This time last year, we were debating Anthony Richardson vs. Daniel Jones. Now we’re debating whether or not Jones is worth $50 million per year. Coming off a breakout season, Jones would be a safe bet to stay hot in 2026, but a torn Achilles muddies the waters for his second season in Indianapolis.

2025 Indianapolis Colts Stats (Rank)

Points per game: 27.4 (8th)
Total yards per game: 345.9 (9th)
Plays per game: 59.9 (19th)
Dropbacks per game: 37.9 (19th)
Dropback EPA per play: 0.1 (11th)
Designed rush attempts per game: 25.4 (20th)
Rush EPA per play: 0.05 (1st)

Make or break year for Shane Steichen and Co.

Shane Steichen and the Colts entered the 2025 season at a crossroads. The team desperately wanted Richardson to be a thing, but Jones had different plans. He decisively won that camp battle and never looked back. Jones was putting up career efficiency numbers midway through the season and Steichen looked like a lock to make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons as the Colts’ boss. The Colts were at 7-1, but even before Jones suffered his season-ending Achilles injury, cracks in the facade were beginning to form. His efficiency dropped in his final five games and the Colts lost four of those contests. Things got so bad after Jones went down that Phillip Rivers was drawn out of retirement for “one last job” that went as well as it does in the movies. The late-season collapse left Steichen out of the playoffs for the third time in three tries. The Colts bet the house on this iteration of the roster when they brought back Jones and Alec Pierce on pricey deals. It’s now or never for Steichen and his staff.

▶ Passing Game

QB: Daniel Jones, Riley Leonard, Anthony Richardson
WR: Alec Pierce, Ashton Dulin
WR: Josh Downs, Anthony Gould
WR: Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Deion Burks
TE: Tyler Warren, Mo Alie-Cox

We’ll get to Jones’ midseason slump in a minute, but viewing his Colts debut as a whole, he was wildly impressive. Jones ranked top-10 in both EPA per play and completion percent over expected. Pro Football Focus charted him with top-10 rates of both accurate and accurate plus throws. Add in five rushing touchdowns and Jones was on pace to finish as the QB8 by points per game before exiting Week 14 early. This, however, isn’t the complete story. Jones turned the ball over a staggering five times in Week 9 versus the Steelers. He stemmed the bleeding on bad plays over the next few weeks but still struggled in most efficiency metrics. Four of his five worst games by EPA per play came from Week 9 to Week 14. Jones went from averaging .344 EPA per play over his first eight games to -.03 over his final five. The big shift was his inability to handle pressure. Jones threw six touchdowns and had a 9.8 percent pressure-to-sack rate in his early-season split. Those numbers dropped to one score and a 22 percent P2S when defenses got to him from Week 9 onward. Jones has never been particularly good under pressure, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that his numbers came crashing back to earth. Even if that aspect of his game is here to stay, it’s also hard to deny how efficient he was to start the season. All signs point to Jones being ready for Week 1, and fantasy managers are only being asked to pay a QB25 pricetag to find out who the real Daniel Jones is.

As long as Jones retains his deep ball, Alec Pierce will be happy. The veteran wideout posted a breakout season in 2025 with 1,007 yards on a paltry 47 grabs. He scored seven times and led the league in yards per reception for the second season in a row. Despite the career year, Pierce’s role as a modest-volume deep threat didn’t change. He simply hit more home runs than the previous season. It was the first 1,000-yard season for a player with an aDOT over 20 since the turn of the century. There have only been five 20+ aDOT seasons accompanied by even 700 yards over that timeframe. Naturally, Pierce’s 2024 is another one of the five. Though it’s possible Pierce keeps up his league-leading efficiency for a third straight season, he is already doing something almost no receiver in my lifetime has. Realistically, he will need to earn more intermediate and short targets to hit four digits again. With foot surgery sidelining him for the entire offseason and potentially most of training camp, it’s hard to imagine his role changing much in 2026.

