Source: Dylan Buell / Getty
**Colts Having To Overcome Daniel Jones’ Struggles**
**INDIANAPOLIS –** Having won 2 straight games, the Colts are doing that while having to overcome Daniel Jones’ multi-faceted struggles.
The most alarming issue for Jones right now is his turnovers.
Jones has committed 7 turnovers this season, contributing to the Colts losing the turnover battle in each of their 4 games. Since losing Alec Pierce, Jones has 5 turnovers the last two weeks.
Turnover problems were something we saw with Jones in his New York days, with these issues showing up more than once.
A week after Shane Steichen stressed the need for Jones to “hold onto the ball” in the pocket, the quarterback fumbled on the second snap of the game against the Commanders.
Later in that first half, there was Jones tossing another back-footed interception, with such a heave removing any hope of potentially adding 3 points with the booming leg of Spencer Shrader. It was eerily similar to the mistake we saw the week prior from Jones.
“I think every turnover has its own story,” Steichen says. “I think there’s a lot that goes into it. There’s some plays where you can live for another down and not force things. We’ve talked about having two hands on the ball in the pocket, which is a big part of it.
“But I think there’s a lot of things that tie into it, the protection, the route discipline, all that stuff. Play calls, making sure the calls are right to make sure guys are open.”
Even if you remove the turnovers from Jones’ play to start the 2026 season, the passing offense isn’t giving the Colts enough.
Jones is averaging a career-low 5.7 yards per pass attempt, an important metric when measuring the success of the passing offense. Jones is 28th among the 29 qualifying quarterbacks this season in yards per pass attempt.
Some of these issues could certainly be a result of not having Pierce and the deep ball threat he provides, and attention he draws from an opposing defense.
As currently constructed, the Colts are way too restricted to an underneath passing game.
“We’ve got to do a good job of creating the explosive plays first and foremost, and scheming them up and trying to get balls down the field as much as we can,” Steichen says, acknowledging the need to improve that low yards per attempt number.
“That’s a big part and that’s a challenge for us every week. And we’ll work through those every week to try to get those explosive plays because it’s only going to help our offense for sure. And I think in the run game, we’re pretty explosive in the run game with JT (Jonathan Taylor), but you want to be explosive in the pass game as well to balance that stuff out. So, we’ve got to do a good job of trying to find those explosive plays any way we can.”
These giveaway problems and passing offense struggles were big reasons why Jones was eventually benched in New York.
Returning to football less than 10 months from tearing his right Achilles, Jones has looked much more like the struggling player he was with the Giants and not the one the Colts saw in the first couple of months last season.
Did the NFL world figure Jones and the Colts out, following their hot two-month start to last season?
Will Jones snap out of this, as he’s still less than a year removed from tearing his Achilles?
Earlier this week, Steichen downplayed the Achilles aspect to Jones’ current form.
“I can’t say that,” the head coach said. “He’s obviously ran for a touchdown. He moves around pretty good, so like that.
“We just got to get those things cleaned up moving forward, and I do feel confident that we’ll get that done.”
The beauty of the NFL is 4 games doesn’t define one’s season.
It’s simply a quarter of the story.
The leash for Jones is extremely long in the eyes of Steichen, and the organization.
But his level of play has to improve, in several areas, if the ability of the $100 million quarterback is no longer going to be a concern.