The Colts’ quarterback battle has produced a winner — and a new starter in Indianapolis.
The Colts announced Tuesday that Daniel Jones is their starting quarterback for the 2025 regular season.
Indianapolis opens the season against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 7.
NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero first reported the news.
Jones earned the job over incumbent starter Anthony Richardson, the 2023 NFL Draft’s fourth-overall pick who didn’t demonstrate enough improvement or developmental progress during their preseason battle to hold on to the starting role. Instead, the former Giants first-round selection and 2025 offseason addition Jones will lead the Colts’ offense for the first time in his NFL career.
“He’s the starting quarterback for the season,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said of Jones on Tuesday, via the Indianapolis Star. “I don’t want to have a short leash on that.”
On the field, the competition between the two was largely too close to call, but not because both excelled. Throughout Colts training camp, Jones nor Richardson was able to separate from the other with his practice performance, and while Jones and Richardson each improved from the first week of the preseason to the second, it seems as if Steichen was ultimately swayed toward selecting Jones because of how the veteran handles the offensive operation.
“You guys heard me talk about the consistency. That’s really what I was looking for,” Steichen said on Tuesday. “Really the operations at the line of scrimmage, the checks, the protection, the ball placement, the completion percentage, all that played a factor in it. I think Daniel did a great job doing that, and I think A.R. has made strides in that area, but I do feel that he still needs to continue to develop in those areas. I had a chance to talk to both of them this morning. They were both great. A.R. was great. He knows that he still needs to develop and learn in those areas, and he knows that he’s one play away.”
With six years and 70 games of NFL experience under his belt, Jones had the advantage in that department. Indianapolis also handed Jones a one-year, $14 million contract in March that included $13.15 million in fully guaranteed money, adding to the urgency and importance of testing him out as the starter as quickly as possible.
Richardson, meanwhile, encountered another health-related hurdle during the preseason competition when he was knocked out of the Colts’ Aug. 7 game against Baltimore due to a dislocated pinky, an injury suffered when Ravens edge rusher David Ojabo drilled him for an uncontested sack. That premature exit cost Richardson all but six snaps in a game in which Jones saw 30 snaps before retiring for the day, giving Jones an advantage essentially by default.
Richardson will start Week 1 in a place he first encountered last season: healthy, but relegated to the sideline as a backup behind a veteran quarterback.