With Michael Pittman gone, the Colts now need a new player to step up as their top option for easy-button targets. At receiver, Josh Downs is almost the only option. Downs looked like a player worth running the entire passing game through in 2024. He was targeted on a monstrous 28 percent of his routes and, while not an every-down player, still took the field for 75 percent of the passing plays. That player vanished in 2025. Downs posted a pedestrian .22 targets per route while the Colts cut his route rate to 67 percent. This can, in part, be explained by a series of injuries. Downs missed much of training camp with a hamstring issue. He eventually sat out one game with a concussion and was listed on the injury report with hip, knee, and ankle issues throughout the year. As of late June, the Colts’ primary WR3 option is between Ashton Dulin and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. As long as they don’t add a free agent before camp, it’s going to be hard to get Downs off the field this year.

While Downs appears to be the best bet to lead the receiver room in targets, Tyler Warren, coming off a dominant rookie season, should pace the team in opportunities overall. Warren already led the Colts in targets last year at 112, one more than Pittman. His 76 grabs go down as the fourth-most for a rookie tight end in league history. As expected, Warren was used primarily as an underneath option and he excelled in that role. He earned seven yards after the catch per reception on catches shorter than 10 yards downfield. That ranked sixth among all tight ends. He was the only tight end who ranked top-20 in YAC on short throws while also seeing more than 70 of these targets. He had 81 such opportunities. Warren’s ability to consistently churn out YAC despite defenses knowing where he’s going to be targeted was his calling card in college and it translates to the NFL right away. Warren is unsurprisingly going off draft boards as the TE4, but there’s nearly a 20-pick gap between him and Colston Loveland as the TE3.

▶ Running Game

RB: Jonathan Taylor, Seth McGowan, DJ Giddens
OL (L-R): Bernhard Raimann, Quenton Nelson, Tanor Bortolini, Matt Gonclaves, Jalen Travis

Much like the passing attack, you can’t talk about Indy’s ground game without looking at the splits with and without Jones. Jonathan Taylor was pushing for a legendary season with nearly 24 PPR points per game and a 2,000 scrimmage yard pace when his quarterback was healthy. Jones gets hurt and he posts 13.3 PPR points per game in the final month of the season, sinking most of the regular-season juggernauts he had built for fantasy managers.

Taylor averaged 1.5 yards before contact per carry and 3.9 after contact with Jones active. Those marks fell to 1.1 and 2.1 post-Jones. On the season, ESPN charted the Colts’ line with the seventh-best run block win rate. If the Colts can return to form through the air and the line continues to play well, Taylor won’t have any issues paying off his RB3 overall cost.

There isn’t much of note going on in this backfield behind Taylor. The team spent all summer last year hyping rookie backup DJ Giddens, only to keep him on the bench for most of the season. Ameer Abdullah occasionally relieved Taylor on passing downs but is now with the Jags. That leaves the RB2 job up for grabs, but Giddens isn’t being handed the keys. The Colts drafted Seth McGowan in the seventh round. McGowan brings a similar profile to Giddens. At 6’/223, Giddens has the size of a workhorse running back and did a little bit of everything in college, even if he isn’t a special runner or receiver. This will be a crucial camp battle for Zero RB drafters to watch.

▶ 2026 Indianapolis Colts Win Total

DraftKings Over/Under: 7.5

Pick: Under (+115)

The Colts enter the 2026 season teeming with upside, but they’re also tremendously fragile. Their quarterback is coming off a torn Achilles. Even before that, his efficiency was grinding to a halt for a few weeks. Their No. 1 receiver underwent offseason ankle surgery and is targeting a return late in training camp. This isn’t to say they are guaranteed to hit the under, only that they are a team with a high ceiling and a staggering floor. If you want to bet the over, you may be better off doing so by taking them to make the playoffs (+170) or win the division outright (+380).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Dirt Track results from the finale of the BC39

USAC Midgets are on the grounds in Indianapolis, IN. The bullring dirt track is set to host the finale of the BC39 paying $20,039 to the winner.

View BC39 results below.

Drake and Danner set the front row. 39 laps of dirt track racing are up next…

Main Event
Report

Green flag, Drake gets the jump on the outside lane and he’s clear off turn two.

35 to go, Danner is all over the bumper of the leader.

