Daniel Jones is headed to Indianapolis, according to several reports. Good luck with that, Colts.
If the quarterback already there, Anthony Richardson, cannot beat out Jones, then Richardson does not deserve to be in the NFL.
But there’s another problem. If Jones cannot beat out Richardson, then Jones doesn’t deserve to be in the NFL, either.
See? A mess. Let me explain.
Jones has many positive attributes. He’s a relentless worker and good person. During his time with the New York Giants from 2019-2024, he took some of the hardest hits, over and over and over, you will ever see a quarterback take, and he’d get back up. He possesses an insane amount of toughness. That’s all true.
The problem isn’t any of that. The problem is that Jones isn’t a good quarterback.
There is proof of this going back years but none more evidentiary than Jones’ game against a horrible Carolina Panthers defense in November. It was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen a professional quarterback play.
That game sealed Jones’ fate in New York. There was no way the team could move forward with him after that. He was benched for Tommy DeVito and later asked for his release which was granted by the Giants.
At the time of his release, according to ESPN Research, since Jones’ rookie season in 2019, he had the worst record (22-44-1, .355 winning percentage) as a starter among quarterbacks with at least 50 starts. Jones also had the lowest touchdown per attempt rate (3.1%) of any quarterback with at least 1,000 passes since 2019, behind Jacoby Brissett (3.2%) and Mac Jones (3.4%).
Not all of that is Jones’ fault. A lot of it is. I remember watching that Germany game and thinking Jones had to be jet-lagged or something.
But the reason Jones has a chance to start with the Colts is because Richardson has been just as problematic and, in some ways, even worse.
Richardson has 11 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions with a 50.6 completion percentage in his 15 career NFL starts. Richardson of course had that problematic moment where he removed himself from a game because he was tired.
It was against the Houston Texans and Richardson was sacked trying to extend the play. He got up slowly and initially it looked like he was injured. Afterwards, Richardson told the media that wasn’t the problem.
‘Tired, I ain’t gonna lie,’ Richardson said when asked why he took himself out of the contest. ‘That was a lot of running right there that I did, and I don’t think I was gonna be able to go that next play. So I just told (Coach) Shane (Steichen) I needed a break right now.’
‘I had never seen an NFL QB tap out while still being healthy until watching Anthony Richardson,’ former Colts punter Pat McAfee wrote on X. ‘The QB is your franchise. The message it sends is loud and influential.’
It wasn’t great what Richardson did. He also made a huge rookie mistake by saying things he didn’t have to say. Not every thought that comes into your brain needs to be spoken out loud.
This is the situation in Indianapolis right now. One quarterback is error prone. The other has been accused of quitting on his team. And is error prone.
They are both so problematic they could cancel each other out like a fancy math equation.
Who is the third stringer in Indy, anyway?