Back in August, no one had the Indianapolis Colts in the playoff mix, let alone whispering Super Bowl buzz. Yet here they are, sitting at 7-1 with a quarterback most experts had written off last fall. Daniel Jones, the guy the New York Giants gave up on, is now the most efficient passer in the league and the reason Indy is running wild. And Jonathan Taylor’s latest story about him just adds another layer to why Jones was the right fit for Indianapolis.

On Up & Adams, Kay Adams asked Taylor, “What was your first, he’s my guy moment with Daniel Jones?” This is how Taylor described it.

“I think it’s when we first got into training camp and he called a check that’s in the playbook,” Taylor said. “But if you’ve been here, it’s one of those checks we call sometimes. And the fact that he called it, it’s like, did this guy have the playbook six months ago? And I understood his level of preparation is different because for him to come in day one, day two, and to make that call and make that check, it’s like he’s been studying. It’s day one of install, but he’s already that far ahead. I’m like, this guy, he’s legit.”

That was the moment. The day Jones turned from a question mark to a franchise anchor in that Colts locker room. And that has carried over to Sundays.

Jones is leading the league with a 7-1 record and tops the NFL in passing success rate at 56.3%. He’s thrown 13 touchdowns, ranks fourth in passing yards with 2,062, and his interception rate sits at 1.2%.

He is quietly putting together the best season of his career with the Indianapolis Colts in 2025. Through eight games, he’s completing over 70% of his passes (70.9%), just 3 interceptions, all while posting a passer rating north of 110 in five of those outings. His command of the offense has been sharp; he’s protecting the ball, spreading it around efficiently, and hitting explosive plays like his 50-yard strike against Tennessee. Jones’ yards per attempt (8.3) and adjusted yards per attempt (9.2) both stand as career bests, and his recent four-game stretch, 10 touchdowns, 1 interception, and four wins, has solidified him as one of the league’s most efficient passers this year.

The last time he was that disciplined with the football? It was the 2022 season when he led the league in fewest interceptions with 1.1%. It makes sense now, but rewind to last season.

Jones was cut by the Giants midway through 2024 and spent months buried on the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad. But finally, he landed in Indy on a one-year, $14 million prove-it deal. Nobody was betting on him to steal Anthony Richardson’s job. Yet, when the lights came on, Jones out-prepared, out-adjusted, and out-played.

What few outside the building realized was that general manager Chris Ballard had reached a breaking point after the team’s 2024 collapse. Veterans had questioned the organization’s vision, and Ballard publicly vowed to change course. Amid this, the signing of Jones was a calculated bet. Colts assistants Tony Sparano Jr. and Alex Tanney, both of whom had worked with him in New York, vouched for his preparation and quiet leadership. Ballard knew he was the kind of worker who wouldn’t need to be pushed.

After all, he’s the type who’ll show up late to team dinners because he’s still reviewing film. Even on Friday nights, Jones sticks to his old New York ritual: a plate of pasta, followed by a call to run through the entire play sheet. That obsession with detail has rubbed off on the locker room, especially in quarterback meetings where he’s been known to pull up specific defensive looks from weeks-old film sessions. With Shane Steichen, a coach who thrives on precision, it’s the perfect marriage of mindset and system. “When you’re preparing the way he does, you don’t blink,” Steichen said.

His best previous campaign came in 2022, when he led the Giants to a playoff berth with 15 passing touchdowns and 7 rushing scores. But…”He needed a clean slate. The image we all have of Daniel in New York is him running for his life,” Jason Garrett, his former offensive coordinator, said.

After years of inconsistency, Jones has finally found the system that plays to his strengths, and he’s rewarding the Colts with MVP-caliber efficiency through midseason.

Colts head coach Shane Steichen spotted something the Giants never could: a quarterback who just needed alignment and a clean slate. Within the league, some executives already saw this coming.

One team exec said, “It makes a lot of sense to try one of these bridge options if you feel confident enough in your system and the roster. Then you can build up the team around him to support your quarterback.”

Jones had chaos in New York. Two fired head coaches in three years. A roster forever patching holes. Even when Brian Daboll resurrected him in 2022, the Giants couldn’t keep the ship steady because of their salary cap mess. 

So, Jones didn’t fall off; he was just buried under dysfunction. “We do more as teams to screw up these guys than anything (the quarterbacks) do,” another executive admitted.

But even when he is putting up elite quarterback stats, some critics don’t seem to buy it.

Critics still doubt Daniel Jones

If someone had told you before this season that the Colts would be the number one team in rankings by Halloween, you’d have laughed it off. This same team hovered around .500 for two straight years. But here we are, talking about Daniel Jones as the quarterback of one of the NFL’s best offenses.

Still, the skeptics are loud. FS1’s Nick Wright made it clear he’s not buying the hype.

“It’s a fun show, but I know that’s not real. And that’s the idea that Daniel Jones is going to go through maybe Lamar (Jackson), certainly Josh (Allen), young star Drake Maye, and then end boss Patrick Mahomes to make the Super Bowl. So no, it’s an amazing story, and very entertaining, high octane every weekend, but I do not believe that this is the best team in football,” Nick said.

But what’s ironic is: the Colts have the best win-loss record in the league right now. For a franchise that’s spent years searching for a quarterback identity, Jones has turned skepticism into scoreboard reality. Maybe, just maybe, Jonathan Taylor saw it coming before the rest of us did.