ESPN’s Ben Solak handed out superlatives after free agency and the Colts earned the ‘Portent of Doom’ award after signing Daniel Jones.
As ESPN’s Ben Solak wrote recently, on paper, he gets why the Indianapolis Colts signed Daniel Jones. However, he doesn’t believe it’s a good sign of things to come either.
Solak recently handed out his awards following the first wave of NFL free agency, and the Colts received the ‘Biggest Portent of Doom’ Award by signing Jones.
Solak equated the addition of Jones as the Colts taking two bets instead of one, banking on either Anthony Richardson making a leap or Jones finding success with a new team, as several quarterbacks in recent years have.
However, even so, Solak is very much underwhelmed by this quarterback battle, with GM Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen needing to find success in 2025.
“How much success can a team draw from a QB room of Richardson and Jones when it doesn’t have a dominant WR1 and when two starting offensive linemen just left in free agency?” Solak wrote.
“Sure, the ceiling on Richardson is high enough to see a glimmer of hope, but that’s what the Colts have been hanging their hat on for two years. How likely is Richardson to hit that ceiling? And how likely is Jones to have a 2025 season at the level of, say, Sam Darnold’s 2024? The Colts are making some long, long bets at the position.”
After Richardson was benched last season, upon his return to the starting lineup in Week 11, his play through that second half of the season was improved compared to where it was at through the first eight weeks of the season. Ballard and Steichen are banking on the competition from this quarterback battle having similar results this summer.
However, in order to foster that competition, it took a fairly hefty one-year deal to land Jones, who will be earning $14 million and can earn as much as $17.7 million this season. That’s a good chunk of salary cap space being taken away from other positions–like the offensive line–that could have helped Richardson.
Also, if this is, in fact, an open competition, then that should mean equal reps for each quarterback, and that takes valuable snaps away from Richardson, something he still very much needs as a relatively inexperienced player.
So I think what Solak is getting at here is that, while there may be upside that each quarterback can hit, the odds of the Colts catching that isn’t exactly great, which again would leave them living in mediocrity.
“For the last time, yes, it’s objectively a wise move to get Jones in the building to compete with Richardson,” added Solak. “But the very fact that it is a wise move to add Jones highlights how dire of a situation the Colts franchise is in. If snagging Jones from the Vikings is a big sigh of relief, then your franchise is in a bad way.”
