Stampede Blue
According to head coach Shane Steichen, while he doesn’t have the medical specifics yet, the status of Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback Daniel Jones’s injured Achilles “is not looking good.”
Steichen indicated that it could be potentially season-ending, with Jones missing the remainder of 2025.
Jones suffered the non-contact injury with around 35 seconds left in the first quarter, as he was backpedaling from the Jaguars pass rush, attempted to plant and throw—only to have his once healthy lower right leg buckle.
Jones had been playing through a fractured fibula on his left leg, and while I’m no medical doctor, it’s possible that his healthy right leg trying to overcompensate may have led to the other leg suffering a serious Achilles injury.
Jones immediately went down on the field and was in obvious pain, clutching his injured lower right leg, and while he was able to gingerly walk to the Colts locker room under his own power, surrounded by members of the Colts training staff, it didn’t look good. In the aftermath since, it doesn’t seemingly look any better.
The Colts managed to dodge a season-ending Achilles injury with star cornerback Sauce Gardner last weekend, who suffered a calf strain, but it’s starting to look increasingly likely that it won’t be the same case with Jones.
With primary backup Anthony Richardson sill on injured reserve with an orbital fracture, the Colts were forced to turn to rookie backup quarterback Riley Leonard—who played about as well as a rookie 6th round pick with zero career starts and 2 pass attempts to his NFL name entering the day would in a critical divisional road game.
Having lost Jones, the Colts appeared to be on the losing trail after the first quarter, eventually falling handedly 36-19 to Jacksonville in yet another consecutive loss—as the franchise hasn’t won in Duval County since 2014.
However, of even bigger concern, is now Jones’s future status and availability.
The pending free agent had a hot start to the 2025 campaign, but if it’s a torn Achilles, could now miss at least the next 9 months, which could be even an optimistic timeline for his eventual return.
Whether that will could be with Indianapolis or elsewhere remains to be seen, but the Colts are potentially in an even bigger bind with no first round picks to select a starting quarterback within the next two draft classes (barring a trade)—having dealt them in a blockbuster deal for Gardner just ahead of the NFL trade deadline.
