{"id":616083,"date":"2026-04-30T22:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/616083\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:19:10","slug":"chris-ballard-on-daniel-jones-i-probably-underestimated-his-accuracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/616083\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Ballard on Daniel Jones: I probably underestimated his accuracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Quarterback Daniel Jones performed well in his first season with the Colts before suffering a torn Achilles late in December \u2014 so well that the club rewarded him with a two-year, $88 million deal despite the injury. <\/p>\n<p>But Jones is, by all accounts, progressing well through his rehab and could be available to begin the regular season in September. With Jones\u2019 new contract, the Colts have a clear belief in the QB to pick up where he left off whenever he\u2019s healthy. <\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview with the Rich Eisen Show, Colts G.M. Chris Ballard noted that there was one factor about Jones\u2019 game he found surprising \u2014 comparing Jones to a former Pro Bowler. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had Alex Smith in Kansas City, and <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNNFL\/status\/2049903318487511347?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">they\u2019re a lot alike<\/a>,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cHow they prepare for the game, how steady they are day-to-day \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of similarities. And then I probably underestimated his accuracy coming in the door. This dude is accurate, man. And when he\u2019s in rhythm and really in a groove, he is excellent. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are the things that \u2014 we had scouted Daniel, but until you live with somebody, you don\u2019t know them. So, living with him every day, seeing his consistency, seeing him not get too high or too low, all those things bode well for the Colts and for his future. He\u2019s really good, Rich. This guy\u2019s talented and good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones, who turns 29 next month, completed 68.0 percent of his passes for 3,101 yards with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions before suffering his injury. He started 13 games for Indianapolis last season after beating out Anthony Richardson to be the team\u2019s QB1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quarterback Daniel Jones performed well in his first season with the Colts before suffering a torn Achilles late&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-616083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}