Colts Clips
It’s long appeared during the offseason that Colts quarterback Daniel Jones would be ready to start the regular season, despite suffering a torn Achilles in early December.
That has not changed as the Colts have gone through the early portion of training camp.
“Felt good through the whole camp so far, and kind of — I knew I would,” Jones said Tuesday, via transcript from the team, noting he’s felt good doing everything and moving around. “I think you try to push yourself in rehab and what you’re doing in preparation for camp, kind of knowing what to expect. So, I’ve felt really good, and I’ll continue to stay on the recovery part of it, make sure I’m available and out here every day.”
Jones said he doesn’t feel like head coach Shane Steichen has limited the playbook at all during practice, despite Jones coming off an injury. To that end, Jones has been lining up under center plenty throughout camp.
“I think that was something I tried to focus on through the rehab process is pushing off that foot when I’m under center and making sure you’re not disrupting timing with running backs or with play-action game, or any of that stuff,” Jones said, adding he started doing that around four months ago. “So, that was definitely an important focus of the process, and something I’ll continue to work on.”
That’s all positive news for a Colts team that started out hot in 2025 but finished 1-8 in its last nine games, including an 0-4 record after Jones’ injury on Dec. 7.
In his 13 games last year, Jones completed 68 percent of his throws for 3,101 yards with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
When it comes to running back contracts, much of the focus has been on the guys who are (or, as to one of them, were) holding in: Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
There’s another running back who wants a new deal. But he has been practicing (and, in turn, risking the kind of injury that would immediately end all negotiations and give Taylor no security beyond 2026).
While it remains to be seen whether, and what, Gibbs gets paid, Taylor’s new deal could be coming. There’s talk that Taylor may end up with a two-year extension.
Taylor, who signed a three-year, $42 million extension in 2023 after negotiations that got contentious and at times ugly, is entering the final year of his contract. He’s due to earn a base salary of $11.98 million with per-game roster bonuses that total $1.02 million.
Taylor apparently learned about the new Robinson deal from reporters, during a Tuesday press conference.
“I gotta go talk to my agent, too,” Taylor said, via James Boyd of The Athletic. “I have faith, so I’m gonna tap in and check in with him, now that you guys broke the news to me.”
For Taylor, 27, this is likely his last shot at a big contract. And if it’s going to be a two-year extension, Taylor could match the Robinson new-money APY of $22.25 million with a three-year, $57.5 million deal.
That would put Taylor at a total average of $19.167 million through 2028.
We’ll see where it goes. But, again, the fact that he’s practicing means there’s a non-zero chance any and all pending offers will instantly go away.
Colts receiver Alec Pierce has been on the active/physically unable to perform list since the start of training camp due to offseason ankle surgery.
It’s still unclear when he’ll be ready to practice.
Head coach Shane Steichen said in his Monday press conference that he doesn’t have a better sense of Pierce’s timeline to get back on the field.
“I know that he’s working,” Steichen said, via transcript from the team. “He’s heading in the right direction for sure. So, I feel really good about that moving forward.”
Pierce, 26, signed a four-year, $114 million deal with the Colts in March to stick with the club. He’s coming off his best season, having caught 47 passes for 1,003 yards with six touchdowns in 15 games in 2025.
Bijan Robinson has not been practicing at Falcons training camp amid contract negotiations, but it looks like it is time for him to get on the field.
According to multiple reports, Robinson has agreed to a three-year extension in Atlanta. Robinson was under contract through 2027 with an $11.323 million salary locked in for the final year after the Falcons exercised their fifth-year option on his rookie deal.
The extension is reportedly worth up to $75 million with $51 million in guaranteed money and $37 million at signing. The base value is $66.75 million, which makes Robinson the highest-paid running back in the league in average annual salary.
Robinson may not remain in that spot for long, however. Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs and Colts running back Jonathan Taylor are also looking for extensions, so the picture at the top could change in the near future.
Wherever Robinson winds up, the move is the latest in a series of big deals for members of the Falcons offense. Wide receiver Drake London, tight end Kyle Pitts, and guard Matthew Bergeron have also signed long-term deals with the team this offseason.
Colts quarterback Daniel Jones is coming off a torn Achilles tendon, but you wouldn’t know that from seeing him at training camp.
That’s the word from teammates, who say Jones looks as good as ever on the practice field.
“He looks like he never got hurt,” tight end Mo Alie-Cox said, via Colts.com. “He’s throwing dimes left and right on the field, getting out the pocket, scrambling and different things like that.”
