And now that's been cut in half

Say what you want about AR, but he makes it interesting out there.

A ton of discussion about whether Colts failed AR or AR failed Colts. Obviously tons of blame on both sides- we have done a bad job supporting him and he has clearly not done the work necessary to exhibit the full bag needed to be an NFL QB. So I started thinking about this quite a bit- you know who else failed AR- GUS FUCKING BRADLEY (which again spins up to Steichen).

Clearly AR needed, and definitely still desperately needs reps. Now think back to the game after game after game agony of the TOP being insanely out of alignment. Now, to be clear, AR carries some of that blame, his inaccuracy was a huge negative in terms of being able to stay on the field and effectively generate reps by way of his own play. However AR has no culpability for the fucking shitball Gus Bradley bend, bend, bend, arch your back even further, injure your spin you are bending so much, and finally BREAK fucking defense where QB's were completing 75%+ of their passes and drives were lasting 7+ minutes. That is completely on the bullshit style of fraidy cat defense we have played during AR's time.

This thing has been so terribly mismanaged it is incomprehensible! Sorry, yep, broken record but man you couldn't script a more disastrous collective story of failure than what has gone on with this QB situation. Yet, alas, Ballard still does Ballard.

FUCK!

I get why they are doing it, sort of, but how many more games does DJ realistically win us? 1 maybe 2, so still midling team drafting in a mid slot again. I doubt AR clicks and becomes an average passer, but if he were going to, being on the field is the only way it happens, not holding a clipboard for a failed QB.

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(OCTOBER 15th)


(By Steven Ruiz)


I’d like to formally apologize to Daniel Jones. I abandoned hope too soon. I had long been a card-carrying member of the “Daniel Jones is actually fine” club, but backed out after seeing what a career-threatening neck injury did to his game. I’m back now, though, and hoping that there’s still a spot in the club for a disloyal guy like myself. Jones has recaptured his pre-injury form ...... when toughness in the pocket, athleticism, and an underrated deep ball made him an average starter ..... and seems to have cut down on his processing time, which had also been a major weakness in his game. Some of his other weaknesses persist. Jones’s accuracy comes and goes, and he can be oblivious to pressure. In a supportive offensive environment, which Jones never enjoyed in New York, those faults can be mitigated, as we’re seeing in Indianapolis this season. I don’t want to overstate Jones’s improvement compared to what we saw during his peak as the Giants quarterback. He’s mostly the same passer with a little more refinement. However, his newfound success is proof that he was never as bad as he was perceived to be early in his career.


https://nflrankings.theringer.com/qb-rankings

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IMO, Jones is a good QB, but not a great one. He is commanding an offense that is probably the strongest in the NFL. There are no weaknesses on this offense. He has a multitude of WRs to choose from, a dynamic TE and maybe the best RB in the league. The offensive line is one of the best in league. There are teams with better WRs, but not many have the wide variety that Jones has. I think his biggest strength is the ability to read defenses and choose the right receiver. They can't all be covered well. Being a good QB in a great offense, can turn that QB into an all pro. And, he needs to be, because this defense will be giving up a shit load of points when they play some of the better teams.

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Daniel Jones Deserves Not Just an Apology for the Colts' Renaissance, but Also MVP Hype

(By Ben Strauss)

https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/indiana...-also-mvp-hype

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o


(vs. STEELERS, 11/02)



Jones had what was by far his worst game of the season, to-date.

The offensive line, which has been elite all season, had a very bad game also.

o

Peyton Manning threw 6 int's vs the Chargers in 2007 and Adam Vinateri missed 2 FG's and the Colts lost by 2 points. Same kind of game.

Daniel Jones is at his worst when asked to play hero ball....which he was today.

The Giants often asked him to play hero ball because, well, they sucked.

When he is a part of the offense, he has shown to be good.

When he has to be the focal point of the offense however.

I was not impressed by out offensive plan this game. Too many of our passing plays seemed designed to be much deeper than earlier games in the season. I was dismayed that, especially once we became one dimensional and PIT teed off on pass rush, that there seemed to be a complete lack of quick slants, wheel routes or quick hitters designed to get 6-8 yards and a cloud of dust. Everything seemed to be 15 yards down field slow developing crossing routes.

I totally agree. The other thing that I noticed is that DJ's drop depth wasn't synced up with the pass blocking scheme. Maybe after having a couple of batted ball int's DJ was over compensating with his drop depth?

looks like we will be giving him a big deal this offseason now that we traded away 2 1st round picks

Jones would be crazy to leave, and we would be crazy for letting hims go.

I’m still pissed we didn’t get moneymaker when he was available but Danny has been good for us. Hoping last week was an anomaly.

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I've said before that I believe that Daniel Jones will do everything that he can to remain with the Colts in 2026 and beyond ....... he caught a lot of shit when he was playing for the New York Giants in the first 6 seasons of his career, and I think that he's smart enough to know that his legacy is more important than a few million dollars one way or the other ...... he made $108 Million while playing for the Giants between 2019 and 2024, and he's getting another $14 Million this season playing for the Colts. That's a grand total of $122 Million ...... Jones is a brainiac who originally committed to Princeton and wound up going to Duke, so he presumably has enough wisdom to know that remaining in a situation that is leaps and bounds superior to the one that he was mired in for 6 seasons in New York is more important than a few extra million dollars on the free-agent market.

