QB Daniel Jones recently discussed getting acclimated to the Indianapolis Colts’ offense following offseason programs.
Indianapolis Colts‘ head coach Shane Steichen has been “very pleased” with what he has seen from quarterback Daniel Jones during OTAs and minicamp.
While Jones is new to the team, signing as a free agent back in March and still in the process of learning an entirely new system, he’s acclimated himself relatively quickly to this Colts offense, and it’s showing on the practice field.
Joel Erickson of the Indy Star would write in his minicamp observations article that Jones has “gotten the ball out quickly and accurately, appears to be making the right reads in real time.”
So what has allowed Jones to come in and find some early success leading the Colts’ offense?
“Just building up reps,” Jones said after Thursday’s practice. “The preparation we do in the meeting room, the installs, being detailed and specific about our reads, where we need to be looking at where the receivers are going to be, how we’re seeing certain looks. So I’ve really enjoyed that part of the learning process, and feel like that’s helped on the field. But I’ll continue to learn and grow in my understanding of this offense, and then how to execute it. But I think it’s been a productive spring from that standpoint.”
While the Colts’ offense is different than what Jones ran when he was with the New York Giants, to a degree, football is football, and the learning curve is going to be shorter for a player who has 69 career starts as Jones does.
In addition to that, with Anthony Richardson sidelined most of OTAs and all of minicamp, Jones hasn’t had to split the first-team reps; he’s gotten all of them, which has also helped him more quickly build chemistry with the Colts’ pass catchers.
“It’s been good,” said Jones about his chemistry with the pass catchers. “I’ve enjoyed working with them. It’s a strong group of receivers and guys who can do different things. I’ve really enjoyed it and certainly a lot of work to do still but a lot of talent in that receiver room.”
Now, this isn’t to say that things have gone perfectly for Jones either. One area where Jones has “struggled at times,” as Erickson wrote, was with the deep ball, and this is something that he struggled with while in New York, ranking near the bottom in yards per pass attempt the last three seasons, according to PFF’s metrics.
A recent report from Ian Rapoport said that Anthony Richardson will be ready to go for training camp. However, as Steichen has pointed out, a ramp-up period whenever that time comes will still be necessary.
Jones is off to a strong start, but what happens in late May and early June won’t determine who the Colts’ starting quarterback is come September. However, with Richardson having less time than Jones under center, he’ll also have less time to make up ground when training camp arrives.