Daniel Jones is set to begin the campaign atop the Colts’ depth chart. Jones has won out the team’s quarterback competition, as first reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. The news is now official. 
Pelissero adds head coach Shane Steichen informed Jones and Anthony Richardson of the decision Tuesday morning. A call was expected in the near future, and one has indeed been made. Jones, a free agent addition, will serve as QB1 to begin the regular season while Richardson will operate as the backup.
[RELATED: Richardson’s Agent Fires Back At Colts]
Signs have pointed in this direction throughout the offseason, one in which Richardson has aimed to establish himself as Indianapolis’ passer of the present and future. Today’s news obviously marks a notable setback for the No. 4 pick in 2023’s draft. Richardson has battled injuries and inconsistency in the NFL, including missed time this spring and a dislocated finger suffered in the preseason opener.
When speaking publicly on the matter, Steichen has offered praise regarding Jones’ experience and his command of the Colts’ offense during practice and games. That helped lead to the expectation the former Giants top-1o selection would get the nod for 2025. With that said, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports the Jones-Richardson competition was viewed as being “very close.”
Jones was retained via a four-year, $160MM contract in 2023, with the Giants inking him to the pact in time to apply the franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley. Barkley departed on the open market last spring and enjoyed a record-breaking debut season with the Eagles. Jones, on the other hand, was unable to take a step forward in his fifth season as New York’s starter before ultimately being benched and then released.
A brief Vikings tenure did not result in playing time down the stretch. Jones, like Sam Darnold, departed Minnesota on the open market in search of a starting position with the team positioned to hand the reins over to J.J. McCarthy. Jones secured $13.15MM guaranteed on his one-year Colts contract, a strong indication he would have a path to the starting gig. As of June, the 28-year-old held a “significant” lead over Richardson.
Time with the starting offense was split in training camp, with Richardson managing to return to full health after his latest shoulder injury was suffered earlier in the offseason. The Florida product has played just 15 games in the regular season to date, and he was benched partway through last year. A decision will need to be made on the fifth-year option for Richardson, 23, after the coming campaign. This move certainly suggests it will be declined.
Steichen said on Tuesday (via Mike Chappell of Fox59) Jones is viewed as the starter for the entire 2025 season. A strong campaign would help his free agent value considerably, and finding success with Indy’s offense would no doubt serve as a benefit to Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard‘s job security. As the Colts look to end a four-year playoff drought, they will rely on Jones for what should be a lengthy period. In the event of an injury or poor play, though, attention will turn to the possibility of Richardson taking over.
Smart to just admit Richardson is a total bust and tank for a top pick next year to hopefully get the right qb. Jones isn’t a massive upgrade so they should try and lose as much as they can and it might not be viewed as purposeful tanking cause both qbs are awful.
Disagree regarding Jones….Giants fan here…..given the right atmosphere, he may not be HOF worthy, but he’s miles ahead in experience, capability, and QB smarts of Richardson who is nothing more than a big runner trying to play QB…..Danny Dimes probably can guide the Colts to 8-9 wins depending on how the rest of the team shakes out…..don’t see him short, he’s got guts, and ability…..the NY Press ate him up……
Chill on the ellipses
NY press hardly “ate him up” cos he got the Giants into the playoffs and helped them win a playoff game at Minnesota.
If you’re in Greater New York, mark your calendar for Week 4 as Fox is sending the Colts-Rams game to NYC that Sunday.
This mythical tough NY media that allegedly destroys QBs, lol. It’s like the West Coast teams losing going east thing, some made up s*** that fans tell themselves to justify suckitude.
Daniel Jones is terrible. He was drafted too high too, which is why Mara insisted on sticking with him. Everyone gasped when they made that dumb pick just like with Richardson. These people get made to make these terrible decisions.
He’s a million times better than Richardson
Jones is a bad QB. He can’t sense pressure in the pocket and he holds the ball too long. His best season he was hidden behind a great running game and a defense. He’s been terrible outside of 2022If the colts can run the ball,effectively, 35+ times a game and the defense can hold teams under 20 they have a chance with Jones – if he stays healthy, which he doesn’t.