So in my rat's of an opinion, Jones will be staying with the Colts in 2026 (presuming that the Colts remain on the successful track that they are currently on for the remainder of the 2025 season.)

o

I think it's going to be a challenging week for Jones. He has to be carrying a pile of baggage with him from the Giants.

It's a challenging week for Steichen, he needs to get his QB back on track, and he needs to get his own shit together. His game plan against the steelers was novel, wasn't working and he just stuck with it.

He has opened, I think almost every game, by being very pass happy for the majority of the 1st half. Maybe he needs to flip the script on that?

I looked back at my earlier thought and it seems like DJ will get us a lot more than 1 or 2 more wins, mea culpa.

o


(vs. FALCONS, 11/09)



Jones's pass-protection from the offensive line was awful today, but I also think that he showed a lack of pocket-presence on several occasions ...... late in the first half, the Colts had 2nd-and-1 near midfield. Jones took a sack to put them in a near-impossible 3rd-and-11 with the clock running. He needed to get rid of the ball for an incomplete pass to stop the clock and save the yards, and the Colts still would have been in good shape at 3rd-and-1 ....... also with the fumbles, he was lucky that he didn't lose 2 today, as one of his fumbles very fortuitously fell out of bounds before the Falcons could recover it.

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A. I don't know what has happened in the last two games but our O-Line is getting beat by A LOT more pass rushers.

B. We are beginning to see the Daniel Jones that the New York fans saw for seven years.

C. That DOES NOT mean that DJ cannot be saved. We need to use the bye week to figure out what has changed and get back to what worked earlier in the season.

I don't like seeing DJ try to carry the load. He's not as seasoned as JT and he's not as good.

Great time for the bye week as other have said.

It could be too that we have put a lot down on film that other teams have been game-planning against.

Still hell of a performance, that bloody mouth scramble and then dime to Warren was classic

Jones has been below average QB the last two games. A turnover waiting to happen. Hope it's an aberration but Giants fans say that is who he is. He is one tough SOB however.

I'll take one tough SOB over the alternative!

I leader he seems to be. I like the guy but think he is limited. Offensive line needs to get their shit together. Since everyone began blathering on about how great they are and how brilliant Ballard is they have been a sieve. This is a good team that finds ways to win, all teams have ups and downs. We know what this team can do, have seen it. Having two shut down corners will do incredible things for this defense. They are capable of a deep run in December, maybe thru February if they get hot. I cannot remember with any clarity the last time I actually believed that. What more could you ask for in November?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5VJdoYX...jpg&name=small

This was almost the banner image this week, but it creeps me out that his eyes are tracking two different directions. This is surely how he sees the entire field.

Jones in the past two games- 4 interceptions, 6 fumbles(3 lost), and 12 sacks taken.

He’s been really bad lately and that cannot continue if we expect to go anywhere this season.

Pittsburg and Atlanta both blitzed him pretty heavily and had success doing it. That will continue until he figures it out or gets benched again.

Atlanta "succeeded" to the tune of allowing 31 points and losing, Pittsburgh would have had similar results if they didn't get some of the most fortuitous bounces of the ball I've ever seen (i.e. the Sawyer INT). The OL needs to pass block better, but if these are the results blitzing produces, I'm not sure that I'm concerned.

Pass protection.

You’re not concerned about 12 sacks, 6 fumbles, and 4 ints in a 2 game stretch?

Ok, I admire your optimism.

Jones is part of that as well. First of all, he has to secure the ball. Second, he has to get rid of the ball when the other team is blitzing.

As I said, teams are going to continue doing this. It’s up to Steichen and Jones to get it corrected.

Honestly, in my opinion, you learn what you can from the Pittsburgh game, then flush the film. The Steelers had so many fluke lucky things break in their favor in that game, had a +5 turnover margin, 24 points off turnovers, and still only managed to win that game by 7. Can you imagine what this offense would do with a +5 turnover margin and 24 points off turnovers? They probably drop near 50 and win by 4 scores at least.

As for yesterday's game, the pass blocking wasn't there, even Taylor reverted back to his poor pass blocking, with a Kaden Elliss spin move beating him for one of the sacks. That said, I'm glad to see them win in adverse conditions, because if they want to win the whole thing, they're going to have to win games where they don't play their best. To do that against what seems like a pretty solid Falcons team is a good sign.

o


ESPN's Jeremy Fowler chimes in on the chances of Daniel Jones returning to the Colts in 2026 and beyond.



NFL Insider Says Colts 'Appear All-In' on Daniel Jones Return in FA, Projects Contract

(By Doric Sam)

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...jects-contract

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This article at NFL.com ranks DJ as the #11 QB for the season thus far and in their "Tier 2" of QBs: Link Here.

Tier 1 = Stafford, Mahomes, Mayfield, Maye, Allen, Darnold.

