Colts Insider Says Daniel Jones is 'No Longer Afraid,' QB is 'Playing With Confidence'

In November 2024, Daniel Jones lost his starting quarterback job with the New York Giants and was relegated to playing scout team safety. He ended the season as a practice squad quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.

Less than a year later, Jones is the Indianapolis Colts' star QB1 and a dark horse NFL MVP candidate as well.

One source in Indianapolis told The Athletic's Dianna Russini that the difference is Jones' confidence.

"In Minnesota, the coaching staff loved that Jones had been through the toughest part of the business: being a quarterback in New York. They loved his work ethic, humility and intelligence, and as one coach there put it, 'his best trait is he's coachable, coachable, coachable!' As someone in Indianapolis explained, 'He's playing with confidence that needed to come out. He's no longer afraid.'"

Jones played his first six years with the Giants, who selected him with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. There were certainly some highlights in his tenure, including 24 touchdown passes in his rookie year and a winning 2022 campaign that included New York's first playoff win in 11 seasons.

However, there were ultimately more struggles and hardships for Jones. Some factors did not help, including coaching turnovers as well as inconsistent and sometimes porous offensive lines. Numerous skill-position players also dealt with injuries during his time i town.

Still, Jones was inconsistent for much of his tenure. He struggled with turnovers and inaccuracy and didn't see the field well at times. Injuries also played a major factor, most notably a torn ACL suffered in Nov. 2023 that ended his season.

Over his final 16 games for the Giants, Jones threw for just 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

However, a clean start in Indianapolis has done wonders and showcased why the Giants had so much faith in him in 2019.

These days, Jones is playing clean, efficient and largely mistake-free football. Over five starts, the former Duke star has completed 71.3 percent of his passes for 1,290 yards, six touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Among qualified quarterbacks, Jones is eighth in QB rating (105.1), sixth in QBR (80.8) and third in yards per attempt (8.6).

Thanks in part to his efforts, the Colts are tied with five other teams for the league's best record at 4-1. Indianapolis is notably second in scoring at 32.6 PPG.

Jones and the Colts will look to keep up their winning ways on Sunday at home against the Arizona Cardinals.