Colts quarterback Daniel Jones signed a two-year contract today that ensures he’ll be the starter in Indianapolis when he’s healthy. But when will he be healthy?
Jones told Pat McAfee today that he’s making progress on his recovery from the torn Achilles tendon that ended his 2025 season, and his goal is to play in the 2026 opener.
“I’m planning on being back and the goal is shoot for Week One,” Jones said.
There’s no guarantee that Jones will be ready for Week One. He tore his Achilles on December 7, so the Colts’ opener will be about nine months after the injury. Some players have returned from a torn Achilles tendon faster than that, but other players have needed longer.
Jones made clear that he believes the Colts can be the kind of team they were before his injury last season. They were 8-4 when he got hurt and 8-9 at the end of the season.
“We’ve got a special thing going,” Jones said.
He hopes to get that special thing going in Week One.
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The Commanders have agreed to terms with tight end Chig Okonkwo and safety Nick Cross, NFL Media reports.
Okonkwo, 26, will receive a three-year deal but terms were not disclosed.
He ranks 93rd on PFT’s top-100 free agents list.
The Titans made Okonkwo a fourth-round choice in 2022, and he played 68 games, with 42 starts, in his four seasons in Tennessee. He has 194 receptions for 2,017 yards and eight touchdowns in his career.
Cross, 24, will sign a two-year deal worth up to $14 million, per NFL Media.
The Colts made Cross a third-round pick in 2022, and he appeared in 67 games, with 38 starts, in his four seasons in Indianapolis.
He has totaled 322 tackles, 3.5 sacks, five interceptions, 12 pass breakups and two forced fumbles.
The Colts and quarterback Daniel Jones have reached agreement on a two-year contract, hours before he could have negotiated with other teams under the transition tag.
We’ve gotten the full terms of the contract. Here they are, per a source with knowledge of the specifics:
1. Signing bonus: $44 million.
2. 2026 base salary: $5.49 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 per-game roster bonus: $510,000 total ($30,000 per game).
4. 2027 offseason roster bonus: $4 million, $510,000 of which is fully guaranteed at signing.
5. 2027 base salary: $33.49 million base salary, $10 million of which is guaranteed for injury at signing and becomes fully guaranteed in March 2027.
There are $6 million in annual incentives. Triggers include $100,000 for each win in which he plays at least 50 percent of the offensive snaps. Others are tied to making the playoffs and postseason wins. (We’re working on getting the full package.)
Also, there are no terms in the contract that require him to pass a physical in order to unlock any of the payments, even though he’s still recovering from a torn Achilles tendon suffered in December 2025.
It’s the biggest two-year contract in league history. It sets up a renegotiation in 2027 — or an early release that would put Jones on the open market.
Danny Dimes will be depositing a lot of dollars at the local Building & Loan.
PFT has confirmed that the Colts and quarterback Daniel Jones have struck a deal on a two-year contract that will replace his transition tag for 2026.
The contract has a base value of $88 million, roughly $5 million more than playing for two years under the transition tag ($37.833 million plus $45.4 million, for a total of $83.233 million). Of the amount, $50 million is fully guaranteed at signing.
The deal includes up to $6 million in annual incentives, pushing the maximum value to $100 million over two years.
He’ll earn $50 million in 2026, before any of the incentives. In 2027, he’ll get $38 million before incentives, $10 million of which is guaranteed for injury at signing. The $10 million becomes fully guaranteed next March, creating a clear pivot point for the Colts to keep the deal going or tear it up.
We’ll be hunting-and-pecking a full breakdown of the terms soon.
The biggest news of Tuesday night was that the Ravens have backed out of trading for Maxx Crosby and Wednesday’s major headlines is expected to include news on another top-flight pass rusher.
According to multiple reports, expectation around the league is that Trey Hendrickson will be making his decision about his next team on Wednesday. The Crosby trade falling apart could factor into that choice.
Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports that the Ravens have joined the Eagles and Colts in the mix for Hendrickson’s services. Albert Breer of SI.com adds the Cowboys to the list of teams keeping tabs on where things stand with Hendrickson and notes that the Ravens making a big push for Hendrickson would “bolster suspicions some teams have” that the Crosby decision was not solely based on the state of his surgically repaired knee.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported this week that there was a gap of around $10 million per year between what Hendrickson was looking for and the offers he was receiving since the negotiating window opened on Monday. The Crosby news may have helped close that gap by increasing the competition for his services and a fuller picture of how things are playing out could come in the near future.
The Colts and quarterback Daniel Jones are getting closer to a new deal.
The sides have made significant progress on a two-year contract and are optimistic that the deal could get done today, according to NFL Network.
The Colts put the transition tag on Jones, which means he’s free to negotiate with any other team, and if he signs with another team, the Colts would have the option of either matching that team’s offer or letting him walk, with the Colts getting no compensation. The Colts have said they want Jones to be their starting quarterback going forward, although Jones is coming off a torn Achilles tendon, which complicates matters.