Colts guard Quenton Nelson said Jones is doing everything he could do last season.
“He’s been incredible. He’s back like he’s never left,” Nelson said. “He worked so hard to get here. It’s been awesome to see.”
Until Jones is facing defenders who can hit him in live action, expectations should be tempered. But the early returns suggest he’s on track to make the Achilles injury a distant memory when the Colts open the regular season against the Ravens on September 13.
Changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement have caused the holdout to become the hold-in, where players who want new deals show up but don’t practice until they get their contracts.
It’s less about withholding services and more about avoiding injury. And the teams typically go along with it, to a point, even if they could (if they wanted) play hardball and tell the player to get to work.
For the players who are negotiating deals and choose to practice, there’s a calculated risk. It came up last night in the context of Packers tight end Tucker Kraft, who’ll practice without an extension as he re-establishes himself after a torn ACL suffered last November.
Other players who are practicing without new deals surely have their reasons. But it’s still a risk.
Consider the comments of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel regarding cornerback Christian Gonzalez practicing while negotiating.
“Listen, we’ve talked about this contract,” Vrabel said. “It’ll either get done, and when it gets done, that’ll be the progress that’s made. Everybody that’s involved is working hard. I cannot express the professionalism that Gonzo has started camp with. It’s clear that he wants to improve, that he wants to be the best at his craft and at that position. I think that he’s made that known by the way he’s come out here to practice.”
That’s good. But here’s the thing. If lightning strikes, as it tends to do during training camp, the negotiations will end. Immediately. And they won’t continue until Gonzalez is back and able to show that he can perform at a high level.
It’s true for any player who has chosen to practice while negotiations happen. Gonzalez, Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, and any other player who is practicing while waiting for a new deal.
So that’s why players like Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs aren’t practicing. With a torn ACL or a blown-out Achilles, the offers go from wherever they currently are to zero dollars and zero cents.
The Colts have made a pair of roster moves on Monday.
Indianapolis announced the team has signed cornerback Mekhi Rodgers and waived cornerback Cameron Mitchell with an injury designation.
An undrafted rookie out of James Madison, Rodgers participated in Indianapolis’ rookie minicamp this year on a tryout basis. He also played collegiately at Saint Francis and Hobart College.
As noted by Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star, Mitchell suffered an apparent shoulder injury on Friday.
Mitchell appeared in eight games with one start for Indianapolis last season. He will revert to the Colts’ injured reserve if he clears waivers.
The McCourtys are taking over prime-time NFL pregame shows.
With Devin a fixture on NBC’s Football Night in America since 2023, Jason McCourty will add Monday Night Countdown to his ESPN workload. Jason’s move to the Monday pregame show was announced on Monday morning.
As we understand it, it wasn’t part of the recent deal that prompted Jason to go all-in with Bristol and to abandon calling Sunday games for CBS.
With ESPN using a recent round of layoffs as a pretext for firing Ryan Clark (in the least graceful way possible), a seat became open on the Monday Night Countdown desk. Initially, and in all candor, we thought it would be another opportunity to advance the More McAfee plan — if only to further justify a looming $60 million per year payday.
McCourty moving into Clark’s chair doesn’t mean there won’t be a McAfee presence on Monday nights. Whatever his role will be, it likely won’t be announced until the ink is dry on the new contract.
Regardless, Sunday night will be Devin night, and Monday night will be Jason night. Which will surely cause some casual observers to think that it’s one guy working for both networks.
The Colts are set to have linebacker CJ Allen on the field for the first time in training camp.
Allen was placed on the physically unable to perform list with a minor calf injury at the start of camp and the team announced on Friday that he has been activated. That clears Allen to get on the practice field and leaves wide receiver Alec Pierce as the only player on their PUP list.
The Colts drafted Allen in the second round this April. He was an All-American at Georgia during his final college season.
Now that Allen has been given the green light to practice, he will work on securing a starting job to kick off his NFL career.
The Colts brought in a familiar name for a tryout, but it doesn’t appear as if it was successful.
Via the league’s daily transaction wire, Chase Claypool was among a group of four players who tried out for Indianapolis on Thursday.
But the Colts ended up signing the other receiver who was a part of it — undrafted rookie Liam Clifford.
Claypool has not appeared in a regular-season game since 2023 when he played for the Dolphins. He spent time with the Bills in 2024.
Running backs Jermar Jefferson and Roydell Williams also tried out for the Colts on Thursday.
