INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Daniel Jones has had two weeks to get acclimated again to a familiar title — starting quarterback.
And this time, he intends to keep the job.
Nearly 11 months after the New York Giants demoted their one-time franchise quarterback to backup duty, and Jones subsequently requested and was granted his release then joined the Minnesota Vikings practice squad, he finds himself back atop the quarterback depth chart, this time in Indianapolis.
It’s the moment he’s been waiting for since he began navigating this comeback path.
″Quarterbacks are judged by winning games, so that's what I'm focused on," Jones said Wednesday as the ramp up began for Sunday's season opener against the Miami Dolphins. “I think we have a group of guys who are all focused on the same way, so I'm excited to get out there.”
Jones, the No. 6 overall draft pick in 2019, was not supposed to be here, restarting his career at age 28.
After struggling through his first three seasons in New York, Jones finally started to look like the prospect team executives envisioned in 2022. In 16 games that season, Jones went 9-6-1, threw for a career-high 3,205 yards and had the best touchdown pass to interception ratio of his career, 15 to 5, as he led the Giants to their first playoff appearance in six years.
The reward: A four-year, $160 million contract.
Then everything went awry, again.
Injuries limited Jones to just six games in 2023. He was benched 10 games into last season. The stat lines from those final two seasons in New York — 13 interceptions, 10 touchdowns, and a 3-13 record — made it clear he no longer fit into the franchise's long-term plans.
Jones responded by reading a statement thanking the team and his teammates for their help and faith during his 5 1/2-year tenure in New York before recalibrating what he should do next.
In March, Jones became a first-time free agent, giving him the chance to determine where he'd land.
The attraction to Indy was obvious. Coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard both had acknowledged they needed a potential starter to challenge Anthony Richardson, Indy's two-year incumbent and the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2023, for the starting job.
So the one-year, $14 million deal was an easy choice for Jones.
“I came here to play, to be on the field, and to be with this group,” he said after the announcement he'd won the job. "I think it’s a strong group of players as I said, and a strong group of coaches. I think there’s a lot of things here to be excited about. So yeah, I’m certainly happy I made the decision I did.”
But Ballard and Steichen found Jones an attractive option for other reasons.
“Look, Daniel been through some things and he handled it well,” Ballard said. “Daniel’s done a lot of good things (in training camp). Y’all saw the fact he did some good things. He’s a good player, he’s the ultimate professional and he’s a consistent player day in and day out."
Jones' next step certainly will have a different feel.
Jones will be the eighth different opening day starter for Indy in nine seasons, taking snaps from new starting center Tanor Bortolini and hopes he can snap the Colts' 11-game Week 1 losing streak.
Steichen's advice — make it simple.
“It's finding completions, moving the ball, not making a bad play worse,” Steichen said Wednesday. “I feel very confident in his operation at the line of scrimmage, getting us into the right play, and I know the team feels confident in him as well.”
But the Colts don't need a one-week wonder. They need Jones to be efficient, consistent and patient — or a throwback to the way he played in 2022.
If he is, Jones would not only resuscitate his career, he just might end Indy's four-year playoff drought and help Steichen and Ballard keep their jobs, too.
It's a challenge Jones always wanted.
“I think on offense, it's about having an attack mindset, playing at our tempo, taking advantage of the opportunities we have in the pass game and up front doing the same thing in the run game,” he said. “It's just having that edge, being aggreesive when we have chances to be aggressive and winning.”
-By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer
