Holding onto Daniel Jones past Tuesday’s trade deadline while your franchise is actively stripping the copper wiring out of the walls is managerial malpractice.
Look at what the Indianapolis Colts are doing right now. They sit at 2-6 entering Sunday’s matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, riding a four-game losing streak after getting obliterated 42-7 by the Jacksonville Jaguars. They already shipped out Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner. On Saturday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Indianapolis is taking trade calls on both Jonathan Taylor and its 29-year-old starting quarterback.
Then Tom Pelissero reported later on Saturday that while the phones are ringing, the Colts have told interested teams they are not trading Jones.
“The Colts have received calls on QB Daniel Jones ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, but they’ve told interested teams they aren’t trading him,” Pelissero posted on X.
If Indianapolis actually stands pat at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday instead of using Pelissero to drive up the price, the front office deserves every ounce of cap purgatory coming its way. You cannot trade away your foundational players, shop your star running back, and simultaneously cling to a quarterback posting a 68.7 passer rating like he is a franchise cornerstone.
Shane Steichen’s Vote of Confidence Has Zero Aura
The only person in the building who still seems to think this offense can function as currently constructed is head coach Shane Steichen. After benching Jones late in that 42-7 demolition by Jacksonville, Steichen stepped to the podium earlier this week and tried to sell the locker room on staying the course.
“Obviously evaluating the tape and looking back at it, some things he could do better, some things that we need to help him with moving forward. But I do feel that Daniel gives us the best chance to win right now,” Steichen said.
Win what, exactly? A worse draft slot in April?
I understand the coaching counter-argument that Steichen and the front office are clinging to here: Jones went 8-5 with 3,101 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, and five rushing scores in 13 starts last year before tearing his Achilles, and yanking him now could turn a 2-6 locker room into a complete freefall over the final nine weeks. That loyalty sounds noble until you look at the post-Achilles tape and the 2026 numbers. Through eight starts this season, Jones is completely cooked, completing 60.4% of his passes for 1,542 yards, five touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
His yards per attempt have cratered from 8.1 last season to roughly 5.8 this year. When a quarterback coming off a torn Achilles loses his lower-body drive and his ability to threaten defenses vertically or with his legs, defensive coordinators stop respecting the deep third, squat on every intermediate route, and dare him to throw into tight windows without Quenton Nelson keeping the interior pocket clean. That is how a quarterback ends up with the lowest passer rating among qualified quarterbacks in the league.
The $10.51 Million Injury Time Bomb
Even if you ignore the five touchdowns and nine picks, the contract math alone makes keeping Jones on the active roster an organizational hazard. When Indianapolis handed Jones a two-year, $88 million deal in March, the front office front-loaded it with a $44 million signing bonus and left zero fully guaranteed money after this season.
Except for one massive trapdoor.
Jones carries a $10.51 million injury guarantee for the 2027 season that becomes fully guaranteed on March 15 if he is still on the roster. Every single snap he takes behind a gutted offensive line starting Sunday against Dallas is a $10.51 million roulette spin for a dead 2-6 football team.
Meanwhile, acquiring him costs a desperate contender almost nothing. Albert Breer broke down the exact ledger on Saturday after the trade talks went public.
“Daniel Jones’ contract is tradeable,” Breer posted on X. “He’s on a base salary of $5.49 million, with $510K in per-game roster bonuses ($30K/game). Trading him for the Colts would mean his $44 million signing bonus would be a sunk cost. No fully guaranteed money after this year. Easy to move.”
That $44 million signing bonus is gone whether Jones plays in Indianapolis, sits on the bench in December to protect the 2027 cap, or wears purple in Minneapolis next week. An acquiring team like the Minnesota Vikings, who already know Jones from his prior stint in their building and boast a championship-caliber defense that cannot afford to waste a season on quarterback attrition, would take on less than $3 million in remaining base salary. Even the Baltimore Ravens checked in on Jones after losing Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley to injured reserve before pivoting to Jacoby Brissett.
And let’s stop pretending Jones is desperate to stay in Indiana and take weekly beatings for a stripped-down roster. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler pulled the curtain back on Saturday regarding how the league views the mood inside that building.
“Daniel Jones is earmarked and on my radar for this weekend… because people around the league I’ve spoken to, and even some people with the Colts, believe that Daniel Jones should be trying to get out of Indy, or maybe wants to because it’s a bit of a sinking ship there, rebuild, questions about whether he should be benched every week. So if there is a quarterback deal to be had, my sense is that Jones wouldn’t mind being a part of it,” Fowler said.
When people inside your own building are whispering to national reporters that your starting quarterback ought to want off the sinking ship, the marriage is over. Jones can even waive that $10.51 million injury guarantee to facilitate a move out of town.
I respect a front office that commits to a full teardown, and I respect a front office that goes all-in, but I have zero patience for a 2-6 regime that trades away DeForest Buckner and Quenton Nelson only to get sentimental about a five-touchdown, nine-interception bridge quarterback. If the Colts leave Jones on the field past Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET instead of taking whatever Day 3 pick Minnesota or the next injured contender offers, they will be forced to bench him by Thanksgiving anyway just to dodge a $10.51 million medical bill in March.
