Daniel Jones hasn't played well through five games, but the reality is that he is playing more like his pre-2025 form than simply being at his career worst. That doesn't help Anthony Richardson, though, as the Indianapolis Colts are not likely to make a quarterback change this season, no matter what Jones does.
Indy has too much money invested in Jones, and he has a year left after this season on his contract. Richardson has never been consistently good in his four seasons, and as the team didn't pick up his fifth-year option, he is set for free agency in the 2027 offseason.
Head coach Shane Steichen seemingly needs to make the playoffs to keep his job this season, and that should translate to a player who is underperforming being benched in favor of a player who gives the team a better chance to win. Richardson probably doesn't give Indy a better chance to win.
The Indianapolis Colts are unlikely to replace Daniel Jones with Anthony Richardson
This season, Jones is completing a career-low 61.4 percent of his passes, but it isn't far off the pace from 2024, when he completed 63.3 percent. His touchdown percentage of 1.7 is far lower than 2025's 4.9, but the former number is closer to most of Jones' seasons from 2020 through 2024. His quarterback rating of 73.6 wouldn't be a career-low. He had one of 70.5 in 2023 in six games.
Ultimately, the version of Daniel Jones now is what most teams expected he would be for much of his career. Where the Colts might have been fooled was with the quarterback's 2025 season, when he had career highs in quarterback rating (100.2) and completion percentage (68.0), and his second-best numbers were passing yards (3.101) and touchdown passes (19).
He also ended another season too early due to injury. He broke his fibula around Week 10, and then tore his Achilles tendon in Week 14. He, like Richardson, hasn't shown he can play an entire season healthy and then do so the following season, too.
And yet, general manager Chris Ballard gave Jones a two-year deal this past offseason that pays him as much as $88 million. Indy does have an out: it might need to do so by releasing Jones next offseason and saving $38 million. That could help pay for a different veteran quarterback.
Either way, Anthony Richardson is almost certainly stuck behind Jones unless Jones gets injured again. Richardson won't be auditioning for a prospective suitor this year, which means he might need to sign a one-year deal for 2027 and hope for a bigger payday in 2028.
Ultimately, the Indianapolis Colts, and especially Steichen and Ballard, need Jones to play a lot closer to 2025 for the rest of 2026. Otherwise, the team will be sitting at home watching the playoffs again, and Steichen and Ballard will probably be looking for new jobs.
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