Just before the season was about to start, the Indianapolis Colts announced Daniel Jones would be their starting quarterback, relegating Anthony Richardson to QB2 again, and the entire league let out a collective groan. Let's be honest: no one thought this was going to go well.
Before coming to Indy, Jones had not had the best career, to put it mildly. Before Week 1, the thought was that - at absolute best - Jones was a mediocre quarterback who could execute an offense, but not pull off explosive plays or elevate the team.
He had been given just a one-year contract, and given how poorly he had played during most of his time with the New York Giants, fans thought the never-ending quarterback carousel was about the continue.
Colts' Daniel Jones is an early-season MVP frontrunner
After all, the Colts had been struggling for a while, too. Shane Steichen did not do well as a coach in 2024, with members of the team publicly and anonymously criticizing him and general manager Chris Ballard.
So, as analysts pointed out, if there was a team that could get the best out of Daniel Jones, of all people, it wouldn't be the Colts, and obviously, 2025 was going to be an utter disaster for Indianapolis.
But then, Week 1 happened, and, surprise! Daniel Jones is actually... kind of awesome?
Far from being another terrible season so far, the Colts are sitting atop the AFC South at 3-0, and a large part of this is due to Jones. He has not only performed well on his own, but he's massively elevated the Colts' offense. Granted, they have only had one difficult opponent so far this season - the Denver Broncos - but they won that game without having to punt on a single drive.
And for the rest of the season? There are only a handful of teams that could give the Colts trouble, like the Rams, Chiefs, Chargers, and Jaguars, to name a few. Their schedule is packed with a lot of games that should be easy wins, making the Colts not only contenders to make the playoffs, but potentially for the Super Bowl, as well.
If the rest of the season continues on the way it started, then, according to NFL analyst Jake Beckman, Jones will be a frontrunner to be named the league's MVP. Sure, it's assumed that someone like Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, or Lamar Jackson, but everyone assumed the Chiefs would still be amazing in 2025 and that the Texans would easily win the AFC South in 2025, and here we are.
As Beckman wrote for FanSided, the NFL's MVP is chosen not just about the best player; no matter how well Jones plays, if the Colts don't finish the season as one of the best teams in the league, Jones won't be MVP - end of story. But if they do? Well, just hand him the trophy already.
And as Beckman acknowledged, the Colts have become an objectively good team, and there's not much keeping them from the playoffs this year, bar a complete and total collapse.
"So far, they’ve played the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Titans. Good football teams beat bad football teams, and really good football teams embarrass bad football teams. The Colts embarrassed the Dolphins and the Titans, and snuck a win past the (maybe) good Broncos.Jake Beckman
The Colts really only have a handful of tough games left on their schedule: Week 4 at the Rams, Week 7 at the Chargers, Week 12 at the Chiefs, and Week 14 at the Seahawks. They still get to play five more games against the rest of the AFC South. Aside from the Jaguars, that’s a super light schedule. You don’t have to look hard to find 10 more wins for Indianapolis. A 13-4 record can be enough to get the top seed in an AFC that’s cannibalizing itself."
If the Colts keep playing as well as they have been, even with the tough games they face, there's good reason to be optimistic that they'll end up with a much better record than just 13-4. As it stands now, the only real threat they have to winning the AFC South comes from the Jaguars, and they're struggling.
Sure, they manage to get the win, but the Colts are operating like a well-oiled machine. The Jaguars, not so much.
Let's also remember that it's been a long time since the Colts opened a season at 3-0; the last time that happened, it was 2009, Peyton Manning was still quarterback, and, oh yeah, they made it to the Super Bowl.
It's possible we won't see a repeat of that glorious year, but there isn't much to indicate that Indy is set for a late-season collapse. And if things do continue to go well, then there's no reason to believe Jones shouldn't be named the NFL MVP. After all, who really could deserve it more?