The Indianapolis Colts rolled the dice on Daniel Jones with a pricey one-year "prove it" deal. He beat out Anthonny Richardson for the starting spot in training camp -- go figure -- and played some of the best football of his career to start the season.
Unfortunately, the Colts' quarterback curse was on full display in the second half of the season. Jones started showing worrisome signs of regression before two major injuries -- one of which was season-ending -- got him off the field.
That's why, even though the Colts liked him enough to give him another big-money, short-term deal to return in 2026, FanSided's Lou Scataglia isn't that sure. In his latest quarterback power rankings for NFL Spin Zone, he had the Colts' starter at No. 20.
Colts' Daniel Jones needs to silence the critics in 2026
"Jones can't be ranked inside the top-10 or anything, as he didn't finish the year and wasn't playing great football during that final stretch. We still have to give him a high enough ranking to acknowledge how efficient he was. Jones is 20th in our power rankings, with room to improve," Scataglia wrote.
Granted, Jones has had his fair share of lowlights throughout the course of his career. Also, he's coming off a major injury and wasn't playing that well before he tore his Achilles tendon in December. That said, 20 sounds just way too low.
The Colts have been a competent quarterback away from being a legitimate Super Bowl-caliber team for years now. If Jones is 20th among 32 starters, there's no reason to even bring him back in 2027, let alone pay him that much money in 2026.
If Jones were actually ranked that low, the Colts would probably be better off sticking with their flawed No. 4 pick. At least he would've been significantly cheaper and had much higher upside, as erratic as he is.
The Colts can't afford to have Jones be the 20th-best quarterback in the league in 2026. That's not going to cut it in a much-improved AFC South, and it definitely won't be enough to get past powerhouses in the playoffs.
Jones should have earned the benefit of the doubt by now. He wouldn't be the first guy to struggle because of his organization, and it's not like anybody else would've done much better than he did with the New York Giants.
The Colts have been in the hunt for a franchise quarterback since Andrew Luck surprisingly called it quits right before the start of the season. They need a top-10, top-15 guy at the very worst, and Jones will have to do plenty of heavy lifting to turn the narrative around.
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