The QB competition is on in Indianapolis. Daniel Jones has agreed to a one-year, $14 million deal that could be worth as much as $17.7 million, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Colts GM Chris Ballard said last month that the team will have an open competition at quarterback, and Jones’ 2025 salary suggests that the Colts view him as a serious challenger for incumbent Anthony Richardson‘s job.
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Daniel Jones Signs With Colts: Fantasy Football Impact
Richardson has struggled in his first two NFL seasons, completing 50.6% of his passes, with 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Richardson has also missed more games with injuries (17) than he’s played (15).
Jones spent five-plus seasons with the Giants before being released last season and joining the Vikings as a backup. His tenure with the Giants was mostly considered a disappointment, although Jones had a solid 2022 season, with 3,205 passing yards, 15 TD passes and five interceptions in 16 games. Turnovers have been a problem for Jones. In 70 career games he’s thrown 47 interceptions and has fumbled 50 times.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen could potentially toggle back and forth between Richardson and Jones without making significant changes to the offense, since the two quarterbacks have some similarities. Richardson and Jones are both highly mobile QBs who can pick up yardage with their legs. They both do well with zone-read concepts, and they’re both capable of doing damage on deep throws.
The ambiguity in the Colts’ QB room makes Richardson and Jones QB3s for fantasy. Whoever wins the starting job will be a high-end QB3 with some rushing appeal but minimal job security. Whoever loses the QB competition will be a low-end QB3 as one of the more appealing backup quarterback in the league (at least from a fantasy perspective).
One interesting bit of fallout from the Jones signing is that the Vikings no longer have a noteworthy veteran backup to their first-round draft pick from last year, J.J. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season with a torn meniscus. With Jones moving on and Sam Darnold signing with the Vikings, it’s now close to a lock that McCarthy will be Minnesota’s Week 1 starter, and it’s unclear who’ll be backing him up.
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