The Indianapolis Colts have shown they are going all-in this season. The offense has been slite, and the only real question has been defensive consistency. The team doesn't allow many points, but gives up a lot of yards. Bend but don't break is unlikely to work in the playoffs.
Thankfully, general manager Chris Ballard did something very un-Ballard-like and traded for former All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner at the trade deadline. Gardner should be fully acclimated to Indy at about the same time Charvarius Ward returns from injured reserve. The Colts' secondary is going to be among the best in the league.
Let's hope and assume that Indianapolis continues its first-half success, makes the postseason, and makes a deep run once there. That is, of course, a great thing, but it also means that players who are free agents in 2026 are going to want to get paid high dollar.
The Indianapolis Colts might need to give Daniel Jones a Brock Purdy-sized contract
In other words, quarterback Daniel Jones is going to expect a huge pay increase in the 2026 offseason, whether that comes from the Colts or another team. Indy could franchise tag him, but that would likely cost as much as giving him an extension. The team might have no other choice, though.
Plus, according to a recent free agent and contract projection by Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report, Jones, who has made as much as $40 million a season before when he was with the New York Giants, is about to get Brock Purdy-type money.
The San Francisco 49ers quarterback went from being the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft to making a contract that pays him an average of $53 million a year through the 2030 season. That is going to gravely affect Indy's cap room, and could make it so that the team cannot re-sign players such as wide receiver Alec Pierce.
Knox reports, "Just about any QB-needy team would be wise to make a run at Jones if he reaches the market. He should surpass the $33.5 million annually that Sam Darnold got this offseason by quite a bit, potentially approaching the $53 million annually that Brock Purdy received."
The question other teams have to ask themselves, though, and Knox's non-Colts options for Danny Dimes, including the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, is whether Jones is truly a fixed quarterback after leaving the Giants in 2024 or if he is simply a by-product of head coach Shane Steichen's brilliant scheme and play-calling.
The rest of the season will give teams that answer. The schedule gets much tougher for Indianapolis with some teams with excellent defenses, such as the Houston Texans twice, as well as the Seattle Seahawks, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the 49ers. If Jones does well in those games, he deserves his Brock Purdy money.