By James Boyd and Dianna Russini The Athletic
Share this story

The Indianapolis Colts have placed the transition tag on quarterback Daniel Jones, league sources told The Athletic on Tuesday. This decision ensures that Jones will remain under contract in Indy for at least one more season, while allowing the team’s other potential tag candidate, wide receiver Alec Pierce, to become an unrestricted free agent.

The Colts’ tag decision was essentially a choice between Jones and Pierce. Jones played at a Pro Bowl level and led the Colts to an 8-2 start before he got injured last season. Pierce emerged as the Colts’ No. 1 receiver while notching his first 1,000-yard receiving season and leading the NFL in yards per reception (21.3) for the second straight year.

ADVERTISING

The Colts ultimately picked Jones, whom general manager Chris Ballard has repeatedly labeled as the team’s short- and long-term answer at the most important position in football, probably because they don’t have a viable Plan B if he were to leave in free agency. The only other quarterbacks the Colts have under contract in 2026 are 2025 sixth-round pick Riley Leonard and 2023 No. 4 pick Anthony Richardson Sr., who recently requested a trade. The Colts also don’t have any first-round picks until 2028.

Jones and the Colts now have until 4 p.m. ET on July 15 to reach a multiyear agreement. If they do not, he’ll be set to make a fully guaranteed $37.8 million in 2026 if he chooses to play on the transition tag. Other interested teams, however, can still make a bid for Jones, and he is allowed to sign an offer sheet with a new team. The Colts would then have the right to match any offer to retain Jones, but unlike with the more expensive and restrictive non-exclusive franchise tag that’s set at $43.9 million for a QB in 2026, there is no draft compensation involved with the transition tag. If a new team makes a bid for a player on the non-exclusive franchise tag, the original team is entitled to two first-round picks from the new team if the original team lets the player leave.

The transition tag, on the other hand, is only about how much money a team is willing to spend. So, if an interested team makes a bid for a player on the transition tag that is far above what the original team intended to pay and the original team does not match it, the player can join the new team, leaving the original team with nothing. It’s typically a riskier decision to use the transition tag than the non-exclusive franchise tag, especially on a quarterback, but Jones is also in a unique situation. It appears that the Colts are banking on him having a diminished market, likely because of his lengthy injury history, and they’re fine with letting other teams bid if they intend to match.

Jones, who turns 29 in May, signed a one-year, $14 million deal to join the Colts in free agency last year after he was released by the New York Giants. The veteran supplanted Richardson, who recently requested a trade, as the Colts’ starter in training camp and quickly revived his career in Indianapolis. He led one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL during the Colts’ 8-2 start that placed them atop the AFC standings, but his play declined after he fractured his left fibula and ultimately tore his right Achilles tendon.

Jones finished the 2025 season with 19 touchdown passes and eight interceptions in 13 games. He also posted the second-highest completion percentage (68.0) for a single season in Colts history and rushed for five touchdowns. Jones’ performance was the most consistent quarterback play the Colts have received since Philip Rivers last led the franchise to the playoffs in 2020, but it’s worth noting that Jones has played only one full season (2022) in his first seven.

Despite these injury concerns, the Colts unofficially tied their future to Jones in November when they traded their 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to the New York Jets to land star cornerback Sauce Gardner. The Colts would not have made a trade of that magnitude, which essentially gave away their chance to draft a franchise quarterback in the first round over the next two years, if they weren’t fully invested in Jones.

Ballard previously stated that he would have preferred not to use the tag this offseason, but he also referred to it as a roster-building “tool.” Now that it’s been pinned on Jones, it could have a trickle-down effect on the Colts’ other top free agent: Pierce. The wideout said at the end of the season that retaining Jones would go a long way toward keeping him in Indianapolis, but now Pierce will be courted by the Colts and a slew of other receiver-needy teams likely willing to pay top dollar for his services.

The non-exclusive franchise tag for a receiver is $27.3 million in 2026, but multiple league sources told The Athletic that Pierce could probably net more than that annually if he reached the open market. Since Pierce is an in-house free agent, Indianapolis can still reach a long-term agreement with him before the negotiating window opens at noon ET on Monday, but it would not be surprising if Pierce waits until all interested suitors can make their pitches.