With the team’s veteran minicamp recently behind us, it’s now a countdown to Indianapolis Colts training camp in late July, meaning it’s officially the slow part of the NFL offseason.
Still among the burning questions for Colts fans right now, starts at the league’s most important position. That’s the starting quarterback position with Indy’s new ‘100 million man’ (with earned incentives of course), Daniel Jones, still recovering from a season-ending torn Achilles injury suffered last year.
While Jones
has been progressing well in his ongoing recovery, even throwing in 7-on-7 on-field drills during the team’s recent veteran mini-camp and reportedly running full sprints after practice, that’s still a whole lot different than a 300 pound defensive lineman hunting you in the pocket and having to stop and plant on a dime to deliver an accurate throw, or perhaps even take a big hit in the process.
That being said, the expectation is that Jones will progress to 11-on-11 drills when training camp kicks off in a few weeks, and 70% of Colts fans believe he’ll be ready for the team’s regular season opener on September 13th when Indianapolis hosts the Baltimore Ravens:
Now, whether “ready”, means fully physically ready probably isn’t one-in-the-same. Specifically, it may take Jones at least a full year to fully recover from the significant lower leg injury—if he does at all in his career. Having suffered the injury late during Week 14 of last year, Week 1 is still way early for that timeline.
Of concern for the Colts is also who will be backing up Jones, as both 4th-year quarterback Anthony Richardson and 2nd-year passer Riley Leonard are battling for the primary quarterback job behind him. Richardson has formally requested a trade earlier this offseason, while Leonard is coming off an impressive start during the regular season finale last year.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen has indicated that it’s a ‘50-50 split’ in reps between the two quarterbacks during team workouts and practices, and that neither quarterback is ahead of the other right now. If Richardson actually remains with the team, that should change during training camp and preseason—as one quarterback should separate form the other—at least in Steichen’s eyes.
However, whether that’s because they don’t anticipate Richardson still being with the team, is unclear, but 61% of Colts fans believe that Leonard will ultimately win Indy’s QB2 job outright:
