Quarterback Daniel Jones on Monday, standing at his locker at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center less than two months after leading his team's offense to the top of the NFL and less than one month after sustaining a torn Achilles', said he'd "love to be back" with the Colts.
Both the Colts and Jones will have to work toward a reunion in the coming weeks and months, though, with the 28-year-old quarterback scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in mid-March.
"I've enjoyed being here, working with the coaching staff here, the players," Jones said. "I think it's a great organization and I've enjoyed being here. Obviously there's a business side to it and understand that, but I've really enjoyed being here around these people.
"... I think the organization here, top down, is first class. The Irsays, Chris, Shane, everybody here I've really enjoyed working with."
The obvious potential complication here is the torn Achilles' Jones sustained on Dec. 7, which ended his season. But Jones on Monday – less than a month out from the injury and ensuing surgery – expressed optimism in his recovery timeline.
"Obviously it's a long process in the recovery and there's a timeframe to it, you gotta check a lot of boxes along the way," Jones said. "But I expect to be ready to go by training camp. We'll attack the process and make sure I'm ready to go."
Steichen, too, has already observed Jones going about things in the right manner, with the quarterback's focus on the methodical nature of his recovery not taking him away from remaining connected to the team.
"I do know he's going to attack the rehab process the right way, I have no doubts about that," Steichen said. "He's still in all the meetings, rehabbing as much as he can – he's really just resting it right now – but he's been going about it the right way."
It's hard to not look back on what was, and what could've been, with Jones' 2025 season.
Jones signed with the Colts as a free agent last spring and emerged from a preseason competition with Anthony Richardson Sr. to command an offense that, through 10 games, averaged an NFL-best 32 points per game.
But upon returning from the Colts' Week 11 bye, Jones dealt with significant pain in his left leg, the product of a fibula injury. Jones said Monday he felt pain "any time I was putting force into my left leg," whether that was trying to push off or decelerate.
Jones toughed it out but wasn't able to move as well as he did previously in losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans in Weeks 12 and 13. Cruelly, Jones started to feel better after that Texans game, and he was able to be more mobile in the first quarter of the Colts' Week 14 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"It felt like I could run a little bit better, push off of it," Jones said. "Kansas City and Houston, it was tough to really push and move much. But finally, that Jacksonville game, started to feel better."
Then, Jones' season ended. On a third down dropback with 43 seconds left in the first quarter, Jones sustained a torn Achilles' in his right leg. He slammed his helmet into the turf at EverBank Stadium, knowing in that moment what had been a remarkably successful season – both individually and as a team – was over for him.
On Monday, Jones was asked if he wondered if the fibula injury to his left leg could've played a role in the torn Achilles' he sustained in his right leg.
"I don't think there's any way of really knowing," Jones said. "I think you can drive yourself crazy thinking about it. But at the end of the day, I was going to be play and I would do it again. I think there's no real way of knowing. We've got great doctors, great trainers here. If I was good to play, I was going to play, no question about it."
Jones finished his season having completed 68 percent of his passes for 3,101 yards with 19 touchdowns, eight interceptions and a passer rating of 100.2. For the 2025 regular season, Jones ranked third in yards per attempt (8.1, behind only Drake Maye and Sam Darnold), fourth in completion percentage (behind Maye, Josh Allen and Jared Goff) and sixth in passer rating (behind Maye, Matthew Stafford, Goff, Allen and Jordan Love). Jones' 8.1 yards per attempt average stands as the highest mark by a Colts quarterback since Peyton Manning in 2005 (8.3 yards/attempt).
Beyond the stats, Jones earned the widespread respect and trust of his coaches and teammates through his meticulous work ethic and remarkable toughness to play through that fibula injury. And, too, Jones and Steichen forged the sort of quarterback-playcaller mind-meld that teams across the NFL constantly seek but don't always find.
"Obviously what Daniel did for us before the injury was phenomenal," Steichen said.
While Jones said he'll leave conversations about a new contract with the Colts up to his representation, his focus for the immediate future is on doing what he can to not just return from a torn Achilles', but to return to the level he was playing at prior to sustaining the injury.
"For me, it's about getting this Achilles' right and attacking the rehab," Jones said, "(and) making sure I'm doing everything I need to come back full speed."
