Daniel Jones is rewriting the narrative in his first season in Indianapolis.
The former New York Giants quarterback has found new life with the Colts, looking little like the sporadic, inefficient, fumble-prone signal-caller we saw for much of his career with Big Blue.
Through seven weeks, Jones is on pace for career highs in completion percentage, yards per attempt and passing yards in Shane Steichen's offense.
The quarterback's play has turned heads outside the building. In Indy, he's been the same guy since he arrived this offseason.
Colts receiver Michael Pittman told Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio on Thursday that the perception of Jones from his days in New York was completely off the mark.
"When he came in, obviously, there was a bunch of negative media," Pittman said. "I always thought of Daniel as a good quarterback. He just wasn't in a great system to help him succeed. But I always thought that he was super tough. He's a tough guy, he used to take a lot of sacks. He used to stand in that pocket and deliver throws and stuff like that. I was excited for him.
"And then he got here, and he was nothing like what the media portrayed him out to be. And I just never could understand why Dan was over-hated where he was at prior. Because the way he showed up, he's a great dude, a great teammate, he's a guy that you love to be around inside the building and outside of the building. I never understood how that negative stuff found him when he was at his other spot."
Jones flashed during his rookie season, putting up 3,027 yards and a career-high 24 TD passes, but also turned the ball over a lot (12 interceptions, 11 fumbles lost). He generated his best season in 2022, putting up 3,205 yards and a league-low 1.1 interception percentage, which led Big Blue to hand him a massive contract extension.
Injuries and inconsistent play behind a porous offensive line led the Giants to regret the contract, eventually cutting him midway through the 2024 season. After spending the rest of the campaign with the Minnesota Vikings as a backup, Jones moved to Indy in the offseason.
The current chapter of his career is a completely different script.
Jones has a career-high 71.0 completion percentage in 2025, fifth-highest in the NFL. His 101 first downs are behind only Patrick Mahomes (110) and Justin Herbert (102) entering Week 8. Jones has generated six games with a 100-plus passer rating, tied for most in the NFL -- he had just five such games over his last two seasons with the Giants.
Jones is proving the type of quarterback he can be with good protection in an offense that fits his skill set. After getting beaten up in New York, he's been sacked fewer times than any QB (6) in the NFL. His 2.7 sack percentage leads the NFL (9.6 sack percentage from 2022-24; 32nd among 36 qualified QBs).
After playing for three different head coaches (Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, Brian Daboll) and four different offensive coordinators (Mike Shula, Jason Garrett, Freddie Kitchens, Mike Kafka) in his six seasons with New York, Jones looks at home under Steichen. The quarterback has been on target with quick throws and thrives on play action. He's completed 76 percent of his passes under 20 yards with a 113.7 passer rating. With the threat of Jonathan Taylor and the run game, Jones has feasted on play action. The Colts have the most play-action dropbacks (87) and the most passing YPG on play action (110.7) by any team in 2025, per Next Gen Stats (second-most play-action passing YPG in a season since 2020).
Jones is the latest example of a high draft pick finding new life after being dropped into an untenable situation early in his career.