Tier 2 = Lamar Jackson, Herbert, Goff, Hurts, DJ.

Tier 3 = Prescott, Love, Caleb Williams, Dart, Flacco, Mac Jones, Rodgers, Brissett, Tagovailoa.

Tier 4 = Lawrence, Mills, Mariota, Shough (who?), Nix, McCarthy.

Sounds about right. DJ is somewhere in the 8-12 range for performance this season for his play on the field. Is he around that for his career? Heck, no. But this season? He is not elite but he has not sucked either at all.

Heck, both our losses were 7 point affairs where he did not play his best but both were winnable. Of course, without JT heroics in Berlin, that game was lossable as well so....

Just more data to add to the swirl of, "Is Daniel Jones worth signing to a contract?"

o


In 1967, the NCAA outlawed dunking the basketball, primarily to try to offset the dominance of UCLA's Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.)

So, with a major part of his game taken away, how did Alcindor/Jabbar react to his style being cramped by this new rule ??? He added a now legendary shot to his arsenal, known as "The Sky Hook." If the NCAA had not banned dunking the ball in the first place, Alcindor/Jabbar may never have developed the now fabled sky-hook shot in the 2nd place.


And then along came Jones ...... almost 60 years later, a mobile quarterback by the name of Daniel Jones was signed as a free agent by our beloved Indianapolis Colts. In the first 10 games of the season, Jones and his Colts stormed out to an 8-2 start with Jones having what is by far the best season of his 7-year NFL career. But then, the mobile Jones had his mobility taken away with a broken fibula.

So in their last 2 games, the Colts lost heartbreaking nail-biters to the Chiefs and the Texans. And while Jones' lack of mobility certainly was a factor in those losses, another part of his game actually improved ...... his turnovers. In particular, his fumbling. In the first 10 games of the season, Jones' one glaring weakness in an otherwise excellent season was his tendency to fumble. Jones fumbled the ball 8 times in the first 10 games of the season, with 6 of those 8 fumbles resulting in turnovers. In his last 2 games, the hobbled Jones had 0 turnovers, and he recovered his own lone fumble.

So ...... is there a correlation between Jones' hampered mobility and his ability to secure the ball better ??? As was the case when Alcindor/Jabbar developed his famous sky-hook shot after having another part of his game taken away by a rule change, will Daniel Jones' broken leg wind up actually helping him in the long run with the one glaring weakness that he has had for his entire career, dating back to his rookie season with the Giants when he led the NFL with 19 fumbles in only 13 games ??? Time will tell.

o

I cannot believe that people seem satisfied with Daniel Jones as our QB going forward. To me, if this keeps going this like it is and DJ finishes with his best season EVER here, which would mean that at his best he is mediocre, Ballard has shit the bed once again. We have spent the last 9 years looking for a QB who is mediocre. We could have just kept Jacoby and have been done with it. We can be that middling team that gets a big win against the big boys once in a while but we will never compete consistently with teams that have top QBs. If you think I am talking out my ass just remember how we felt when we went up against QBs who were middling when we had Manning and Luck. Felt good and we should have.

Everyone hates on AR because of injury but seems to overlook the fact that Jones has finished exactly one season without losing time to injury and is injured once again this season. He hasn't lost time this year but the offense has taken a shit big time in part because of it according to many here and in the press. Somehow that's not on him yet AR getting a freak injury warming up is all about AR being injury prone. To be clear I don't believe either narrative (don't blame Jones or AR), players get injured, all of them. If you believe in the injury prone player than how is Jones not one also? I am negative because I believe we will end up out of the playoffs (at best a wild card defeat) and will be a 9-11 win team now and for the foreseeable future.

Jones is fine, he just needs to reliably complete his hots against the blitz. He did that the first 8 weeks, the Colts were 7-1 and the offense was performing at historic levels. He hasn’t done that the last 5 weeks, the Colts were 1-3 and the offense has been average. Some of that is on the WRs (Pittman and Downs have dropped some key passes as the hot), some of that is on the playcalling (short passing game seems to have disappeared over the last month), but a lot of it is on Jones not being as accurate in those situations recently as he was earlier in the season. If he does that, the offense and therefore the team will go back to looking unstoppable. If not, we're in for a very long offseason.

There are a lot of negative Nancy's, who usually want to see the worst.

• We have a QB playing with a broken leg
• 345 Park Avenue has screwed us 2 weeks in a row
• Our LB salutation, with regards to coverage, m,ay be the worst in the NFL
• Placekicking has sucked
• I won't mention injuries to players who are not playing, because every team has them
• The O-Line play has dropped offf
• Schematically both Anarumo and Steichen have been a tick off
• We can't generate pass rush when rushing only 4 DL

Dam I agree with all of this. The question I have is which DJ is the real one? I am all in on letting this thing run its course this year but think it's crazy to believe this guy is the future right now. And yes I am a negative Nancy about this team. Comes with rooting for them the last 9 years.

I would franchise him next year. No long term contract and no just letting him go.

o


Daniel Jones’ Harsh Injury Reality Could Ruin Colts Season

(ClutchPoints)

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/da...171214420.html

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