Why Daniel Jones chose competing with Colts' Anthony Richardson over returning to Vikings

Former New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones left the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent earlier in March to sign with the Indianapolis Colts so he can compete with 2023 first-round draft pick Anthony Richardson for the Indianapolis starting job later this summer. 

However, the fact that the Vikings may consider signing Aaron Rodgers to a short-term contract suggests Jones could've returned to Minnesota to compete with 2024 first-round draft choice J.J. McCarthy after McCarthy spent this past season recovering from a full meniscus repair.

For an article published on Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated addressed why Jones made the move to the Colts after he ended the 2024 campaign as a backup with Minnesota. 

"Jones, I’m told, picked what he saw as the better chance to win and keep a starting job," Breer wrote. "If he went back to Minnesota and J.J. McCarthy turned the corner in the coming weeks and maintained the momentum into the spring, given that the Vikings just took him 10th in the 2024 draft, it’d have been hard for Jones to dislodge him from the lineup. Anthony Richardson, conversely, is at the end rather than the start of his window to make the team that drafted him his own."

Richardson has thus far essentially missed an entire season's worth of games due to injury setbacks, was benched for a pair of contests this past fall after he tapped out of a game because he was "tired" and didn't play well enough over his first 15 career starts to spend this offseason cemented atop the Colts' depth chart. 

Per Pro Football Reference, he ended the 2024 campaign ranked last in the NFL among qualified players with a 47.7 percent completion percentage and a 61.6 passer rating. 

Of course, Jones wasn't much better (if at all) as he went 2-8 before the Giants benched and then released him this past November. Breer noted that "some teams, including the" Vikings, "saw the Giants rather than Jones, himself, as the problem over the past two years" as he fell out of favor with New York general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll.

Some reporters have questioned if Colts head coach Shane Steichen will give Jones a legitimate chance to unseat Richardson from the opening day of springtime workouts through the preseason. 

"If Jones has a great spring and summer," Breer added, "and Richardson is just OK, I don’t think there’ll be any fear on Shane Steichen’s part to go full steam ahead with the ex-Giant and Viking—and give him the leeway McCarthy would probably get in Minnesota."

In short, it sounds as if Jones truly is confident he'll enter Labor Day weekend as Indianapolis' QB1.