In a recent Bleacher Report article designating one player for each NFL team to consider trading, Moe Moton chose cornerback Jaylon Jones from the Indianapolis Colts. And that says a lot about Indy.
To be fair, this is not meant to be a knock on Jones, though I fear it might come off that way. Virtually all of the players Moton identifies have failed in some way with their current team. For some, a fresh start may be just the thing they need to revive a foundering career.
Two seasons ago, Jones was the most pleasant of surprises. A 2023 seventh-round draft pick who was pressed into service in his second season, Jones looked like another Chris Ballard special. The Colts’ general manager has been very good at identifying talent on day three of the draft.
Would the Indianapolis Colts trade Jaylon Jones this summer?
Heading into his third season, Jones figured to compete for snaps with JuJu Brents and Justin Walley behind major free agent acquisition Charvarius Ward. Like so much of the Colts’ 2025 season, nothing went according to plan.
Jones battled a major hamstring injury that virtually wiped out his 2025 season. It cost him a good chunk of the summer. Then he tweaked it a few weeks into the new campaign and was out for a couple of months.
By the time he came back, Lou Anarumo’s defense had been forced to look elsewhere. The week before Jones’ return, the Colts had beaten Tennessee with Mekhi Blackmon, Cameron Mitchell, Johnathan Edwards, and Chris Lammons handling cornerback duties. None had been projected to play important roles in the Colts’ defense in the 2025 offseason.
And Ballard was about to swing a major trade for Sauce Gardner. Heading into this year, Gardner will team up with Ward and Justin Walley – both coming off injuries – and free agent signee Cam Taylor-Britt to form the core of the Colts’ cornerback room. Jones will be competing with the likes of Blackmon, Mitchell, and Edwards for backup spots.
That, along with the promise he showed in 2024, is why Moton chose Jones as his Indy trade candidate. It makes sense.
The problem is, to my eyes, Jones did not look good at all when he returned last season. Maybe it was the lingering effects of the injury, or maybe it was rust, but he looked slow. His relative lack of speed is what caused him to fall into the final round of the draft in ’23, and if anything, it seemed more pronounced at the end of last year.
Jones actually looked more like a safety in his limited action in 2025. He has always been a physical player and strong against the run. He has good size. Transitioning to safety may well be his best chance of sticking in the NFL long term.
Here’s the problem with picking Jones as a trade candidate. I don’t think he is going to make the team as a cornerback. Of course, injury could open the door for him, but if I am another team that likes the way Jones plays, I am not giving up assets – even a seventh-round pick – for a player coming off injury who I think is going to be released.
Perhaps a conditional trade for a seventh-rounder is possible, but even that seems iffy.
This is the basic problem with the way Chris Ballard has constructed his team. The Colts are top-heavy. They have stars. They have little depth. There are no positions at which they have a surplus of talent.
In a sense, this is an unfair exercise for this year’s Colts because Ballard has already traded his most promising assets. He dealt Zaire Franklin and Michael Pittman in early March to allow for moves in free agency. The remaining roster has stars (Jonathan Taylor, Sauce Gardner), solid starters (Tanor Bortolini, Cam Bynam), and totally unproven backups.
Ballard cannot trade anyone in the first two categories because he does not have replacements ready, and he can’t trade anyone from the third category because no one is going to offer anything for them. Jones fits into that third category.
Actually, the boldest move that Ballard could make at this point would be to move on from last season’s second-round pick Jaylahn Tuimoloau. He showed very little in his rookie season, but plays a high-value position and has enough talent to actually fetch a return.
It would not be the second-round draft pick he cost in 2025, and it would be a stark admission that Ballard and his team blew the pick last year. Therefore, it is not going to happen.
Tuimoloau might turn things around this year and make me eat those words. I hope he does. Because the Colts desperately need more quality depth across both sides of the ball, especially the defense.
And maybe Jaylon Jones will do the same thing. I think he will get the chance. Because, regardless of what Bleacher Report says, it’s hard for me to see another team making an offer on the cornerback at this point.
Add us as a preferred source on Google