Peyton Manning reveals advice he gave Daniel Jones about playing for Colts

When Daniel Jones signed with the Indianapolis Colts this offseason, he got some critical advice courtesy of Peyton Manning. Based on Jones’ performance through his first three games, it looks like it paid off.

The quarterback has the Colts off to a 3-0 start on the young season and guest on ESPN’s Manningcast during Monday night’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Detroit Lions. With Manning being widely considered the greatest quarterback in franchise history, he is still heavily invested in the franchise.

The topic came up of a conversation he had with Jones this offseason, letting him know what to expect from the organization. Of course, he also threw in a few recommendations about things to do in Indianapolis as well.

“I gave him some important stuff,” Manning said. “Play golf at Crooked Stick. Go eat dinner at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse. The equipment managers of the Colts are the best in the NFL. Frog and T and Smack. They know what a 12-yard comeback is. They’re gonna line up in the right spot for the quarterback drills.

“The equipment manager catches a lot of those passes from quarterbacks in drills. The equipment managers of the Colts, they know what a 16-yard break in is. So I told him he was in good hands with all those places and people.”

Manning played for the Colts from 1998-2010 and led the team to a Super Bowl in the 2006 season. However, his brother Eli joked on the Manningcast that Jones was “already the greatest quarterback in Colts history” after his early performance this season.

Jones leads all players with a QBR of 85.7 through the first three games, according to ESPN. He has thrown for 816 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions while completing 71.6% of his passes. Additionally, Jones has 55 yards rushing and another three scores on the ground.

It’s been refreshing to see out of Jones, who spent the first six seasons of his career with the New York Giants before being released in the middle of last season. He’s been one of the bigger surprises so far this year after beating out Anthony Richardson for the starting job this offseason.

We’ll see whether Jones can sustain those numbers going forward this year, but so far it looks like the advice he got from Peyton Manning went a long way. He’ll look to keep the momentum going heading into a Week 4 matchup with the Los Angeles Rams.