-bye games in 2025, which will allow the Colts to access more run schemes, which they can build off over the course of game.

And the other thing here is what mobility for Jones actually means. It's not like it was during his time with the New York Giants, who frequently used him on designed runs. Jones, in three seasons prior to joining the Colts, averaged 7.5, 6.7 and 6.7 rushing attempts per game; he averaged four rushing attempts per game over the first 10 weeks of the 2025 season.

This is what mobility means for Jones within Steichen's offense: Quick throws on play-action rollouts.

In Weeks 1-10, he had 29 play-action dropbacks on which he rolled to his right or left, tied for the third-most in the league in that stretch. On those plays, he completed 25 of 29 passes for 262 yards – good for a completion percentage of 86.2 percent and an average of nine yards per pass. His average time to throw on these plays was 2.68 seconds, tied for third-quickest.

The Colts don't need Daniel Jones to be 2019 Lamar Jackson. They do need him to throw on the move.

Let's tie in the other quarterbacks who sustained Achilles' injuries recently. Cousins, prior to his Achilles' injury in 2023, had the NFL's second-lowest yards per attempt on play action rollout throws (4.3). Rodgers, in the year after his Achilles' injury, actually attempted more passes on play-action rollouts (40 in 2024, 26 in 2022) and his yards per attempt stayed flat (7.3 in 2024, 7.2 in 2022).

It wasn't a strength of Cousins' game before he got hurt, and Rodgers still was able to sprinkle in these sort of plays even after coming back.

The Colts aren't building their entire offense out of this one specific type of play, but having it as part of Steichen's playcalling menu opens things up in the run game for Taylor in how, again, it keeps defenses honest.

4. Daniel Jones already got one contract extension, and it didn't work out with the Giants. Why should this one be different?

Jones and the Giants had a remarkable collective turnaround in 2022, with Jones completing 67.2 percent of his passes for 3,205 yards with 15 touchdowns, five interceptions and a passer rating of 92.5. New York went 9-6-1, and Jones' 301 yards and two touchdowns powered a wild card win over the Minnesota Vikings.

That offseason, the Giants signed Jones – an impending free agent – to a new contract to keep him in New York.

Jones started 16 games over the next two seasons in which the Giants went 3-13.

But in talking to some national media members around the NFL Combine this week, there's no concern that Jones and the Colts will experience what Jones and the Giants went through a few years ago.

Something Solak emphasized on The Colts Show (click here for his full segment) was the offense New York ran with Jones was fairly simplistic – RPOs, quarterback runs, the occasional one-on-one deep shot – whereas the Colts last year asked Jones to do much more as a quarterback. That meant things like reading out a high/low concept and layering intermediate throws over the middle.

Case in point: In 2022, Jones threw one touchdown and had five interceptions when throwing 10-20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage between the numbers. On those same throws in 2025, Jones had five touchdowns and one interception.

"I'll give Shane and the offensive staff a lot of credit, playing to his strength," Ballard said. "He is really accurate with the football, okay, and he's very smart and decisive of where he plays with the football. I think that's the one thing that I think Shane and them did a really good job of with Daniel.

"I think Daniel will tell you that. Like hey, they cleaned it up. Like 'Okay Daniel, this is what you're going to see, and this is where the ball needs to go.' There was a play versus Kansas City, if you remember the throw to (Drew) Ogletree in the back of the end zone, where you watch one, two, three, I mean, and he had to stand – look, he was hurt. I mean, he was playing hurt at the time so he didn't have the same confidence running around and moving. So, he had to stay in the pocket, feel the pocket close in. I think those type of plays right there, really – I didn't always see that in New York consistently. And that's a credit to our staff and a credit to Daniel."

5. The QB reclamation project is alive and well in the NFL – but Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield are not the best comparison for Jones.

For the better part of the last decade, NFL teams ripped through highly-drafted quarterbacks, hoping to unearth the next Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen – and then sign them to eye-popping (yet market rate) contract extensions. This was the conventional wisdom: If you don't have a top-seven quarterback, who you most likely drafted, developed and extended, then you don't have a chance to compete.

Over the last few years, though, a different class of quarterbacks you can win with has emerged: The reclamation project. Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold are the most common names mentioned there.

But there's another, sometimes-forgotten quarterback who was 1) a top-10 draft pick, 2) played six seasons for the team that drafted him, 3) was cast aside by that team, 4) landed on a team with a highly-picked young quarterback and 5) immediately succeeded upon becoming his new team's starting quarterback.

All those things describe Jones.

They also describe Ryan Tannehill.

Tannehill was cast aside by the Miami Dolphins after the 2018 season and quickly found significant success with the Tennessee Titans in 2019, when his passer rating increased by 24.8 points from his final season season in Miami.

Jones' passer rating went from 79.4 in 2024 with the Giants to 100.2 in 2025 with the Colts – an increase of 20.8 points. We're in the same ballpark here.

Also: Unlike Darnold and Mayfield, Tannehill had the same offensive playcaller for his first two seasons with the Titans (offensive coordinator Arthur Smith). Darnold, in 2026, will have his third different playcaller in as many seasons; Mayfield this season will be on his fourth different playcaller in as many seasons. That hasn't necessarily held either back – Darnold won the Super Bowl, after all – but it adds a certain layer of volatility.

And that's a layer of volatility, at least for two seasons, Tannehill didn't have. Jones won't have it either in 2026 with Steichen.

In 2020, Tannehill threw 33 touchdowns against seven interceptions, averaged 7.9 yards per attempt, completed 65.5 percent of his passes and had a passer rating of 106.5. As the NFL adapted to the Smith/Tannehill pairing, the Titans' playcaller and quarterback found solutions to keep their offense efficient and explosive.

So now, we'll see how Steichen, Jones and the Colts can in 2026 and beyond build on a relationship that worked in 2025.