Daniel Jones was one of the most pleasant surprises of last season until a torn Achilles tendon ended his season prematurely. What will year two with the Indianapolis Colts look like? Can Jones recapture his pre-injury form, or should fantasy football managers steer clear in 2026?
Should You Draft Daniel Jones in Fantasy Football?
Jones’ time with the Giants didn’t exactly go according to plan. As the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, expectations were much greater than a singular playoff appearance.
From a fantasy perspective, Jones was mostly waiver wire fodder. He had a decent rookie season, averaging 16.5 fantasy points per game. Otherwise, he had his breakout 2022 season as his most impactful year for fantasy. That season, Jones averaged 18.1 PPG, finishing as the overall QB10.
After the Giants decided it was time to move on, Jones signed with the Colts ahead of last season and wasn’t even guaranteed to be the starter. He won the competition over Anthony Richardson and then exceeded all expectations.
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The Colts were contending for the No. 1 seed after starting out 7-1. Things started to turn south when it was revealed Jones had a hairline fracture in his fibula, which he played through, but was obviously impacting his performance. Then, in Week 14, Jones tore his Achilles. This is the real problem going forward.
Jones was trending toward the best fantasy season of his career. He averaged 17.4 PPG last season, which includes his Week 14 game, where he played less than a quarter of the snaps before getting hurt.
In addition to Achilles injuries being very serious, it’s more of a problem for Jones because of how much his fantasy value stemmed from his mobility. 17.8% Jones’ fantasy points came from rushing last season. It wasn’t quite as impactful as his breakout 2022 season when he averaged 44.3 rushing yards per game and scored seven times on the ground, but Jones was at 12.6 rushing yards per game and had five rushing scores before going down.
Jones was a viable back-end QB1 for most of last season. He recorded five games of 22+ fantasy points in his first eight. Even if his bad games were around 15-16 points, which is passable.
By all accounts, Jones should be ready for Week 1, but what will he look like? We don’t exactly have a large sample size of quarterbacks tearing their Achilles. Recent examples of Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rodgers being noticeably worse in their first season back aren’t great parallels to Jones because they were much older. Jones is only 29 years old.
At other positions, we’ve seen Achilles tears sap explosiveness for 1-2 years before a player finally feels like himself. Jones may very well be reluctant to run as much this season (or not capable). He also may struggle with ball placement and velocity, given the tear was to his push-off foot, making him a risky fantasy asset in the short term.
Jones’ Redraft Fantasy Football Value
If Jones never got injured, he’d probably be drafted somewhere in the mid-to-low QB2 range. Instead, Jones is going outside the top 24, which means he’s not being taken in standard-sized 12-team leagues.
We know Jones has the potential to be a weekly fantasy option, though. He is also the only quarterback going outside the top 24 guaranteed to start all 17 games, health permitting. Every other QB in that range has either a benching risk or is not a lock to start Week 1.
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Jones is a great QB3 option in Superflex because even if he is a shell of his former self for half the season, that’s still good enough. But as your QB or in 1QB leagues, there’s no reason to target Jones.
Preseason Fantasy QB Rankings
- Josh Allen | BUF
- Drake Maye | NE
- Lamar Jackson | BAL
- Jayden Daniels | WAS
- Joe Burrow | CIN
- Jalen Hurts | PHI
- Caleb Williams | CHI
- Justin Herbert | LAC
- Jaxson Dart | NYG
- Trevor Lawrence | JAX
- Dak Prescott | DAL
- Bo Nix | DEN
- Brock Purdy | SF
- Patrick Mahomes II | KC
- Matthew Stafford | LAR
- Jared Goff | DET
- Kyler Murray | MIN
- Jordan Love | GB
- Malik Willis | MIA
- Tyler Shough | NO
- Baker Mayfield | TB
- C.J. Stroud | HOU
- Sam Darnold | SEA
- Daniel Jones | IND
- Bryce Young | CAR
