Indianapolis Colts \u00b7 Age: 28 \u00b7 Year 8<\/p>\n
It might seem like cheating to have Jones leading this list, because he was already one of the best stories of last season. He\u2019s here, though, because that story didn\u2019t end well, with a torn Achilles tendon taking him out of commission in a Week 14 loss to Jacksonville. The Colts were a real playoff contender at that point, and Jones was playing the best football of his career (he finished the year with 3,101 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions). Now he\u2019s the undisputed leader of a team looking to recapture the magic that produced an 8-2 record through the first 10 games of 2025.<\/p>\n
Jones received a two-year, $88 million deal<\/a> earlier this month, after the team felt comfortable with his recovery process. It\u2019s similar to the three-year, $100 million pact Darnold received from Seattle last offseason — enough money to convey faith, but not enough to ensure true love. There is plenty for Jones to still prove, which is why there\u2019s every reason to believe he\u2019ll be motivated to continue on the right track. There is talent around him, including running back \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJonathan Taylor<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff, wide receiver \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffAlec Pierce<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff and second-year tight end \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffTyler Warren<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff. Head coach Shane Steichen, meanwhile, is the same guy who turned \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJalen Hurts<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff into an MVP candidate while serving as offensive coordinator in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Jones also went through the type of humbling experience that kept<\/a> Darnold pushing forward<\/a>. The 2019 first-round pick knows what it\u2019s like to have an entire city give up on him, as was the case when his career with the New York Giants was flatlining. Jones also was savvy enough to spend the final weeks of the 2024 season on the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 practice squad after the Giants granted him his release<\/a>. The lessons he learned by watching Darnold work with Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell certainly paid off once he signed a one-year deal in Indianapolis last year and beat out \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffAnthony Richardson<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff for the job. Like Darnold in Minneapolis, Jones didn\u2019t end his first season as a starter wearing a new uniform the way he wanted. Season 2 in Indianapolis should offer more opportunities to prove his newfound success wasn\u2019t a fluke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indianapolis Colts \u00b7 Age: 28 \u00b7 Year 8 It might seem like cheating to have Jones leading this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,7,2004,392,3562,2381,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-847715","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-indianapolis-colts-news","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116330976288452819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847715","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=847715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}