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INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts wanted to make their news before the tag deadline. Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard wanted to sign starting quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce to long-term extensions before he using a tag, an option he’s only used once before.
The Colts couldn't accomplish Ballard’s goal.
Indianapolis is using the transition tag on Jones, a league source told IndyStar. It's the first time the franchise has used that tag since placing it on linebacker Tony Bennett in 1998. Jones will receive a guaranteed contract worth $37.833 million, approximately $6 million less than the franchise tag. Pierce will be a free agent if the Colts don't sign him to a long-term deal.
The Colts have been working on a deal with Jones and his representation for more than two weeks, league sources told IndyStar, and the tag gives the Colts the right to match any deal Jones is offered by another team. The Colts likely believe they’ll be able to keep an offer from happening; the NFL’s legal tampering window opens Monday, March 9.
However, if the Colts don't match another team's offer, Jones leaves without the two first-round draft picks that would come with a franchise tag.
By placing the transition tag on Jones, the Colts allow Pierce to get one step closer to free agency, although it is likely that Indianapolis plans to spend the rest of the week working on retaining both, the team’s top two offseason priorities.
“Daniel and Alec are such big pieces,” Ballard said at the NFL scouting combine last week. “We move and fit from there.”
Bringing back Jones would go a long way toward finalizing a deal with Pierce.
From the start of the offseason, Pierce has made it clear that bringing back Jones would influence his approach to free agency. The two players forged a tight bond on the golf course last offseason, and then Pierce turned in the best season of his career with Jones at the helm, catching 47 passes for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns to establish himself as arguably the NFL’s best deep threat.
The price of both players rose accordingly.
Under the terms of the transition tag, Jones is now scheduled to earn $37.833 million, although Indianapolis almost certainly sees the tag as a step on the way to a long-term deal.
Based on that figure, a new deal for Jones may be in the $38 million range in terms of average annual value — a player’s representation often sees a tag as setting the floor for a long-term salary.
Under heavy pressure to win after five consecutive seasons without a playoff berth, Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen believe their best bet is to put the ball in Jones' hands, though the quarterback will be roughly nine months removed from tearing an Achilles tendon.
The Colts have few options at the position outside of Jones. Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa, a wild card who also has significant injury concerns, is expected to be the best veteran option available. Few quarterbacks are highly regarded in the NFL draft aside from Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the presumptive No. 1 pick.
Jones has also earned the Colts’ trust, particularly Steichen's.
Deployed mostly as a run-first, dink-and-dunk quarterback in New York, Jones reinvented himself in Indianapolis by partnering with Steichen, who recognized the quarterback’s ability to read defenses as Jones’ greatest strength.
“The way he works, the way he goes about his business, his preparation is phenomenal,” Steichen said. “What he was able to do before the injury was awesome for us. Obviously, a very talented player, sees the game well, can get us in and out of the right plays, which was huge.”
Jones has always been meticulous in his preparation, searching relentlessly during the week for cues to what the opposing defense is going to do.
Steichen is the same way, capable of giving his quarterback an answer for every coverage, as long as the quarterback’s able to make the right read as the seconds tick down on the play clock.
Because of that shared approach to the game, Jones blossomed in a new role as a pocket passer, completing 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The underlying numbers backed up the Jones renaissance: Jones averaged 8.1 yards per attempt, produced a career-best 100.2 quarterback rating and averaged 0.12 expected points added per dropback, tied for the seventh-best mark in the NFL.
By the time the season reached the trade deadline, the Colts were comfortable enough with Jones under center that the team traded its next two first-round picks, along with wide receiver Adonai Mitchell, to New York to get cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Then the Achilles tendon tore, throwing a wrench into Jones’ resurgence and tanking the Indianapolis season as a whole. Jones and the Colts believe the quarterback has a chance to be back by the start of the season.
“He’s on track,” Ballard said. “With the Achilles, it’s the three-month mark where you’re kind of past the danger zone. What is he at now? Seven weeks, eight weeks. … Y’all have been around Daniel enough to know, he’s pretty diligent in everything he does. You almost have to bring him back a little bit, but we feel good enough about where he’s at and where he’s going.”
Injuries are now the biggest question about Jones, and the team’s decision to sign him to an extension.
Jones has played a full season’s worth of games just once in his career, and he’s suffered two major injuries. Brought into Indianapolis to compete with Anthony Richardson in part because of Richardson’s own lengthy injury history and issues with availability, Jones still has to prove his own durability at the NFL level.
“It’s valid, and it’s fair,” Ballard said. “There’s been a history of guys that I’ve been with that have kind of had a similar career path, and then they don’t. He’s played 83 games in his career. … The two big ones have been the ACL and the Achilles. I just think the way he prepares, how he’s built, in the long run, he’s going to be perfectly fine.”
Indianapolis believes it has a short and long-term option at quarterback in Jones.
The tag gives the Colts the right to match any offer.
And whether or not another team makes an offer, it looks like Indianapolis will have to put its money where its mouth has been since the end of the regular season.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Daniel Jones gets transition tag from Colts; what it means
Continue reading...
