INDIANAPOLIS — Early last week, Colts general manager Chris Ballard was still optimistic that he’d be able to lock up starting quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce without using the franchise tag.
Ballard still has a little time left to make good on those hopes.
But that time is ticking.
The Colts have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday to designate a player with a franchise or a transition tag, and both Jones and Pierce remain unsigned, forcing Indianapolis to work quickly or place a tag on one player, because the two players are Ballard’s top two offseason priorities.
“Daniel and Alec are such big pieces,” Ballard said at the NFL scouting combine last week. “We move and fit from there.”
Indianapolis is considering the use of the franchise and transition tags, league sources told IndyStar on Monday, a rarity for the Colts in Ballard’s decade as the team’s general manager. Indianapolis has used the franchise tag only once, temporarily tagging Michael Pittman Jr. in 2024 before signing him to a long-term deal a week later, a decision Ballard said last week was made because Pittman was hunting in Africa at the time of the deadline.
The Colts can only use one of the tags in a given year, forcing the Colts to make a choice between two players and the tag they use.
What is a non-exclusive franchise tag?
A non-exclusive franchise tag, which would allow the Colts to receive two first-round picks from any team that signed either Jones or Pierce to a contract if Indianapolis decided not to match that offer, would pay Jones $43.895 million or Pierce $27.298 million, because the figure is based on the average of the top five salaries at a player’s position over the last five years applied to the current salary cap, or 120% of the player’s previous salary, whichever is higher.
What is the transition tag?
The transition tag is different. Under the transition tag, Indianapolis would have the right to match any offer Jones or Pierce received on the open market, but the Colts would not receive any draft-pick compensation if they didn’t match. Because of the lack of draft picks in return, the transition tags are lower: Jones would get $37.833 million, or Pierce would receive $23.52 million.
The Colts could also use the exclusive franchise tag, which would keep either Jones or Pierce from negotiating with any other team, but the cost is exorbitant. A player on the non-exclusive franchise tag earns the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position in the current year, or 120% of the player’s previous salary, whichever is higher.
A transition tag is likely only in play for Jones.
Because another team can outbid the Colts without giving up draft-pick compensation, Indianapolis has not used the transition tag since placing it on linebacker Tony Bennett in 1998, the third consecutive year that the Colts had used that tag.
Placing the transition tag on Jones would be a gamble that no other team would try to outbid Indianapolis for its starting quarterback because he is coming off a torn Achilles tendon that could threaten his availability for the start of the season, although the Colts have been optimistic that Jones will be able to play. If other teams don’t make a bid for Jones, a longer Colts contract would likely start around the $38 million transition tag figure.
“He’s on track,” Ballard said. “With the Achilles, it’s the three-month mark where you’re kind of past the danger zone. What is he at now? Seven weeks, eight weeks. … Y’all have been around Daniel enough to know, he’s pretty diligent in everything he does. You almost have to bring him back a little bit, but we feel good enough about where he’s at and where he’s going.”
Jones has also made it clear that he wants to return to Indianapolis, where he blossomed as a pocket passer under Shane Steichen. Deployed mostly as a run-first, dink-and-dunk quarterback in New York, Jones reinvented himself in Indianapolis.
“The way he works, the way he goes about his business, his preparation is phenomenal,” Steichen said. “What he was able to do before the injury was awesome for us. Obviously, a very talented player, sees the game well, can get us in and out of the right plays, which was huge.”
Because of Steichen’s ability to give him answers, Jones looked reinvigorated in his new role as a pocket passer, completing 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The underlying numbers backed up the Jones renaissance: Jones averaged 8.1 yards per attempt, produced a career-best 100.2 quarterback rating and averaged 0.12 expected points added per dropback, tied for the seventh-best mark in the NFL.
His most explosive target was Pierce, who caught a career-high 47 passes for 1,003 yards to establish himself as arguably the NFL’s best deep threat.
Pierce’s skill set is in such demand that the Colts would likely only use the franchise tag on the receiver. According to league sources, a wide range of teams have already indicated interest in Pierce if he hit the open market.
The Colts do not want that to happen, and Pierce wants to play with Jones.
The goal is to keep both players in Indianapolis.
How the Colts accomplish that goal begins with what happens between now and the deadline.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