31 to go, Danner heads for the cushion. A lap later, he slides Drake for the lead into turn three. Drake crosses under him but Danner holds the lead.

29 to go, three cars tangle, caution.

Green, Danner leads Drake. Cars tangle, caution.

Green, Danner knocks the cushion. He bicycles and still holds the lead.

27 to go, McIntosh to 2nd.

23 to go, Danner bounces off the wall and he keeps rolling. Car stalled behind them, caution.

Green, McIntosh slides Danner for the lead! Danner crosses under him and he slides him back. McIntosh crosses under him. McIntosh returns to the lead.

19 to go, Danner knocks the cushion. He bounces around the corner and takes the lead.

17 to go, Edwards jumps the cushion and he collects Peck, caution.

Green, McIntosh works the inside and he clears Danner for the lead. Danner slides him and Kevin Thomas Jr makes it three wide for the lead. Danner is clear on the top.

9 to go, car upside down in turn four, caution.

Green, Danner leads McIntosh.

Briggs Danner wins the BC39!

BC39 Results
July 1, 2026

The following includes full results:

Practice

Dirt Draft Hot Laps: 1. 40X-Briggs Danner, 12.397[4]; 2. 71K-Cannon McIntosh, 12.566[10]; 3. 19-Drew Sherman, 12.646[30]; 4. 40L-Mack Leopard, 12.666[53]; 5. 19M-Ethan Mitchell, 12.667[35]; 6. 3J-JJ Yeley, 12.671[22]; 7. 19H-Joel Myers Jr, 12.674[39]; 8. 7U-Karter Sarff, 12.685[42]; 9. 98K-Brandon Carr, 12.690[47]; 10. 3P-Justin Peck, 12.696[8];

11. 40D-Drake Edwards, 12.698[15]; 12. 19X-Adyn Schmidt, 12.703[28]; 13. 4-Kale Drake, 12.703[11]; 14. 14-Kevin Thomas Jr, 12.704[3]; 15. 14K-Jakeb Boxell, 12.734[27]; 16. 22H-Rylan Gray, 12.754[34]; 17. 57-Logan Seavey, 12.757[20]; 18. 05-Alex Midkiff, 12.763[40]; 19. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold, 12.766[9]; 20. 54-Jake Swanson, 12.780[5];

21. 11-Kaylee Bryson, 12.791[23]; 22. 87-Justin Grant, 12.814[6]; 23. 67K-Colton Robinson, 12.818[26]; 24. 5P-Wesley Smith, 12.820[29]; 25. 63-Cale Coons, 12.824[17]; 26. 67-Jacob Denney, 12.842[12]; 27. 45-Bradley Cox, 12.884[14]; 28. T21-Kade Taylor, 12.891[33]; 29. 3G-Kyle Cummins, 12.909[18]; 30. 36-Jonathan Beason, 12.915[21];

31. 1-Zach Wigal, 12.944[2]; 32. 20Q-Brecken Reese, 12.959[24]; 33. 7T-Adam Taylor, 13.025[54]; 34. 5D-Zach Daum, 13.034[16]; 35. 32A-Alex Sewell, 13.071[38]; 36. 8L-Cooper Miller, 13.085[50]; 37. 8B-Jeffrey Abbey, 13.088[46]; 38. 3N-Logan Julien, 13.147[36]; 39. 43-Gunnar Setser, 13.164[19]; 40. 32J-Tanner Thorson, 13.229[61];

41. 97-Gavin Miller, 13.236[1]; 42. 19K-Riley Kreisel, 13.269[43]; 43. 89-Steven Snyder Jr, 13.309[13]; 44. 1R-Ricky Thornton Jr, 13.333[7]; 45. 20W-Cody Weisensel, 13.340[32]; 46. 86-Daison Pursley, 13.342[25]; 47. 19R-Beau Doyle, 13.378[60]; 48. 7TX-Kyle Jones, 13.382[55]; 49. 1M-Dodge Carlbert, 13.466[41]; 50. 14J-Wout Hoffmans, 13.483[31];

