According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, the Indianapolis Colts offered pending free agent starting quarterback Daniel Jones ‘Sam Darnold money’, but Jones and his camp countered with a surprising $50 million per year contract proposal:
“The Colts’ initial offer to Jones was in the range of Sam Darnold’s three-year, $100.5 million deal last offseason,” writes Breer. “Jones’s camp countered that, based on the leverage a franchise tag would have given him, a deal worth $50 million per year would be more in the ballpark of what he’d take if he did a deal before this week.”
“So rather than franchise Jones, the Colts put the transition tag on him. And here we are.”
“I do believe Jones wants to be in Indianapolis. He’s rehabbing from a torn Achilles that is going to cost him most, if not all, of his offseason. Given that, it seems obvious that his best chance to have a great 2026 would be in a familiar place, where he doesn’t have to learn a new offense or new teammates. That, of course, is Indianapolis.”
“What, then, would motivate the Colts to do a deal, rather than have Jones play on the $37.833 million tender? Here’s what: If Jones plays great in 2026, then the team would either transition him again in ’27 at $45.4 million or franchise him, and at that point, he’d have the leverage to ask for top-of-the-market money, since a third tag is prohibitively expensive. That doesn’t mean the Colts have to pay him $50 million per year now. However, it does mean that it’d behoove them to explore a longer-term deal.”
“The benefit for Jones would be having a chance to really build something with his teammates in Indianapolis and, if they can get a deal done fast enough, giving the Colts a chance to bring Pierce back into a skill group that has Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman Jr., Tyler Warren and Josh Downs on hand.”
“So, the best thing for everyone is to hammer out a deal on Monday morning. We’ll see.”
Per OverTheCap, the quarterback franchise tag for 2026 was $43.895M, whereas the transition tag, which the Colts in the end utilized to Jones, earlier than final Tuesday’s deadline, is $37.833M.
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It’s a bit of shocking to me that Jones and his illustration requested much more cash than this yr’s quarterback franchise tag, which in his case, is the calculation of the typical of the Top 5 cap hits on the quarterback place over the past 5 years.
We can all fairly agree that Jones was within the midst of a breakout marketing campaign—and profession yr, in 2025 throughout his Colts debut season earlier than important accidents struck after midseason, but there’s no logical argument that he’s near being a Top 5 quarterback on this league—and ought to be paid at that positional premium accordingly.
If the Colts had been dedicated to preserving Jones as their prime precedence, even over wideout Alec Pierce (and proper or unsuitable for that matter!), then it is sensible as to why Indianapolis surprisingly positioned the transition tag on their QB1 as an alternative.
There’s no approach they had been going to rationally attain Jones and his illustration’s preliminary lofty contract calls for, underneath good conscience. If another person is, they nonetheless have the chance to match (which ehhhh!), and in the event that they aren’t, the Colts get him again at a way more comfy $37.833 million (not nice, but nonetheless higher than $50 million!) for subsequent season.
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In the interim, there stays the cheap hope that the Colts and Jones can nonetheless attain a more economical, multi-year deal too that works out nicely for either side.
While longtime basic supervisor Chris Ballard has undertaken his justifiable share of criticism over this previous week, with an untagged Pierce departing as an unrestricted free agent now a sensible chance in a couple of days, the truth that the Colts offered Jones ‘Sam Darnold money,’ which was a 3-year, $100.5 million deal (with $55 million guaranteed) signed last offseason appears greater than truthful. In explicit, due to the place Jones is at in his respective professional profession compared to Darnold, and particularly coming off a late season torn Achilles harm.
For what it’s value, Breer additionally famous that he initiatives Pierce’s new contract—with the Colts or elsewhere to be round $28-30 million per yr, and that Indianapolis made a commerce offer final summer season for Cincinnati Bengals looming free agent former All-Pro defensive finish Trey Hendrickson, who requested a commerce final offseason. Hendrickson wasn’t franchise tagged by Cincinnati this go round, and like Pierce, is ready to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent—additionally as one of the crucial coveted gamers on this yr’s free company class.
