In what has been one of the league's best stories this season, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones experienced a true career resurgence. After signing a one-year deal with the Colts, this past offseason, it looked like he had made Indy's decision real easy in the coming spring.
Jones had played himself into being the quarterback of the future for this Colts team, but in a mere moment, that offseason decision received a huge blow. No longer was it as easy as it seemed.
In the first half of the Colts' Week 14 contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jones went down with a non-contact injury. Almost immediately after leaving the field, Jones was officially ruled out.
It was an Achilles injury for the veteran quarterback. And now, the next few months become a whole lot more interesting for Indianapolis.
Daniel Jones' injury makes the Colts' offseason decision a lot tougher
His contract, for this season, was again, a one-year deal worth $14 million. That seems like quite the bargain for what Jones had given the Colts up to this point on the season.
But now, what do they do? What does Chris Ballard do knowing that Jones could very well be out of the game for the next year?
Of course, we don't know exactly how severe the injury is. But, assuming it winds up being an Achilles tear, that would mean Jones is going to be out for quite some time. At the very least, he would have a hard time being ready for the start of the 2026 season and may not be ready until later in the year.
So, now what?
Do the Colts go right back to Anthony Richardson once he's recovered from the orbital fracture he suffered in the fall? They certainly could, although we don't know what we're going to get out of Richardson. Maybe, his year off from playing did some good and allowed him to learn a lot more.
Could Riley Leonard make things interesting down the stretch, here? That's another possibility. The rookie out of Duke could end up making this entire saga a lot more blurry, should he perform well in the interim.
Needless to say, there is no concrete answer to the Colts' quarterback plans right now. There may be some fans who want to see the Colts re-sign Jones and allow him to work his way back from injury. Others, meanwhile, might want to try Richardson out for size once more.
And even then, I'm sure we'll get the fans who want to start over completely with a 2026 rookie.
There are a lot of options, and none of them come easy right now.