Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: What's the Deal with Daniel Jones' Fibula Injury?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Daniel Jones, is playing through a fibula injury, and today we're going to go over everything that we know so far. Let's get to it. You are Locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome to Locked on Colts. I am Jake Arthur, the Indianapolis. Colts Beat Rider for Roundtable Sports. And thank you for making Locked on Colts, your first listen of the day, part of the Locked On podcast network, now the number one sports podcast network. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandual.

Starting point is 00:00:44 Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if that bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets across the entire app. Again, welcome to the show, everybody. Today we are designating this whole thing, not only to Daniel Jones, but this. the Daniel Jones fibula injury. So obviously this thing is two weeks old. The information is kind of developing a little bit. This week it came out through a report that it is, in fact, a fractured fibula.

Starting point is 00:01:15 And since then, I kind of feel like this whole thing is taken on a life of its own. So as a member of the Colts Media, a beat writer that covers the team, it's probably my responsibility to go out and just like kind of lay this whole thing out and just, you know, whether you wind up concerned or not, I just want to give you everything I think that needs to be laid out in this whole thing. So be kind of an abridged episode, but we'll lead you into Sunday's game against the Texans with whatever information you need to know. And of course, if you guys have any questions or anything, hit me up on social media. I'd be happy to talk about it. So let's just kind of go over the timeline here. So last Thursday, November 20th, Daniel Jones

Starting point is 00:01:58 popped up on the injury report as report as limited with what was initially considered a calf injury now i was watching that practice and i actually saw you know what what transpired it didn't really seem like a big deal at all during the early portion of practice that the media is able to watch uh jones went over to the side and spoke with a trainer uh and just was like pointing at his lower leg they were talking about it for a few minutes i don't even think the trainer like they didn't even need, like, he didn't investigate it really or anything. I think they were just discussing it. And it looked like Jones was just describing whatever was going on.

Starting point is 00:02:38 They were talking for a few minutes before Jones then jogged back over to the rest of the group with the quarterbacks. He just missed like a handful of reps of quarterbacks handing off to running backs. You know, he didn't really miss any of like the team stuff. To my understanding, that was the extent of what he missed that day. So he was listed as limited that last. Thursday. And then unfortunately, I can't confirm which leg when I was watching. I feel like it was the left one. But again, I was not paying close enough attention to determine for sure. The Twitter doctors think it's the right leg. When I watch again at practice, I think it's left. So

Starting point is 00:03:16 the team won't discuss it. So we'll just leave it to be determined. It is one of his lower legs. the next day, after a full evaluation, the Colts, you know, got him in after practice, looked everything over. It was actually determined to be a fibula injury. Shane Steichen, when he announced that to us that Friday, he was asked immediately if it was fractured, and he declined to give specifics on that. Now, I know, like, the Colts, their reputation with injury reporting and stuff, some fans don't love it. It's shaky, whatever.

Starting point is 00:03:53 So on Thursday, when it was considered a calf, they have to get something out there to the league on the injury report before things are required to be in at 4 p.m. So initially, before they were able to do a full evaluation, that's what it looked like. Afterward, when they could do everything, they found it to be a fibula. So really, no big deal there. Jones practiced in full that Friday, and then Stuyken continued when we spoke about it. You know, that was the first time we, that Friday was the first time we'd really spoken to him since the injury came up. He said it was no big deal. Jones was going to be good to go.

Starting point is 00:04:34 It was just something that popped up that Thursday, and he wanted to, you know, mention it to the trainers. But that he'd be fine for the game. There would be no concerns with how they'd call the game, yada, yada. So fast forward Jones plays Sunday against the Chiefs. I thought he actually looked really, really good through the first three quarters. You know, the Colts in the fourth quarter, obviously, when things fell apart, they didn't really feel great, even though they had that lead running the ball because of what the Chiefs were doing. There was some times where, you know, a linebacker got free through the line.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Chris Jones was playing out of his mind. So they just kind of wanted to complete some simple passes to sustain their drives. that ultimately obviously did not work. We've talked ad nauseum about the factor of the run game did or didn't play there in the fourth quarter. That led to four consecutive three-in-outs to close out the game, allowing the cheese to come back, and then ultimately win it in overtime. Jones pretty obviously looked a bit limited in the game. There were a couple times he went and ran the ball, had 14 yards, I think, had a couple first downs.

Starting point is 00:05:42 So when he did go and run, it was effective. He just kind of jogged nonchalantly on a third and one and picked up like four yards there. And I don't know how much of that one was the leg. Like I think a lot of people saw that and were like, oh, my God, he can't move. I think he just so easily had the first down that he didn't need to run full bore. Now, he normally does, he's a very high effort guy, so he normally does run full speed. He had another first down that he picked up later in the game where he had that really awkward slide at the end. I think that made it seem as if he was obviously a tad limited from the game.

Starting point is 00:06:21 So, yeah, throughout that first week of the injury, he's not on the injury report Wednesday. He pops up limited on Thursday. That's when everything came up. On Friday, he's full. Sunday, he plays. When he's asked about it, he doesn't really give a timeline. That's last week after the game and this week. He said he gave a little more information about it.

Starting point is 00:06:42 this week on Wednesday. He said it's just he made it seem like it was something that maybe had carried over, but no one has said if it came from the Falcons game or what. But the way Jones spoke about it with his kind of vague burbage made it seem like maybe Thursday wasn't the first time he noticed it. But maybe that last Thursday was the first time it was enough for him to say anything. So I don't want to put anything in any words in people's mouths but just kind of reading the tea leaves that's what it seemed like so again he goes into sunday he plays um as a passer he doesn't look incredibly limited um as a runner obviously he did now in the fourth quarter when it's basically all passing for the colts the chiefs brought the

Starting point is 00:07:29 house you know they kept pressuring jones their protection wasn't necessarily there the timing wasn't there and we may be able to attribute some of his limited mobility to how poorly things went. But again, the chief sprint was really getting after the Colts and winning. So it could have looked like that in any way you shake it down. So coming up, you know, the injury develops. We not develops, but like the information about the injury develops. You know, we talked to Shane Steichen and Daniel Jones more. The report from Ian Rappaport comes out about the fractured fibula. And, you know, again, like I said, things kind of take on a life of their own a little bit. So we're going to go over that in just a moment.

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Starting point is 00:08:49 So head over to fandle.com to sign up and play your game with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, welcome back every day. So thank you for making Lockdown Colts your first listen of the day. But more importantly, thank you for making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there all right so we're recapping this daniel jones injury week one of it uh limited in practice thursday full participant friday he plays sunday his mobility looks a little bit compromised out there so let's fast forward to this week uh you know shame stuyken is asked

Starting point is 00:09:30 uh if this injury is something that the colts will need to maintain throughout the season I asked that last week. Stephen Holder asked that this week. Stuyken basically said, Jones is fine, he's practicing, he's playing, it's all good. The Colts do believe that this is something that will actually get better

Starting point is 00:09:50 as the season goes along, though, and that he's not at risk for greater injury. They wouldn't put him out there if they did think they were kind of, you know, sending him out there to the sharks, because sometimes you do have to protect players from themselves. that's not really what they're dealing with here. It's more of a pain tolerance thing.

Starting point is 00:10:09 If you want to think of it this way, like Michael Pittman Jr. last year played through his back injury. And there wasn't like great risk for like worsening the injury. It was just how much he could tolerate. Now that's, it sounds really bad because Pittman in all technicalities had a broken back that he was playing through. So Jones is, they're not really risking him. suffering further injury with this by putting him out there.

Starting point is 00:10:37 It's just really how much he can deal with. And I think he looks like he's in probably better condition than Pittman was with that compromise back last year. So if you want to liken it to something, you could probably draw a line there. So we go to this week when the week of practice begins, Jones is listed as limited for Wednesday. Now, the Colts held a walk through on Wednesday, just because we're getting later in the season now and Shane Steichen usually likes to designate a day for walkthrough so that they're kind of,

Starting point is 00:11:08 you know, lessening the load on these guys physically. But the estimated practice report for Jones on Wednesday is that he was limited. So you go to this Thursday, Thanksgiving, and Ian Rappaport comes out with a report that it is an indeed fractured fibula for Jones, which I think that is when people's perception of this started to evolve a little bit, kind of made it seem as if there was a setback or that the injury got worse or anything. That's not the case. It's the same injury. We just, there's more information about it. So, yeah, like, just knowing that it's a fractured fibula, yeah, the guy's tough and he's playing through it, but like nothing worse happened with it.

Starting point is 00:11:57 Again, we just know more about it. Now, with Rapidport's report, He said, you know, Jones was listed as a full participant on Thursday and that he looked good according to the information he was giving. So we can't, like, fully refute this. I guess, you know, the full participation has to be considered a fact, but the he looked good part of it is a little subjective. So let's go over it real quick. Jones can technically be listed as a full participant for Thursday if he didn't miss any of the predetermined amount of. of reps he was supposed to get. Because I wasn't there Thursday.

Starting point is 00:12:36 Obviously, it was Thanksgiving. We weren't all there. But James Boyd and Nathan Brown, they were both there. And they observed that Jones did miss some reps during the individual period when it's like just quarterbacks working with themselves or quarterbacks working with running backs and things. Jones wasn't necessarily involved in all that. It was really Riley Leonard and Brett Rippin.

Starting point is 00:13:01 But again, the media only. he gets to see the early portion of practice. So when it comes down to it, I don't think that Jones really missed any of the teamwork he was supposed to participate in. So he was technically listed as a full participant and can be listed as such. Now, he looked a good portion of it. I'm going to have to push back on that one a little bit. So James Boyd, as I mentioned at the top, he was there and watched practice.

Starting point is 00:13:29 he did post some video of Jones taking some dropbacks and throwing during routes on air. I don't think Jones looked good. I don't think many people in that instance thought that Jones looked really good there. It looked like he was, you know, favoring the injury a bit and then moving gingerly during his dropbacks. It's, I think, the most he has favored that injury in the week plus now that we've known that he's had it. so that was that that was thursday moving forward to friday i'm back on site friday so i get to see you know i get to see all this in person at this point uh jones practiced in full on friday i didn't notice and miss any reps uh so i think he literally did get like the full

Starting point is 00:14:16 lay of the land on uh practice reps on friday i don't think he looked a hundred percent but i don't think he looked as bad as those videos showed on thursday either like I didn't, like, he clearly looked like someone who was injured in favoring himself Thursday. He looked, you know, not necessarily maybe his normal explosive self Friday, but I didn't think it looked all that bad. Now, during warmups when they're, you know, getting loose and doing calisthenics and stretching and stuff, uh, during that warm up circuit, you know, the guys kind of run laterally and they do kind of like a sideways shuffle thing. And Jones didn't do that. when everyone else was, like, doing the sideways shuffle and, like, running side-to-side

Starting point is 00:15:03 laterally, Jones just kept it moving forward. So for that, his lateral movement might be compromised a little bit with this injury, which I guess is to be expected. So, yeah, afterwards, you know, the Colts come out. You know, they're confident that Jones can execute whatever they need to in the playbook. I don't think they're play calling with Shane Seichen is really greatly limited. Now, just to like to keep it real and be realistic, like, yeah, they're not going to go out there and treat him like Michael Vick and have him running all this stuff. But they didn't, like, they do a lot of RPO's and stuff, but they didn't have like specifically a lot of like design runs for Jones individually.

Starting point is 00:15:49 You know what I mean? So things we notice, you know, Zach and I have discussed on this show last. week and even this week after we've seen the game, you know, they didn't, they didn't run him on like, you know, third and short or anything, third and fourth and short. His QB sneaks are often very effective, but they haven't been pulling on that, which is probably going to stay the case if I had to guess because that requires a lot of drive on those, on those lower legs. There's a lot that can happen in those piles, you know, bodies are flying around everywhere. you can get rolled up on.

Starting point is 00:16:24 So it's probably in the Colts best interest not to really use Jones on sneaks, which again is unfortunate because he's been very, very effective doing so. But yeah, until they, until he's even better, you know, again, they feel he's going to continue to improve throughout the year until he gets to that point. I would imagine they're not going to do that a whole lot. As far as other options for the Colts, we've been asked about Anthony Richardson a lot. he is not ready to return um i know we don't see like eye injuries and stuff commonly but i can't stress enough how serious that eye injury was for richardson like he broke a bone in his face

Starting point is 00:17:03 around his eye and that takes a lot of time to heal and get better and there's not much you can do for it except for rest so richardson on iR is not ready to return yet uh the colts i don't think intend on calling up brett rippin from the practice squad for this game because they don't feel like they need that security blanket of an extra quarterback there behind uh behind jones and riley leonard so they they feel good and secure in this and again jones is injured but his risk of injury is not greater than it was before if that makes sense so they don't feel by having him out there that they need to have this extra security layer with another quarterback and brett rippin um i did ask this week if you know riley leonard has gotten

Starting point is 00:17:50 any like extra work the last couple weeks with Jones injury and Shane Steichen did say that Leonard has been getting a lot more of the scout team looks and he's maybe beefed up a little bit there and he's been getting better in that department. I don't think they're like intentionally

Starting point is 00:18:06 like leaning into him to get him ready in case Jones is getting injured but I think they're being wise in the event that if something does happen to Jones they need to have Leonard be ready essentially because I mean Leonard Leonard's the direct backup now with Richardson out still on IR and Rippin is still on the practice squad and has yet to be called up for any game.

Starting point is 00:18:29 So it's on Leonard if Jones goes down. So that's pretty much all I know, guys. It may not be a ton specifically, but the Colts are not trying to give up a ton specifically about this. I just, again, like I mentioned at the top, I felt like since people found out it's a fracture. it's kind of evolved into something different as far as the perception of what this injury is and what it means. I don't think much changes there. So I just wanted to kind of get ahead of it. And, you know, just talk about what I know. Now, this may all just, he could come out against Houston and just looks like he's moving like an old man and he gets sacked ten times. And then this all

Starting point is 00:19:13 is for not. But I just want to let you guys know what I think is someone who is there all the time. observing things and talks to people. So that's all I got for you today. I'm going to try and get more info out for you guys, not just on Jones, but you guys had been sending in your questions. So we want to do more Q&A before the game goes out. 1 o'clock p.m. Eastern Colts and Texans,

Starting point is 00:19:37 of course, I'll be on site. And we'll have more for you after the game. Thank you guys for making Lockdown Colts, your first listen of the day. The NFL season is in full swing. So for your next listen after us, get a double dose of the last. Locked-on NFL podcast. Tyler Madman Rowland gives you a shot of espresso to start your football

Starting point is 00:19:54 day while Tony Wiggins takes you into the barbershop for the smoothest breakdowns to end your day. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you guys want to become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and get the inside scoop on everything involving the Colts, then please follow the link in our show notes. If you don't already follow at Lockdown Colts at Jake Arthur NFL and at Zach Hicks 2 on Twitter. We're also on and Instagram. Also, please, please, please subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts and, you know, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all that. We would love your five-star ratings. Now the show's about to be over. If you wouldn't mind going ahead and giving us a high rating

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: What's the Deal with Daniel Jones' Fibula Injury?

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