Indianapolis fell to 2-6 after a 42-7 loss to Jacksonville, and the front office has already started moving veterans off the roster.
The Indianapolis Colts are already in selling mode. They have traded guard Quenton Nelson
and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner
, and they are considering trading running back Jonathan Taylor as well. However, there's an obvious trade candidate who nobody is talking about: quarterback Daniel Jones.
After a 42-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars over the weekend, Indianapolis fell to 2-6. Jones played poorly but not horribly against the Jaguars, completing 19-of-28 passes for 144 yards, one touchdown pass, and two interceptions. By the end of the game, the Colts had turned to backup quarterback Anthony Richardson in garbage time.
The Colts essentially aren't going anywhere this season
. More importantly, Jones signed a two-year deal, and it's unrealistic to expect Indianapolis to be good next year. Instead of holding on to a bridge quarterback for those two years, and a fairly expensive one, the Colts would be smarter to trade Jones if someone is willing to take on his contract.
Jones has completed 60.4% of his passes for 1,542 yards, five touchdown passes, and nine interceptions this season. That's not what the Colts expected when they signed him to a two-year, $88 million contract in the offseason.
As for potential suitors, the Minnesota Vikings are a good example
. They already had Jones in the building, so they know him. Minnesota is a competitive team with a strong defense, but it doesn't have a quarterback who can play at a high level. Kyler Murray
hasn't been good for the Vikings at all.
The big aspect is the structure of the deal. Jones doesn't have any guarantees left beyond 2026, so it's essentially a short contract now with a team option for 2027.
Jones received a $44 million signing bonus in his deal
, and he is earning a $5.49 million base salary plus $510,000 in per-game roster bonuses. If the Colts decide to trade him at the deadline, the new team would absorb only $3.05 million in base salary plus the per-game active bonuses. That would be a reasonable cost for any acquiring team, without adding extra costs to the Colts.
For 2027, Jones is set to make $38 million. The new team would have the ability to pay him that money and keep him for another year, since it isn't a prohibitive amount for a bridge quarterback. At the same time, it would also have the option to release him without paying any salary, or even to negotiate a new deal.
The risk for the acquiring team is an injury. Of his 2027 salary, $6.5 million plus a $4 million roster bonus are guaranteed for injury, so an injured Jones would carry $10.5 million in guarantees for next year. Still, that money doesn't become fully guaranteed until the fifth league day of 2027.
If the Colts can find a suitor for Jones, they could recoup some draft capital. And in a year when they are essentially giving up after firing general manager Chris Ballard, Indianapolis could test Anthony Richardson once again, or even Riley Leonard, as potential quarterbacks of the future.
That would also allow the Colts to make a final determination on what Richardson will be in Indianapolis. Richardson himself could be a trade candidate, because the former first-round pick is in the final year of his rookie deal, and the Colts didn't pick up his fifth-year option. Even so, playing him the rest of the way would give the front office more information before making that call.
Meanwhile, Jones is a 29-year-old quarterback, and it's hard to find a path for the Colts to actually have him as their franchise quarterback. Therefore, it would be smarter for Indy to recoup some draft capital and move on from that big salary.
This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Colts have an obvious trade candidate no one is talking about, and his contract makes a deadline move surprisingly easy
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