What Saquon Barkley would tell Colts players about Daniel Jones

Quarterback Daniel Jones recently served as a backup with the Minnesota Vikings but will have an opportunity to win the Indianapolis Colts' starting job later this summer. 

Philadelphia Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley, Jones' former teammate with the New York Giants, wants Colts players to know why they should believe the 27-year-old can resurrect his career with Indianapolis.

"I would say of course he’s worth it, and I don’t think you can find any player that actually played with Daniel Jones that would say differently," Barkley recently remarked, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. "It’s easy to just blame the quarterback, or it’s easy to blame the star player. There’s more to that. It’s a team effort. It’s a coaching staff. It’s an organization. There’s so much that goes into a team being successful."

Jones' Giants teammates routinely defended him from September 2023 up until he was benched and subsequently released this past November. His New York tenure that began when the club made him the sixth overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft included being tasked with replacing a franchise legend (Eli Manning) as a rookie, playing behind woeful offensive lines and having three head coaches.

No wonder Giants co-owner John Mara famously said in the early 2022 that "we've done everything possible to screw [Jones] up." Jones' history isn't lost on Barkley.

"Patrick Mahomes is, in my opinion, the best quarterback in the league and, in my opinion, the best player, and there's a reason [the Kansas City Chiefs are] in the Super Bowl and AFC championship that much. Look what he got brought into," Barkley continued. "The Chiefs weren’t a bad team before he got there. He was able to sit out a year and learn. It takes a village. I don’t think you could find a player that actually played with Daniel Jones that would say differently."

Some around the NFL seemingly view Jones as the favorite to begin September as Indianapolis' QB1 over Anthony Richardson. Barkley clearly will be rooting for his good friend to win the job when training camp practices get underway in July.