Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback Daniel Jones publicly voiced his disappointment that his struggling team was a recent major seller ahead of this past Tuesday’s league-wide trade deadline, while acknowledging, at least in his eyes, that it outside the players’ control (via the Athletic’s James Boyd):
In fairness, as a competitor, it would be a tough pill to swallow as a starting quarterback, knowing that your already below average wide receiver room to whom you regularly throw the football to is now without two of its best wideouts: Keenan Allen and Josh Downs—who were traded to San Francisco and Kansas City respectively.
It looks like still rehabbing Colts top wideout Alec Pierce is not coming back to the football field anytime soon, and you also lost your perennial All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson, who consistently helped keep you upright in pass protection, as he was traded to Seattle to help jumpstart the ongoing rebuild for Indianapolis.
That being said, it’s not as though Jones and his teammates, including those who recently were traded, didn’t share in culpability to what led to the team’s recent fire sale.
The team currently sits at 2-7, and among their defeats, lost to a winless Tennessee Titans team at home. Their brutal loss led to their longtime general manager Chris Ballard being fired thereafter, and that was the first domino to fall regarding the recent sell-off.
Two weeks later, the Colts would go on to be blown out in Jacksonville, 42-7, and it was clear their season was definitively over—if it wasn’t already, after that dreadful rock bottom showing.
The Colts have now lost 5 straight games in 2026.
Dating back to 2025, they’ve lost 14 of their last 14 regular season games.
In particular, after landing a 2-year, potential $100 million contract extension, Jones, who’s coming off a torn Achilles, has struggled this season and provided the Colts well below average starting quarterback play in 2026.
He’s completed 182 of 302 pass attempts (60.3%) for 1,722 total passing yards, 6 passing touchdowns, and 10 interceptions during 9 starts so far in the 2026 campaign.
It’s not all Jones’ fault offensively though.
Even before the recent wide receiver trades, this was one of the league’s worst wide receiver rooms collectively without Pierce back. It now resembles closer to a 2nd-team preseason squad. His pass protection also hasn’t been great, even when Nelson was here, as a number of once reliable o-linemen have since struggled in pass protection.
That being said, a starting quarterback is the league’s most valuable position, and almost always, if you don’t have a ‘dude’ there, who can consistently elevate his teammates, carry the offense for stretches, and make pivotal, even difficult winning plays late in games, the whole team will struggle—or at least reach its inevitable end.