Yep, I love all the people absolving him of the lion’s share of why the Giants have sucked.
I disagree. I think AR5 would be an ideal Tank Commander.
I think the colts season was done before it started with these 2 battling it out to start at qb. Jones has had 1 good season and it would be worst case if he can win 8 or 9 games cause that’s missing the playoffs or 1st round exit best case and a bad draft pick.
Yeah this move implies they want to try and contend. Weak division, they may be able to scoop up some wins and sneak into a wildcard, and it’s not like Jones has been a total bust. He could find his way back like Baker, Darnold and other guys who just needed the right situation.
If they wanted to tank, Richardson would be the guy.
His situation is very different from those guys. If anything, they gave him too long of a leash. Daboll did one of the greatest development jobs of all time with Josh Allen, but Daniel Jones just could never get it. He was most of the problem.
Or is Daboll only good at coaching raw talent, not breaking bad behaviors?
To be fair, most coaches can’t do that. It’s rare that you get a QB later on and fix them. He’s a hothead anyway, but you could see he was about to have a stroke dealing with Jones.
That’s a really unintelligent way to run a team. Football teams need a winning culture and winning habits.
Good thing I traded Richardson before my dynasty draft for the pick that became Cam Ward. Ward is a QB. Richardson is an athlete.
Richardson an “athlete”?…..is that someone who consistently gets hurt, asks to come out of games because he’s tired, and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a football if his life depended on it….is that your definition of an “athlete”?
Athlete and quarterback are different
“A person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.” He’s probably pretty good at exercising. Maybe Twister, too. That requires strength, agility, and stamina. He’d probably get injured tho.
He’s an “athlete” in that he can throw the ball a very far distance in practice. By AR standards, Rex Grossman is one of the most athletic QBs of all time.
Florida pumps out good college QB’s. COLLEGE QB’s.
Ohio State was also good at pumping out “college football QBs” (whatever that means) for a while too
QB’s that are good in college but don’t translate to the NFL. That’s what that means. Chris Leak, Tebow, Danny Wuerful (?), AR, etc.
Woeful. Danny Woeful.
He hadn’t shown he’s an athlete, either.
What a mess. Richardson probably always should have been on a Jordan Love type development plan with multiple years of sitting, but that was always going to be much harder to pull off with the #4 overall pick, and it’s definitely much harder to put the toothpaste back in the tube once you’ve gone the other direction. Jones means trading a higher ceiling for a higher floor, but Jones isn’t exactly the highest floor quarterback. Given his sack and fumble issues plus a first time starter at center could go sideways. But the supporting cast on offense is promising and I still believe in Steichen.
Once again, this feels like a team that could make a little noise with a better quarterback situation. How many years in a row is that for the Colts now?
“It’s All About The QB” makes zero sense when you’re in the AFC South.
The division where one team just hired a new coach specifically hoping to unlock their highly paid former #1 overall pick QB, one team just took a QB at #1 overall, and the third–and best–team in the division is building around their young star QB?
And that’s one of the things that has always bugged me about the Richardson situation. During draft build-up, the type of phrase that was universally applied to Richardson was “development project.” But Indy has treated him like he was someone ready to step into the role from day one. I mean, if a FO/coaching staff acknowledges a player is a development project, how fair is it to ask him to perform like a ready-made starter and judge him for that? They should’ve totally done the Jordan Love thing, had him ride the bench and learn from a veteran QB (or plural, as many as it takes), and in year three you see what Richardson has learned.
I’m not saying that Richardson would’ve worked out in the end, just that Indy sure as hell didn’t put him in a position to succeed. But that is the QB environment in the modern NFL. Back in the day, you drafted a QB in the first round, you made the commitment to three years to show you something real and the fourth year to hit a new plateau. Now, “years” is more like “games.”
Back in the day they didn’t have the same sort of rookie contract structure. Even the Jordan Love situation was tricky. They didn’t pick up his fifth year option because he had completed all of 50 passes before they had to decide on it. It’s hard to sit a guy for very long if you’ve invested highly in him, unfortunately.
