{"id":848749,"date":"2026-04-02T06:59:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/848749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T06:59:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:59:43","slug":"nfl-com-names-colts-qb-daniel-jones-as-top-next-sam-darnold-candidate-for-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/848749\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL.com names Colts QB Daniel Jones as top \u2018Next Sam Darnold\u2019 candidate for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to NFL.com\u2019s Jeffri Chadiha, recently re-signed Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones is his top candidate to become the \u2018Next Sam Darnold\u2019 for the 2026 campaign<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Indianapolis Colts\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Age: 28 \u00b7 Year 8<\/p>\n

It might seem like cheating to have Jones leading this list, because he was\u00a0already\u00a0one 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\u00a0a two-year, $88 million deal<\/a>\u00a0earlier 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 \u2014 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\u00a0 Jonathan Taylor<\/a> , wide receiver\u00a0 Alec Pierce<\/a> \u00a0and second-year tight end\u00a0 Tyler Warren<\/a> . Head coach Shane Steichen, meanwhile, is the same guy who turned\u00a0 Jalen Hurts<\/a> \u00a0into an MVP candidate while serving as offensive coordinator in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Jones also went through the type of humbling experience\u00a0that kept<\/a>\u00a0Darnold\u00a0pushing 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\u00a0granted 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\u00a0 Anthony Richardson<\/a> \u00a0for 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

Specifically, the 28-year-old Darnold was a former failed 2020 Top 5 pick of the New York Jets, who would bounce around to four NFL teams over the next five years, having finally found a long-term home with the Seattle Seahawks (after inking a 3-year, $100.5 million deal in free agency last offseason) and elevating his passing game en route to becoming a reigning Super Bowl Champion starting quarterback.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Like Darnold, the 28-year-old Jones was a former high draft pick, namely the 6th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, who was cast off from the New York Giants\u2014and was on his 3rd NFL team in 2 years, until he finally found a comfort zone with Colts head coach Shane Steichen last year, after signing a 1-year, $14 million contract last offseason.<\/p>\n

During his debut season with the Colts in 2025, Jones was in the middle of a breakout career campaign, before injuries struck down the season\u2019s stretch, including a fractured fibula which Jones gutted out and played through, and then the season-ending torn Achilles suffered in Week 14. Still recovering, the Colts felt comfortable enough with Jones\u2019 underlying medicals and rehab progress to sign him to a 2-year, $88 million\u2014which can be worth up to $100 million in performance incentives.<\/p>\n

Having battled through injuries throughout his career, including previously with the Giants, if Jones can maintain his initial level of production from last year with the Colts before critical injuries limited him, this latest Indianapolis re-signing will have been a home run. However, it has to be for largely a full season too, something that Jones has somewhat struggled with t0-date\u2014from both a consistency and durability standpoint.<\/p>\n

That would very well place him in \u2018Sam Darnold territory\u2019 as a starting quarterback but the hope would also have to be that a late season surge and Super Bowl run would accompany such an earned status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to NFL.com\u2019s Jeffri Chadiha, recently re-signed Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones is his top candidate to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[4994,2005,2772,7,2004,392,2381,212,492,1753,110,259,56,255,6,242,1878,237,261,4975,589],"class_list":{"0":"post-848749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-alec-pierce","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-daniel-jones","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-indianapolis","13":"tag-indianapolis-colts","14":"tag-indianapoliscolts","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-jalen-hurts","17":"tag-jonathan-taylor","18":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","19":"tag-minnesota-vikings","20":"tag-new-york-giants","21":"tag-new-york-jets","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-philadelphia","24":"tag-sam-darnold","25":"tag-seattle","26":"tag-seattle-seahawks","27":"tag-shane-steichen","28":"tag-tyler-warren"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116333823334031375","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848749","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=848749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}