Colts quarterback Daniel Jones says he’s lucky to have such smart friends.
To help him battle a fractured fibula in the final stretch of the regular season, Jones phoned some of his old Duke teammates to help.
Jones, who spent three seasons playing for the Blue Devils from 2016-18, had former Blue Devils football players Clark Bulleit and Kevin Gehsmann create a custom 3D-printed pad to protect the quarterback’s injured leg.
An up-close at the special pad Daniel Jones is wearing on his lowe left leg. AP
Bulleit and Gehsmann majored in mechanical and biomedical engineering while at Duke and now run Protect3D, a company that creates custom-printed 3D braces and orthotics.
“I’m lucky to have smart friends,” Jones said jokingly to reporters on Wednesday. “It’s pretty low-profile and fits to my leg pretty well. I don’t really notice it.”
This is not the first time that the two have helped Jones out, with the pair creating a pad for Jones in 2018 after he fractured his collarbone during a game against Northwestern.
Bulleit and Gehsmann needed just a 60-second scan of Jones’ fibula that led to a design process that took 90 minutes.
Jones received the pad less than two days later, the night prior to the Colts’ 23-20 loss to the Chiefs.
Daniel Jones throws a pass during the Colts’ Week 12 loss to the Chiefs on Nov. 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. AP
“I think they had the idea before (his broken collarbone), but I was the first pad that they printed that was played with,” Jones said. “They were starting up that business and had had the idea about it my last year at Duke.
“And since then, they’ve built a pretty good business, 3D printing those devices and pads. Kind of funny that I’m using one of them again, but they’re smart guys. I’m lucky to have smart friends.”
Jones, 28, has previously told reporters that he does not exactly know when his injury happened, saying that it lingered over time and he realized in mid-November.
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“It was just something that kind of was hanging over and [I] realized it last week. … Just been trying to get treatment and make sure I’m in the best spot that I can be,” Jones told reporters on Nov. 26. “Tough to say exactly when.
“I’ll be ready to go on Sunday. Obviously, [I] was out there last week. I’m good to go.”
The Colts play the Jaguars on the road on Sunday.