Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, it’s time to wonder exactly what version of Daniel Jones the Colts have on their roster. Because throughout a previously unremarkable career, Jones has never looked like this before — and Shane Steichen’s offense is setting records as a result.
On March 13, 2024, Sam Darnold signed a one-year,
$10 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings to be rookie J.J. McCarthy’s backup. Nobody knew then that McCarthy would miss his entire rookie season to a torn meniscus, but when that happened in the preseason, Darnold became the starter. Under the brilliant play-calling of head coach Kevin O’Connell, Darnold was able to resuscitate a career that had almost always gone wrong since he became the third overall pick in the 2018 draft courtesy of the New York Jets. Darnold’s three-year, $100.5 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks, which includes $55 million guaranteed, is testimony to how well that worked out.
On Nov. 29, 2024, Daniel Jones signed a $383,400 contract to attach himself to the Vikings’ practice squad. This came one week after Jones requested his release from the New York Giants, the franchise that had selected him with the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft, after Jones was benched over the bye week in favor of Tommy “Cutlets” DeVito. This was due to Jones’ poor performance, and like Darnold, Jones was never really able to live up to overinflated expectations when MetLife Stadium was his home away from home.
Jones never played a snap, because Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was already busy saving Sam Darnold from himself rather successfully. Jones would have to wait his turn, and he got that opportunity when the Indianapolis Colts signed him to a one-year, $14.5 million contract with $13.15 million guaranteed on March 13.
Jones had his home, he had an able offensive designer in head coach Shane Steichen, and he had the opportunity to beat out a younger quarterback in the person of Anthony Richardson. Steichen and Colts general manager Chris Ballard had been saying for months that they wanted internal competition to light a fire under Richardson if such a fire could be lit, and after a preseason in which Jones did enough to earn confidence while Richardson didn’t, Jones was given the keys to the operation.
The Colts’ 33-8 season-opening win wasn’t something that Jones could really hang his hat on, because the current Dolphins might be the NFL’s most dysfunctional team if the Cincinnati Bengals could relax for a second. But in that game, Jones showed enough command of the offense to be a bright spot as the team headed into Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos, owners of one of the NFL’s best defenses.
This was Jones’ star turn, and he took it with an authority he’d never shown before. No matter what Vance Joseph’s Denver defense did, Jones had a ready answer. Per Next Gen Stats, the Broncos pressured Jones on 16 of his 38 dropbacks and blitzed him at a 71.1% rate that was the highest he had ever faced. The quarterback who had previously been awful when disrupted completed 16 of his 25 attempts while facing five or more pass rushers for 265 yards and a touchdown, the fourth-most passing yards against the blitz in any game in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).
Jones also attempted 10 passes into tight windows, completing six of them for 100 yards, including four tight-window completions for 41 yards against Pat Surtain II, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
Jones’ ability to run Steichen’s entire offense so quickly has allowed the Colts to match and set some remarkable records.
Per NFL Research, Jones is now the fourth player in NFL history with at least 270 passing yards, a touchdown pass and a rushing touchdown in each of his team’s first two games of a season, joining Jack Kemp with the 1965 Buffalo Bills, Cam Newton with the 2011 Carolina Panthers, and Kyler Murray with the 2021 Arizona Cardinals.
The Colts scored on all seven of their possessions against the Dolphins, and their first three against the Broncos, making them the first team in NFL history to score on each of their first 10 offensive possessions of a season. And the Colts became the first team in the Super Bowl era to never punt the ball in their first two games of the season.
Which is not something that anybody would have expected from this team, and this quarterback situation, before the season began.
Asked on Monday what the most impressive part of Jones’ game has been so far, Steichen was happy to provide the answer. It’s what he’s been looking for with his quarterbacks ever since the former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator took the job in 2023, partially because he was able to get Jalen Hurts to a similar place.
“I think the consistency that he brings, his preparation, and it’s coming to life on the field on Sundays,” Steichen said. “He works at it. I think he’s doing a really nice job of going through his reads. If the first read is not there, he’s getting to his second, third reads. The offensive line is doing a hell of a job for him. I think he’s communicating well with the receivers throughout the week – different looks that could come up, route adjustments, all those different things throughout the course of a week of preparation. Then to see it happen on Sundays has been good, so we’ve got to continue that.”
There’s no indication that Daniel Jones is about to be the next Sam Darnold, or Baker Mayfield, or Geno Smith — that veteran near-bust who had the light go on in the right environment, and it changed his career radically for the better. But through two games — and at least one tough opponent — we are seeing a Daniel Jones we’ve never seen before.
And the Colts will happily take all of that.
