Hear me out, because I know even the thought of this article is going to upset a lot of people.
Daniel Jones has not played good football. I realize that. When you’re the quarterback of an NFL franchise, especially on a new contract, you’re paid to deliver. It’s November, and the only thing he’s delivered is a firesale.
I’m not naive about how bad he’s been. He has 9 INTs and 2 wins, ranks 32nd in passer rating, has the second-worst TD-to-INT ratio and EPA/dropback in the league, and sits 25th in completion
percentage.
Do I have to keep going?
But I truly believe quarterbacks get too much praise when things go well and too much blame when they don’t. I’m not absolving Jones of his play, but proper criticism requires proper context, and a lot of the criticism he’s getting has none.
Let’s start with how the Colts built this roster in the first place.
The idea behind Jones’ play last year was that he was in a better ecosystem than he had in New York. Then the Colts paid him and put him out there with ten other guys who now look a lot like what he had with the Giants. Why are we so surprised?
Heading into the year, the Colts were essentially running it back on offense, swapping out Pittman and Braden Smith for Keenan Allen and Jalen Travis. Shouldn’t be too bad, right? Well, it has been.
Without AD Mitchell, there was no depth on the roster, and the Alec Pierce injury proved devastating. Josh Downs was supposed to soften the blow by playing more in heavier personnel looks. Obviously, that hasn’t worked out.
Not to make this about Downs, but when you give up on highly talented WRs, do a lackluster job replenishing the room, and bet on guys to take on expanded roles they probably were never suited for, this is what happens.
Base to 11 is a major part of what’s plaguing the Colts at the moment. What is Base to 11? When the Colts come out in three WR sets or 11 personnel, defenses are leaving their base defense on the field.
Why would they do that? They don’t respect the speed of the offense. Why bring out more corners if you know none of these WRs are going to run by you. We can just leave bigger bodies and sell out vs. the run, because if they pass, we’ll be just fine.
The Colts are battling some very complex looks that the personnel deficiencies make it impossible to overcome. Every defenses is compressed. Safeties are playing top down and nailing down on anything underneath.
In my opinion, this is the issue with the Colts right now.
They cannot pass out of these looks. They don’t have enough speed on the field.
Base-to-11 and aggressive coverage techniques are one thing, but they also are consistently shooting themselves in the foot.
They are averaging 7.5 penalties a game in the last two weeks, back-to-back weeks of holding penalties negating large kickoffs and leading to backed up scenarios, missed field goals, dropped passes that turn into pick 6’s.. the list really goes on.
The Colts have a laundry list of problems and the biggest indictment on Daniel Jones is that he hasn’t been the solution.
He is a guy who is fighting off an Achilles issue, playing behind an offense that can’t stretch a defense, and asked to carry a roster that has failed to support him at every turn.
The Colts needed a quarterback who could elevate the entire roster, and I mean elevate it to a level most teams have reached in the last five years… the postseason.
But has Daniel Jones ever been that kind QB? No. We just saw that in New York.
So why did the Colts pay him just to ask him to elevate a bad WR room, while he’s coming off an achilles injury. It just doesn’t make sense.
Not to mention the defense has been one of the worst in the league, if they were even league average the Daniel Jones discourse wouldn’t be as loud, because the Colts would likely have more than just 2 wins.
Week after week we see defenses sell out to stop the run while Daniel Jones tries to pass his way behind the sticks in environments that aren’t optimized for a QB like him to be successful.
So yes, Daniel Jones has not played good football. But if you’re going to hate him for the way he’s played, hate the front office first. Because I think Daniel Jones can play a lot better than he has, and maybe if he’s traded he’ll get a chance to show that again.