Jones was playing some of the best football of his career last year prior to his season-ending injury, and the Colts were in contention at 8-4. But they lost their final five games after Jones’ injury and missed the playoffs.
Now they’re optimistic that Jones will be back in 2026, healthy, and playing like he did in 2025.
Indianapolis has locked up receiver Alec Pierce with a long-term deal.
Will Daniel Jones be next?
Though the Colts gave themselves the right to match any offer Jones receives on the open market with the transition tag, multiple reporters on the team’s beat noted on Tuesday afternoon that Indianapolis is still working toward striking a long-term deal with the quarterback.
Jones, who turns 29 in May, is currently set to make $37.833 million if he plays on the transition tag in 2026, which would be a one-year contract. Jones is also free to explore the open market for any deal from a quarterback-needy team. But the Colts have the right of first refusal to match it.
Jones is still recovering from a torn Achilles suffered in early December.
Prior to his injury, Jones completed 68 percent of his passes for 3,101 yards with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 13 games.
Jones has never started every game in a season — though he was healthy for all of the Giants’ 2022, the club rested him for Week 18 with a postseason berth already locked up. But aside from that year, Jones has started 12, 14, 11, six, 10, and 13 games each season of his career.
The Texans are adding a veteran offensive tackle.
Houston has agreed to a two-year deal with Braden Smith, according to multiple reports.
The initial numbers indicate Smith’s deal is worth $20 million.
Smith, 29, will stay in the AFC South after playing the first eight years of his career for the Colts.
Smith has dealt with multiple injury issues over the last few years. He has not played a full slate of games since 2019, when he started all 16. He played 16 games in 2022 as well. But in the last three seasons, he’s started 10, 12, and 13 games for Indianapolis.
The Texans recently agreed to trade Tytus Howard to the Browns. Smith could be a replacement for Howard at right tackle.
With Colts quarterback Daniel Jones restricted by the transition tag, he can’t receive offers from other teams until the new league year begins. Once Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET arrives, what will happen?
He’ll make $37.833 million in 2026 if he accepts the transition tag. Before then (and after 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday), he can sign an offer sheet with a new team. The Colts would have five days to match, with no right to compensation if they don’t. (He’d also fall out of the compensatory pick system, if he leaves via an offer sheet.)
For Jones, any long-term offer will be weighed against the one-year, $37.833 million bird in the hand.
Albert Breer of SI.com reported earlier this week that the Colts’ “initial offer” (which means it wasn’t the final offer) to Jones was “in the range of Sam Darnold’s three-year, $100.5 million deal” with the Seahawks. Per Breer, the Jones camp responded by saying that, if the franchise tag is applied, “a deal worth $50 million per year would be more in the ballpark” of what Jones would take.
While some (including whoever does the social-media posts for SI.com) are misinterpreting Breer’s reporting to mean Jones asked for $50 million per year, the more accurate characterization is that, if the Colts had applied the $43.895 million franchise tag, the standard approach to turning that into a long-term deal ($43.895 million in 2026, with a 20-percent bump for 2027) would have resulted in a two-year payout of $96.569 million.
So, yes, if the Colts would have used the franchise tag, $50 million per year would have become a reasonable ballpark.
But the Colts didn’t use the franchise tag. They went with the lower level. That creates the basis for a two-year payout of $83.237 million ($37.833 million for 2026 with a 20-percent bump for 2027). That works out to an average of $41.62 million.
The transition tag also opens the door to other offers. Complicating that process is both the availability of other veteran quarterbacks and Jones’s current health. He’s recovering from a torn Achilles tendon suffered in December 2025, and he has had multiple other significant injuries during his seven-year career.
The Colts seem to be banking on no one breaking the bank for an offer sheet Indy won’t match. Which makes the transition tag the starting point for a possible long-term deal that would land in the range of $41 million per year — and which also gives Jones the ability to collect $37.833 million for 2026 and play under the transition tag.
It also gives the Colts the ability to let him do just that, with a decision for 2027 and beyond made based on how 2026 goes, both as to production and as to whether he avoids another significant injury.
Which brings us back to the question that will be resolved at some point after 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday: Will another team put together an offer sheet that he’ll sign?
When word broke on Monday that the Colts and Steelers agreed on a trade that will send wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. to Pittsburgh, there were not any details of the draft pick swap that would be part of the deal.
Tuesday brought more about which picks are involved in the trade. Albert Breer of SI.com reports that the Steelers will be sending a sixth-round pick to Indianapolis for Pittman and a seventh-round selection. The trade cannot become official until the new league year is underway on Wednesday.
Pittman has also agreed to a new three-year deal with the Steelers worth $59 million.
The Colts also agreed to a new deal with wideout Alec Pierce on Monday and will move forward with him, Josh Downs, Ashton Dulin, and Anthony Gould at wide receiver.
