The Indianapolis Colts were under fire for their decision to move on from Anthony Richardson.
Then, Daniel Jones looked like prime Peyton Manning out there, and everybody forgot about the former first-round pick.
As pointed out by NFL researcher Dante Koplowitz-Fleming, Jones led the Colts to a historical performance in his first game with the Colts:
“With Daniel Jones fresh off winning the quarterback battle in preseason, the Colts kicked off the 2025 season with a scoring drive against the Dolphins. And then another. And another. And another. All seven of the Colts possessions ended in a field goal or touchdown. No turnovers, no punts, no kneel downs. They are the first team since at least 1991 to score on every single possession in a game (1991 is as far back as drive data has been tracked). And they did it with a quarterback making his team debut,” Koplowitz-Fleming wrote.
For years, the Colts have been a quarterback away from being a legitimate playoff contender.
They’ve struggled mightily to find a replacement since Andrew Luck shockingly announced his retirement shortly before the start of the season.
Now, they may have finally found their guy.
Shane Steichen kept the team floating around .500 and in the playoff race with Gardner Minshew as his starter for most of his first year in charge of the team.
That speaks volumes about his coaching and offensive mind.
Then, the Anthony Richardson experiment continued to hold this team back, but it looked like they had more than enough in place to be competitive.
Jones has struggled for most of his career, except for his first season under Brian Daboll, so there were plenty of reasons to be skeptical about him.
Still, he does have all the physical tools and traits one would want from a starting-caliber quarterback.
It was just a game, and it looks like the Miami Dolphins will be on the wrong side of multiple blowouts this season, yet it was fairly encouraging.
Whether he can keep this up for 17 weeks remains to be seen.
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