On Monday, Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback Daniel Jones participated in 7-on-7 drills for the first time in the second week of OTAs—almost six months after tearing his Achilles (via ESPN’s Stephen Holder):
It marks another step forward in Jones’s ongoing recovery and rehabilitation from the devastating season-ending Achilles injury he suffered during Week 14 of
last year in Jacksonville—in the midst of a breakout season in Indianapolis during his debut Colts campaign.
Last week, while Jones was throwing in the first week of OTAs—which was encouraging in itself, he was limited to individual on-the-field drills, but was seen running full sprints with Colts trainers after practice.
This week; however, he’s ramping it up even further, with the current expectation that he’ll be ready to participate in 11-on-11 drills by the start of training camp (via The Athletic’s James Boyd):
While Steichen reiterated that both Anthony Richardson Sr. and Riley Leonard are competing for the primary backup quarterback job behind Jones by ‘splitting reps,’ it was Richardson Sr. who got the initial look with the first-team offense again in 11-on-11 drills, despite still being readily available for a potential trade.
Per Steichen, the plan remains to rotate the two backup quarterbacks regarding first-team reps depending on the practice days.
At any rate, it has to be encouraging for the Colts that Jones only continues to progress in his Achilles recovery, and it looks like that initial hopeful expectation by Jones and his camp that he’d be ready by the start of team training camp will actually come to fruition in mid-July—at least on his current track, barring no unforeseen setbacks.
