The signing of Daniel Jones was one of the biggest stories in the free agency frenzy last week for the Indianapolis Colts. Specifically brought in to compete with Anthony Richardson, who previously was said to have the QB1 spot for at least one more year.
Though many different quarterbacks were rumored options for the Colts, Jones was the name most often mentioned, with just one main question: would Jones be content to potentially settle for a spot at QB2? The answer, we know now, is no... and that's specifically why he came to Indianapolis.
SI's Albert Breer reported that Jones opted to sign with the Colts over re-signing with the Vikings because he felt it gave him a better chance at winning a starting job.
"Jones, I’m told, picked what he saw as the better chance to win, and keep, a starting job. If he went back to Minnesota and J.J. McCarthy turned the corner in the coming weeks, and maintained the momentum into the spring, given that the Vikings just took him 10th in the 2024 draft, it’d have been hard for Jones to dislodge him from the lineup. Anthony Richardson, conversely, is at the end, rather than the start, of his window to make the team that drafted him his own.Albert Breer
I’d agree with the logic, too. If Jones has a great spring and summer, and Richardson is just O.K., I don’t think there’ll be any fear on Shane Steichen’s part to go full steam ahead with the ex-Giant and Viking — and give him the leeway McCarthy would probably get in Minnesota."
This matches up fairly well with how Jones spoke at his first press conference, indicating that he was ready for the quarterback competition, and that sitting at QB2 in Minnesota has helped him prepare for this opportunity.
However, not every analyst thinks Jones is the answer to the Colts' problems, with some pointing out that the bigger issue here isn't in Richardson or Jones, but in the Indianapolis organization itself, being so disorganized and unprofessional that it doesn't give anyone a chance to truly succeed.
In the meantime, Richardson himself has made it clear that he's going to do everything he can to prove himself in 2025, so if Jones came to Indianapolis thinking this was going to be easy for him, he might end up sorely mistaken.