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Colts’ Jones building trust with teammates, offense
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones discusses building trust with his teammates.
INDIANAPOLIS — Making the correct pre-snap read is a crucial part of successful quarterback play.
Colts quarterback Daniel Jones must identify what the defense is doing and relay what he’s seeing to the rest of the offense before the play clock hits zero or center Tanor Bortolini snaps the ball. If Jones and Bortolini aren’t seeing the same thing, the play could be dead in the water before it begins.
Bortolini is in his second year as a starter, but first with Jones as QB1. Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, Jones and Bortolini will have their first chance to operate as a tandem during a regular season game.
“There’s gotta be good communication between those two guys, which I’ve seen, obviously through training camp and just how they talk about protections and certain things and getting to the right calls and the right checks,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said.
As a rookie, Bortolini was thrown into the deep end after an injury sidelined starter Ryan Kelly. Coming from a simplified offense at Wisconsin, Bortolini had a lot to learn about making NFL-type adjustments. Jones has seen just about everything a defense can throw at a quarterback during his 69 starts over six seasons with the New York Giants. That experience and ability to express what he’s seeing to the rest of the offense has been invaluable to Bortolini’s development.
“Pre-snap, both guys are in charge of trying to find where the problems are, but we both do a really good job communicating,” Bortolini said. “Even during the week, knowing what we need to be looking for, what each other’s thinking. … He’s a tremendous mind, and having a guy like that behind you really helps out the offensive line.”
Communication is key, but execution will ultimately determine how successful the play is. For his career, Jones has taken a very high number of sacks. Some sacks are the result of poor offensive line play but consistently taking a high number of sacks is usually the sign of a quarterback who holds onto the ball too long.
Jones’ had a career best 5.7% sack rate (times sacked/pass attempts + times sacked) in 2021. That number rose to 8.5% in 2022 before ballooning to 15.8% in 2023. For comparison, Patrick Mahomes has the lowest career sack percentage among active quarterbacks at 4.2%. Jones’ career 8.49% sack rate ranks 30th among qualified active quarterbacks. Anthony Richardson Sr. is at 5.69%.
It’s hard to imagine the Colts getting improved offensive line play from a unit replacing stalwarts Kelly and right guard Will Fries, but a lot will depend on how quickly Bortolini can adjust to NFL defenses. The Dolphins will generate pressure with Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips as outside linebackers in their base 3-4 defense. Inside linebackers Willie Gay and Jordyn Brooks can rush the passer if needed and both are athletic enough to cause confusion when deployed on stunts.
Bortolini said playing at home gives the offense the ability to control the rhythm of the offense without needing a silent count to negate a rowdy crowd on the road. Home or away, a successful play starts with proper communication between the quarterback and center.
“Tanor does a really good job recognizing that stuff, getting us into the right calls,” Jones said. “We’ll communicate throughout the week on what are the problem looks, what are the things we’re going to have to make adjustments to, but it’s been fun working with him throughout camp.”
Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
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