51. 5U-Jake Robinson, 13.497[49]; 52. 81-Frank Flud, 13.601[37]; 53. 8XL-Christian Miller, 13.692[52]; 54. 33-Cameron Hagin, 13.717[51]; 55. 32-Eric Heydenreich, 13.745[48]; 56. 35-Josh Hodge, 14.000[44]; 57. 7W-Tyler Watkins, 14.046[56]; 58. 21K-Cord Kisthardt, 14.055[45]; 59. 99K-Robert Carson, 14.165[59]; 60. 35S-Christopher Hartman, 14.681[57]; 61. 27-Austin Wood, 14.681[58]

Qualifying Races

K1 Race Gear Qualifying Race 1 (10 Laps): 1. 43-Gunnar Setser[3]; 2. 86-Daison Pursley[2]; 3. 89-Steven Snyder Jr[4]; 4. 1R-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 5. 97-Gavin Miller[6]; 6. 7TX-Kyle Jones[10]; 7. 81-Frank Flud[7]; 8. 32J-Tanner Thorson[11]; 9. 19K-Riley Kreisel[8]; 10. 14J-Wout Hoffmans[1]; 11. 5U-Jake Robinson[9]

TJ Forged Qualifying Race 2 (10 Laps): 1. 67K-Colton Robinson[2]; 2. 57-Logan Seavey[3]; 3. 3P-Justin Peck[5]; 4. 45-Bradley Cox[4]; 5. 1-Zach Wigal[6]; 6. 32A-Alex Sewell[7]; 7. 8L-Cooper Miller[9]; 8. 7W-Tyler Watkins[10]; 9. 35-Josh Hodge[8]; 10. 20W-Cody Weisensel[1]

KN Filters Qualifying Race 3 (10 Laps): 1. 40D-Drake Edwards[4]; 2. 14K-Jakeb Boxell[2]; 3. 14-Kevin Thomas Jr[6]; 4. 19H-Joel Myers Jr[7]; 5. 36-Jonathan Beason[3]; 6. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[5]; 7. 33-Cameron Hagin[9]; 8. 21K-Cord Kisthardt[8]; 9. T21-Kade Taylor[1]; 10. 35S-Christopher Hartman[10]

Indy Powersports Qualifying Race 4 (10 Laps): 1. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 2. 40X-Briggs Danner[5]; 3. 3J-JJ Yeley[3]; 4. 22H-Rylan Gray[1]; 5. 05-Alex Midkiff[6]; 6. 8B-Jeffrey Abbey[7]; 7. 19X-Adyn Schmidt[2]; 8. 8XL-Christian Miller[8]; 9. 5D-Zach Daum[9]; 10. (DNS) 27-Austin Wood

Qualifying Race 5 (10 Laps): 1. 4-Kale Drake[5]; 2. 98K-Brandon Carr[8]; 3. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[1]; 4. 11-Kaylee Bryson[3]; 5. 54-Jake Swanson[6]; 6. 40L-Mack Leopard[9]; 7. 99K-Robert Carson[10]; 8. 1M-Dodge Carlbert[7]; 9. 63-Cale Coons[4]; 10. 5P-Wesley Smith[2]

Qualifying Race 6 (10 Laps): 1. 19-Drew Sherman[2]; 2. 3N-Logan Julien[1]; 3. 67-Jacob Denney[5]; 4. 7U-Karter Sarff[7]; 5. 3G-Kyle Cummins[4]; 6. 20Q-Brecken Reese[3]; 7. 87-Justin Grant[6]; 8. 7T-Adam Taylor[9]; 9. 32-Eric Heydenreich[8]; 10. 19R-Beau Doyle[10]

C Mains

C-Main 1 (12 Laps): 1. 7U-Karter Sarff[1]; 2. 05-Alex Midkiff[3]; 3. 8B-Jeffrey Abbey[5]; 4. 40L-Mack Leopard[6]; 5. 22H-Rylan Gray[2]; 6. 5P-Wesley Smith[9]; 7. 8L-Cooper Miller[7]; 8. 19X-Adyn Schmidt[4]; 9. 14J-Wout Hoffmans[10]; 10. T21-Kade Taylor[8]; 11. 7T-Adam Taylor[12]; 12. 19R-Beau Doyle[15]; 13. 32-Eric Heydenreich[11]; 14. 99K-Robert Carson[14]; 15. 5U-Jake Robinson[13]