In the Richardson case, I’m with you, but also understand that their logic at the time was that his biggest problem was not having enough game reps, so they wanted to get him more with a simplified game plan. We might look back on this differently if he hadn’t had injuries completely derail his opportunities to get good reps and development.
They never should have drafted him that highly. They were basically throwing something at the wall to see if it stuck because Ballard had fumbled the QB position so badly that led to Reich getting fired. When he came out, they compared him to Hurts, and imo, they both should have been fired on the spot if that was their evaluation of Richardson coming out. They couldn’t be two more different players.
I agree, but I’m not sure game reps are gonna help him with his accuracy. He definitely should have been sitting for the first year or two, with every spare second spent on developing his mechanics and footwork. That’s where his reps should be. Starting him right away and expecting him to improve his fundamentals on the fly was a mistake.
I think the Josh Allen experience made people change their mind about how possible it is for someone to fix accuracy, especially as an A+ athlete. But Allen is more exception than rule.
You just described why terrible franchises are terrible. Side note, Green Bay has had literally 30 years of continuity at the QB position because they’ve taken this approach, yet no other team has done it.
Patriots tried and Tom made them eat it.
Tom Brady at Michigan was actually showing he could play right away… The intangibles were his strengths which paid off well, that’s why Combine numbers mostly aren’t always the deciding factor.
Exactly! I’m a Browns fan and the fact that our staff wants to let Shedeur Sanders sit and learn…people are going nuts! Let these young guys sit and learn! Colts have ruined Richardson’s career rushing him..hopefully with Jones starting, he can finally sit and learn….
Well, they may not have ruined his career, because he was probably never going to be good, but they certainly never gave him a chance!
I disagree, actually, about sitting. Sitting for a bit is probably good, but Richarddon really needed more starts to develop good habits in game. Richardson only had fewer than twenty games of starting experience in college as is. He needed-and needs-to play to get better. He’s not going to get better at his specific problems (instincts in real time, reading pre and post snap coverages, going through reads, etc) sitting on the bench. He does have a lot that could be improved off the field, no doubt, but he’s got a lot that needs gametime to develop.
Thing is, he’s going to be terrible while he goes through those stages, and he may not ever get there. Most importantly, the team is going to be absolutely terrible in that time. We’ve seen similar problems from players like Trubisky, and Lance (injuries in this case had a big impact, too). Richardson needed more time starting to learn these habits and get comfortable as a QB in game action.
Working on studying and footwork is important, but he also needs to practically translate that knowledge to finding receivers in game, throwing them open, seeing what linebackers actually look like before dropping into coverage, feeling pressure, not running too early but being decisive when it needs to happen, etc. An example of that would be Dak Prescott, who stayed an extra year at Miss. St. and improved his experience related passing traits to be a viable quarterback. Daniels is another example-at Arizona St., he had many of the traits that would lead to later success, but having more experience (against better defenses, too) helped give him confidence as a starter that carried him into the pros to where he could develop his finer traits without having to learn these habits basics. Richardson is still learning those basics. He needs experience, badly, but the team can’t sustain the deficiencies that long.
Players like Mahomes or Rodgers could sit and get better because they had enough experience and good traits to fall back on when they finally hit the field-and, most importantly, they were behind really good quarterbacks with well established offensive coaching staffs. Richardson has a good offensive coach, but he doesn’t have enough experience to give him confidence in whatever learns in the classroom or in practice. He needs to play, but he’s going to be bad until he learns what works consistently. Even that is a risk; he’s got some concerning intangibles, like the work ethic concerns. Maybe that’s overblown, I don’t know the guy, but if you’re gambling, you’d rather do it with someone that you know for sure will take every single opportunity available and run through a wall with it.
No one is truly shocked by this
As expected
6-11 here they come !
You’re more optimistic than me, lmao.
They won 8 games last year with atrocious QB play from AR. Jones playing like an average NFL QB will get them to at least 10. INDY has better OL, RB, and WRs than NYG did.
