{"id":837720,"date":"2026-03-27T21:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/837720\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T21:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:35:19","slug":"daniel-jones-hit-key-rehab-milestone-before-agreement-with-colts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/837720\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Jones Hit Key Rehab Milestone Before Agreement With Colts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> The Colts were already headed for an expensive negotiation with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/daniel_jones\/610526\" class=\"yard_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Jones<\/a> before his season-ending Achilles injury. That both complicated contract talks and delayed a final decision until some clarity emerged on the veteran quarterback\u2019s recovery. <\/p>\n<p>Indianapolis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2026\/03\/colts-to-place-transition-tag-on-daniel-jones\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">placed the transition tag on Jones<\/a> at the beginning of March \u2013 almost three months after his December injury. That milestone is considered a crucial one in the rehab process, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48259762\/will-daniel-jones-return-form-colts-banking-it\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">per ESPN\u2019s Stephen Holder<\/a>, as the incision is healed and the success of the surgery can be better evaluated.\n<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Martin O\u2019Malley, who performed Jones\u2019 surgery, examined him at the three-month mark, as did the Colts\u2019 doctors. With their approval, the team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2026\/03\/colts-daniel-jones-agree-to-deal-2\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">finalized the two-year, $88MM deal<\/a> that had been in the works for weeks as both sides awaited medical updates.<\/p>\n<p>The Colts keeping Jones seemed like a foregone conclusion and the best outcome for both sides. Indianapolis was able to constantly monitor Jones\u2019 condition from the time he was injured, but other teams would have less information and potentially less confidence in his recovery.<\/p>\n<p>By staying put, the 28-year-old can continue working with the same medical and coaching staff as he rehabs and prepares for next season. He will not have to deal with the mental and physical rigors of finding a new home in free agency, moving to another state, and getting settled in a different offense.<\/p>\n<p>That last part is especially crucial.\u00a0The Colts are hopeful hat Jones will be back early in the regular season, if not for Week 1, but he will not be a full participant in their offseason program or training camp. His familiarity with his scheme and teammates in Indianapolis will allow him to slide back into the starting lineup as soon as he is healthy, but that would be much more difficult in a new offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colts were already headed for an expensive negotiation with Daniel Jones before his season-ending Achilles injury. That&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,7,2004,392,2381,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-837720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indianapolis","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-indianapoliscolts","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116303293699568451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}