Colts GM Chris Ballard on Daniel Jones’ Injury Status & Contract Extension

Chris Ballard would not let Rich hand him an excuse.

The Indianapolis Colts general manager joined The Rich Eisen Show and Rich tried to tee up a sympathetic narrative. The Colts had flipped two first round picks for Sauce Gardner, only to watch their quarterback's Achilles pop. Bad luck. The fortunes turned right there.

Ballard cleared his throat.

"Nobody cares about your problems," he said. "They're just glad you got them."

That was the framing for the entire conversation. The Colts did not get it done last season, and Ballard refused to point at the medical staff's clipboard to explain why. The job is to figure it out regardless of circumstance.

Rich pivoted to Daniel Jones. How is the quarterback looking?

Ballard said Jones had been doing back flips a minute ago, and if the host had shown up earlier, he could have caught it on tape. The joke landed. The substance behind it was that Jones is throwing, dropping back, and progressing on schedule.

"Couldn't be more pleased with Daniel," Ballard said.

When Rich asked what surprised him about Jones once the quarterback was inside the building, Ballard reached for a comparison. Alex Smith in Kansas City. The preparation. The day-to-day steadiness. The way neither quarterback gets too high or too low. Ballard said he had probably underestimated Jones' accuracy coming through the door, and that when Jones is in rhythm, he is excellent.

"Until you live with somebody, you don't know them," Ballard said.

Rich noted that the most recent Super Bowl was won by a first round quarterback who had been written off in his first NFL stop. He floated the obvious parallel. Why not Daniel Jones in Indianapolis?

Ballard had Jones on the dotted line for two years and 88 million. Rich asked him to walk through the negotiation, the market for quarterbacks, and what a deal that lands below the top of the market actually signals.

It was not the easiest contract to close. The Achilles complicated everything because Jones did not finish the season. Ballard credited Athletes First, Brian Murphy, and Andrew Kessler for putting in the work to find common ground. He also offered a window into how he thinks about contracts that get done at all.

"Both sides are going to sting a little bit," Ballard said.

That is the nature of the negotiation. The team typically pays a little more than it wanted. The player typically takes a little less than he wanted. The deal closes when neither side feels like it walked away clean.

Ballard pushed past the math to a more human point. The last thing he wants is a player signing with the Colts and then looking around the locker room feeling like he got squeezed. That mindset is corrosive. It is bad for the player, bad for the team, and bad for morale.

What the deal communicates, Ballard said, is conviction. Jones played well enough that the Colts were willing to bet on the future. Ballard, owner Jim Irsay's group, head coach Shane Steichen, and the rest of the building all believe the money will be worth it.

The luck excuse stayed on the cutting room floor. The bet on the quarterback did not.