Jones Back in 11-on-11s, Which Is the News the Colts Needed

Daniel Jones returned to 11-on-11 drills on July 29, a meaningful step in his recovery from a torn Achilles. He's listed active. The progression is ahead of where it looked like it might be when camp opened.

The Day 2 practice dispatch out of Westfield had Jones selling play-action and rolling right to find Tyler Warren in rhythm — normal quarterback work, which is exactly the point. Last season he threw for 3,101 yards and 19 touchdowns in 13 games before the injury ended things. Getting him back into team reps early means the offense can actually install what it needs to install, rather than running everything through a backup and patching it together later.

The timing matters because the Colts have had enough good news to feel cautiously optimistic about their health picture. DeForest Buckner returned to practice July 28 after neck surgery. Chris Ballard signaled Pierce is trending toward an earlier-than-expected return from his ankle procedure. Jones back in team drills fits that same pattern — the injury cloud that hung over this roster at the start of camp is lifting, slowly, one player at a time.

None of this fixes the 3-6 record in one-score games or the 2-6 road mark that defined 2025. But you can't address any of that without a functional quarterback in the building, working through the offense with the first team. Jones is doing that now.