Colts' Daniel Jones Opens Up About Fantastic Beginning

That steady tone reflects the same attitude Jones showed months earlier, when McAfee recalled having dinner with him after he signed. McAfee admitted he had questioned whether the Colts had enough “dogs” in the locker room, but Jones wasn’t having it.

According to McAfee, Jones “started rattling off names immediately on the offensive side and defensive side that he liked.”

One of those names was tight end Tyler Warren, who quickly became one of Jones’s favorite targets on Sunday. McAfee declared that Warren “might be the best player in all of football,” and Jones didn’t hesitate to agree. “Pretty much, yeah,” Jones said. “He’s a heck of a player—tough as crap and always makes the play. He has a great feel for space and settling in the right spot.”

When the topic of game plan was brought up by Darius Butler, Jones credited the Colts’ staff for tailoring the offense around his strengths and the communication throughout the room.

“We communicate a lot, watch a lot of tape,” Jones explained, adding that Steichen, Jim Bob Cooter, and quarterbacks coach Cam Turner all play a role in putting together the weekly plan. “When I have an idea, I talk through it. It’s been a collaborative process.”

That collaboration now includes a new wrinkle fans have already latched onto: the QB sneak now known as the “Dimes Dive.” After one bruising goal-line carry where Jones took a helmet-to-helmet shot, McAfee laughed that “the Dimes Dive era is in full effect.” Jones shrugged it off. “That was a good welcome-to-the-season hit right there,” he said. “No call, but that’s football.” Tough as nails.

Physical toughness is only part of Jones’s story. After leaving New York, he spent a season in Minnesota and credits the Vikings’ quarterback room with reshaping how he prepares for a defense. “The biggest thing I took away was the preparation—how detailed they were in the game plan,” Jones said.

He pointed to Kevin O’Connell, Josh McCown, and Grant Udinski as coaches who emphasized “motions to undress the defense” and drilled “every little thing” until it became second nature. That reset, Jones believes, helped make him the quarterback Colts fans are seeing now.

Minnesota sharpened Jones’s approach, but Indianapolis showed him right away that he had help on the other side of the ball. In training camp, the defense made that clear. “The first three or four days, they got after us pretty good,” Jones recalled.

He credited Lou Anarumo’s pressures and disguises and highlighted the number of playmakers across the roster. “From the jump, they were making plays all over the field,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of playmakers over there. We realized that pretty quick.”

Beyond the roster, it’s the culture in Indianapolis that has stood out to Jones. “It’s about football here,” he said. “People have been great. I’ve enjoyed being here and getting to know the fans. Very different from New York...but our team all thinks the same way.”

That mindset has already started to win over a fan base that wasn’t sold on him at the start. McAfee reminded Jones of a poll showing 93 percent of fans were against him being named the starter. Jones took it in stride.

“I didn’t know about the poll, but I definitely realized the public and the media weren’t in my favor,” he admitted. “That’s part of it—we didn’t win enough games in New York and I didn’t play well enough.”

Jones isn’t pretending Week 1 fixed everything. But for a city starved for stability at quarterback, his performance against Miami and his demeanor on McAfee’s show pointed to something Colts fans haven’t had in years: a reason to believe the search might finally be over.