You have a lot of faith in Daniel Jones. He was a big part of why the Giants were so bad. Also, the Colt line isn’t very good anymore. It’s gone from a clear strength a few years ago to a liability. The only time he has played average was against one of the worst schedules in the league that playoff year. Otherwise, it’s been all bad. Drew Lock looked like prime Peyton Manning when they played the Colts last year ironically, lol. It was the best their offense looked in years.
Haven’t watched a ton of NYG games but what I saw was they had a bad OL last 2 seasons, weak WRs and no RBs after Saquan left or was injured. Jones had some moments were he looked good, but could never close a game by getting that game winning drive. Always getting sacked, bad throw, or turning the ball over in critical moments. Jones needs a good running game to succeed, he clearly can’t carry an offense himself. Maybe he does it with Indy? That’s why they play the games.
They had an average offensive line. It’s not great. It’s not bad. Jones made it worse because he’s a bad QB. I’ll never forget that one game where he tripped himself up running to the end zone on a long TD run, lmao. That sums up Daniels Jones in a nutshell.
That was against the Eagles.
Feels like this front office has been in “chicken with its head cut off” mode since Andrew Luck’s retirement
Imagine being as clueless as thinking that Daniel Jones is going to save your job, lol. That new owner lady is going to have the headset on a lot this year before she does the firings.
They’re rolling with the “better” of two bad options, which isn’t a great situation to be in if you’re a coach or decision maker in Indy– but what do you do?
Irsay’s have always been running it like trash then tanked for Peyton and luck. Now they’re tanking for arch manning.
He’s not coming out this year. Next year either.
Money talks and the division is up for grabs.
They’re making way more in college than even the highest rookie deals. Texas has oil money on deck. What do you think Arch is going to be making the next two years if they’re successful? Forget about it. Plus, who wants to follow in one of the greatest QB’s footsteps the last 30 years who happens to be your uncle? Everything he does, he’d be compared to Peyton.
He saw what happened with ewers so he’s not passing up being a top 5 pick, no one is no matter how much NIL money comes it won’t be better than franchise QB money. He is also from the same family that refused to play for the chargers, he will only play for family approved franchises.
Ewers was never going to be a high pick. Just like Beck, people have been wondering how they translate to the league for a while now. Ewers just made the wrong decision while Beck went back and got paid some more. I do think Ewers aside from his injury prone nature can stick better than Beck though.
He’s gonna be compared to his uncles regardless.
It’s infinitely worse in the same city and the same organization. There’s a reason he didn’t look anywhere near Tennessee or Ole Miss during recruiting. Even being compared to average Eli would be a lot for someone to overcome since he won two Super Bowls. I just don’t understand why people think that’s a positive.
Zowie! This should improve the Colts Super Bowl odds from +10000 to about +9500 🙂
It wasn’t close. If it was close, Richardson would be the starter. They have too much invested over the long term.
Hope the Colts brain trust is freshening up their resumes.
I live in Indy – it actually was pretty close.
Most of my friends are Colts fans and insist its been close.
Yeah, most of the off-season I’ve heard Richardson outplayed him. This is Steichen and Ballard thinking this is best to try to save them because they think they can win better with Jones. They should have asked the Giant coaches and GM about how that worked out, lol. I laugh at the people who buy into this theory that the big bad Giants set him up to fail instead of vice versa. He’s probably the worst QB the last ten years who got the longest leash. But Colt fans will learn when their interim takes over midseason.
This isn’t the best move – drafting a raw player and then mot sticking with him.
You already give up despite the high investment.
Richardson should either switch to TE or refine his craft for 2 years straight on the bench. Can go right either way.
This is a joke right – Jones over Richardson!!! I would not ask Jones to be my QB on my kids flag football team. That’s how terrible Jones is. There is a lot more upside to Richardson at the QB position.
And this is WHY you don’t rush rookie QB’s…the Colts have done no favors to Richardson. They rushed him to start when he wasn’t ready so they could justify the selection…kid may never live up to the hype….good for Daniel Jones ..he has the perfect opportunity to show the Giants they made a mistake releasing him. Wish him well with the Colts…
Richardson to NOLA