Daniel Jones’ comeback season hit a snag a few weeks ago when he fractured his fibula and things got even worse for the Colts quarterback in Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars.
Jones tore his Achilles as the Colts fell to 8-5 and out of the playoff picture in the AFC. They would be the sixth team since the AFL-NFL merger to miss the playoffs after starting 7-1 and they will have to try to regroup after suffering what running back Jonathan Taylor called a “gut punch” after the game.
“It’s devastating,” Taylor said, via Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star. “He’s out there fighting, scratching, clawing the past few weeks, and to see him go down, you don’t know what’s going on, you hope for the best. . . . I already told him, so much respect for him, I appreciate him so much for risking his body to go out there with us.”
Other Colts players shared similar thoughts about an emotional blow will make it difficult to rally around Riley Leonard and reverse their slide in time to make it into the playoffs.
The injury is likely to have implications beyond this season. The Colts traded two first-round picks for cornerback Sauce Gardner because they felt they had a chance to make a big run this year, but now have questions about the future of their quarterback position without key assets to use to fill the spot.
That’s not the immediate concern in Indianapolis, obviously, but it casts a larger pall over the team as they try to move forward in the wake of Jones’ injury.
