It’s really quite simple when it comes to predicting the outcome of the Colts’ upcoming season: If Daniel Jones can stay healthy through most if not the entire year – if he plays 14 or more games – the Colts have every reason to believe they can reach the playoffs. If he continues to look as good, and as healthy, as he has since his rapid return to the field after his Achilles tendon tear, Indy can survive the early-season gauntlet (Baltimore, Kansas City and Houston) and win 10 games, or at least enough victories to earn a post-season spot.
If he can’t stay healthy, look out below.
However it plays out – and we’re quickly reminded the Jones hasn’t stayed healthy for an entire season since 2022 – he deserves great credit for working his way back so quickly from a serious injury. At the beginning of the rehab process, the Colts were hopeful but didn’t know for sure that Jones would return in time for training camp. Instead, he was back faster than anybody could have expected, much like Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, returning to the fold in time for minicamp earlier this summer. (The same surgeon operated on Jones, Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton; Jones has spoken to Haliburton about what the two have gone through in recent months.)
How’s he looked? Phenomenal. He’s throwing. He’s running. He’s navigating the pocket. If you didn’t know Jones was returning from a major injury, you never would have known while watching him operate during this year’s camp and pre-season.
Now, to quote Carlie Irsay-Gordon, we get to see how the movie ends. It started so beautifully, Shane Steichen and Jones coming together to produce an exhilarating 8-2 start while putting up historically gaudy offensive numbers. Steichen knows it’s a new season and he knows both he and Chris Ballard are on the hot seat. Make the playoffs – or make the playoffs and make some kind of a run – or both men are likely toast, Ballard more so than Steichen.
As Irsay-Gordon said several times during her post-season press conference after last season, she is “pissed” and she doesn’t care who knows it.
“We have been very clear with Chris and Shane that giving them another opportunity means that the sense of urgency for them to deliver and perform has never been higher,” the Colts co-owner said at the time.
The Vegas over-under for Colts victories is 8.5 wins, which sounds about right. I’ll take the over, but not by much. As I mentioned previously, I see them going 9-8. The offense will hum, as long as Alec Pierce returns quickly to form and Jones remains ambulatory. The offensive line figures to be better than solid, Jonathan Taylor, who has a healthy new contract, will do what he always does and if Pierce plays up to his contract, the weapons outside are formidable, if lacking depth.
