Daniel Jones climbs a tier in The Athletic’s latest QB rankings, but Indianapolis Colts passer still rated below average

The Indianapolis Colts are getting a qualified kind of good news from The Athletic’s latest quarterback rankings. In the update highlighted by Yahoo Sports, Colts starter Daniel Jones is reported to have improved by moving up a tier, a shift framed as the most significant positive movement among quarterbacks grouped in the same broad neighborhood of the rankings.

The key limitation is that the report also characterizes Jones’ overall standing as still below average. In other words, the tier jump represents upward momentum, but it does not place him among the top tier of the league in this particular evaluation. The story is presented as a subscription-based ranking, so the detailed methodology and the precise tier boundaries are not reproduced in the publicly available summary.

According to the description circulated by Yahoo Sports, Jones’ improvement is the greatest among “his colleagues,” indicating that, within the set of quarterbacks being compared, he had the largest recent movement upward. That kind of leap typically reflects a reassessment of recent performance indicates and projection, rather than a single moment, but The Athletic’s full write-up is required to understand exactly what drove the change.

For Indianapolis, quarterback evaluation is more than a talking point. The Colts’ offensive identity often depends on how the passing attack functions in the middle of the field, how quickly decisions get made under pressure, and whether protection and play design can consistently generate open looks. A quarterback who is moving up a tier while still considered below average suggests the offense is being viewed as capable of progress, but not yet viewed as stable at a higher tier level.

The timing matters, too. Late summer is when teams and media outlets increasingly converge on “baseline” expectations for the season, including how quarterbacks fit within the team’s scheme and what supporting playmakers must do to elevate outcomes. A tier reassessment can affect how fans and analysts interpret the ceiling of an offense even before the regular season provides definitive answers.

Still, a ranking is only one lens. Quarterback performance in-season is shaped by factors that tiers cannot fully capture, including offensive line durability, health across the skill positions, the quality of opponent coverage week to week, and how often a coordinator can call plays that align with the quarterback’s strengths. For that reason, Jones’ tier move should be treated as an indicator of perceived growth, not as proof that the Colts have arrived at their final form.

What to watch next is whether Indianapolis can convert that improved evaluation narrative into consistent production once the season’s preparation becomes real-game planning. If The Athletic’s upward tier placement is validated, the Colts’ quarterback discussion will likely broaden from “potential and progress” to “impact and reliability,” at which point the team’s overall offensive confidence typically rises with it.