The Colts couldn't accomplish Ballard’s goal.
Indianapolis is using the transition tag on Jones, a league source told IndyStar. It's the first time the franchise has used that tag since placing it on linebacker Tony Bennett in 1998. Jones will receive a guaranteed contract worth $37.833 million, approximately $6 million less than the franchise tag. Pierce will be a free agent if the Colts don't sign him to a long-term deal.
The Colts have been working on a deal with Jones and his representation for more than two weeks, league sources told IndyStar, and the tag gives the Colts the right to match any deal Jones is offered by another team. The Colts likely believe they’ll be able to keep an offer from happening; the NFL’s legal tampering window opens Monday, March 9.
However, if the Colts don't match another team's offer, Jones leaves without the two first-round draft picks that would come with a franchise tag.
By placing the transition tag on Jones, the Colts allow Pierce to get one step closer to free agency, although it is likely that Indianapolis plans to spend the rest of the week working on retaining both, the team’s top two offseason priorities.
“Daniel and Alec are such big pieces,” Ballard said at the NFL scouting combine last week. “We move and fit from there.”
Bringing back Jones would go a long way toward finalizing a deal with Pierce.
From the start of the offseason, Pierce has made it clear that bringing back Jones would influence his approach to free agency. The two players forged a tight bond on the golf course last offseason, and then Pierce turned in the best season of his career with Jones at the helm, catching 47 passes for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns to establish himself as arguably the NFL’s best deep threat.
The price of both players rose accordingly.
Under the terms of the transition tag, Jones is now scheduled to earn $37.833 million, although Indianapolis almost certainly sees the tag as a step on the way to a long-term deal.
Based on that figure, a new deal for Jones may be in the $38 million range in terms of average annual value — a player’s representation often sees a tag as setting the floor for a long-term salary.
Under heavy pressure to win after five consecutive seasons without a playoff berth, Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen believe their best bet is to put the ball in Jones' hands, though the quarterback will be roughly nine months removed from tearing an Achilles tendon.
The Colts have few options at the position outside of Jones. Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa, a wild card who also has significant injury concerns, is expected to be the best veteran option available. Few quarterbacks are highly regarded in the NFL draft aside from Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the presumptive No. 1 pick.
Jones has also earned the Colts’ trust, particularly Steichen's.
Deployed mostly as a run-first, dink-and-dunk quarterback in New York, Jones reinvented himself in Indianapolis by partnering with Steichen, who recognized the quarterback’s ability to read defenses as Jones’ greatest strength.
“The way he works, the way he goes about his business, his preparation is phenomenal,” Steichen said. “What he was able to do before the injury was awesome for us. Obviously, a very talented player, sees the game well, can get us in and out of the right plays, which was huge.”
Jones has always been meticulous in his preparation, searching relentlessly during the week for cues to what the opposing defense is going to do.
Steichen is the same way, capable of giving his quarterback an answer for every coverage, as long as the quarterback’s able to make the right read as the seconds tick down on the play clock.
Because of that shared approach to the game, Jones blossomed in a new role as a pocket passer, completing 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The underlying numbers backed up the Jones renaissance: Jones averaged 8.1 yards per attempt, produced a career-best 100.2 quarterback rating and averaged 0.12 expected points added per dropback, tied for the seventh-best mark in the NFL.
By the time the season reached the trade deadline, the Colts were comfortable enough with Jones under center that the team traded its next two first-round picks, along with wide receiver Adonai Mitchell, to New York to get cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Then the Achilles tendon tore, throwing a wrench into Jones’ resurgence and tanking the Indianapolis season as a whole. Jones and the Colts believe the quarterback has a chance to be back by the start of the season.
“He’s on track,” Ballard said. “With the Achilles, it’s the three-month mark where you’re kind of past the danger zone. What is he at now? Seven weeks, eight weeks. … Y’all have been around Daniel enough to know, he’s pretty diligent in everything he does. You almost have to bring him back a little bit, but we feel good enough about where he’s at and where he’s going.”
Injuries are now the biggest question about Jones, and the team’s decision to sign him to an extension.
Jones has played a full season’s worth of games just once in his career, and he’s suffered two major injuries. Brought into Indianapolis to compete with Anthony Richardson in part because of Richardson’s own lengthy injury history and issues with availability, Jones still has to prove his own durability at the NFL level.
“It’s valid, and it’s fair,” Ballard said. “There’s been a history of guys that I’ve been with that have kind of had a similar career path, and then they don’t. He’s played 83 games in his career. … The two big ones have been the ACL and the Achilles. I just think the way he prepares, how he’s built, in the long run, he’s going to be perfectly fine.”
Indianapolis believes it has a short and long-term option at quarterback in Jones.
The tag gives the Colts the right to match any offer.
And whether or not another team makes an offer, it looks like Indianapolis will have to put its money where its mouth has been since the end of the regular season.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Daniel Jones gets transition tag from Colts; what it means
Continue reading...