C-Main 2 (12 Laps): 1. 20Q-Brecken Reese[1]; 2. 63-Cale Coons[2]; 3. 19K-Riley Kreisel[9]; 4. 32A-Alex Sewell[3]; 5. 7TX-Kyle Jones[5]; 6. 81-Frank Flud[4]; 7. 20W-Cody Weisensel[10]; 8. 33-Cameron Hagin[8]; 9. 1M-Dodge Carlbert[6]; 10. 32J-Tanner Thorson[14]; 11. 7W-Tyler Watkins[11]; 12. 35S-Christopher Hartman[13]; 13. 8XL-Christian Miller[12]; 14. 21K-Cord Kisthardt[7]

B Main

Semi-Feature (15 Laps): 1. 86-Daison Pursley[2]; 2. 19-Drew Sherman[1]; 3. 3G-Kyle Cummins[6]; 4. 14K-Jakeb Boxell[4]; 5. 3J-JJ Yeley[3]; 6. 11-Kaylee Bryson[7]; 7. 98K-Brandon Carr[5]; 8. 3N-Logan Julien[9]; 9. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[12]; 10. 63-Cale Coons[16]; 11. 36-Jonathan Beason[8]; 12. 7U-Karter Sarff[13]; 13. 5D-Zach Daum[11]; 14. 19K-Riley Kreisel[18]; 15. 20Q-Brecken Reese[14]; 16. 40L-Mack Leopard[19]; 17. 05-Alex Midkiff[15]; 18. 19H-Joel Myers Jr[10]; 19. 8B-Jeffrey Abbey[17]; 20. 32A-Alex Sewell[20]

Main Event

BC39 by AVANTI (39 Laps):

1. 40X-Briggs Danner[1]

2. 14-Kevin Thomas Jr[3]

3. 67-Jacob Denney[9]

4. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[4]

5. 4-Kale Drake[2]

6. 97-Gavin Miller[6]

7. 89-Steven Snyder Jr[12]

8. 98K-Brandon Carr[26]

9. 43-Gunnar Setser[8]

10. 87-Justin Grant[18]

11. 57-Logan Seavey[14]

12. 86-Daison Pursley[19]

13. 54-Jake Swanson[13]

14. 1R-Ricky Thornton Jr[11]

15. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[17]

16. 3G-Kyle Cummins[21]

17. 19-Drew Sherman[20]

18. 11-Kaylee Bryson[24]

19. 32J-Tanner Thorson[28]

20. 14K-Jakeb Boxell[22]

21. 63-Cale Coons[27]

22. 3J-JJ Yeley[23]

23. 3P-Justin Peck[7]

24. 20Q-Brecken Reese[25]

25. 45-Bradley Cox[15]

26. 40D-Drake Edwards[5]

27. 67K-Colton Robinson[16]

28. 1-Zach Wigal[10]

BC39
Video Highlights

Pending

Links

Indianapolis Motor Speedway | USAC Racing

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Nearly 25,000 Central Indiana residents are expected to attend Fourth Fest, the city’s July Fourth celebration, in downtown Indianapolis featuring live music, food and a fireworks show.

City public safety officials say that while they’re excited about the festival, their top priority is making sure everyone celebrates safely.

Any emergency updates will be shared on Fourth Fest’s main stage and displayed on event screens, while the Indianapolis Metro Police Department says its officers will be patrolling the festival area and all through downtown on Saturday.

“They’ll be intentionally patrolling key locations, assisting with traffic flow, and insuring that both visitors and residents feel safe and supported,” said IMPD Deputy Chief Matthew Thomas.

Thomas says parents have the responsibility of knowing where their kids are at all times, and that everyone attending should be respectful. He also stresses that public safety is a shared responsibility.

“Anyone coming downtown must behave responsibly,” Thomas said. “Reckless or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. If juveniles are found in violation of curfew or involved in disruptive behavior, officers may take appropriate enforcement action. We are all working to keep this city safe.”

Other things to keep in mind: you can not bring your own fireworks or drones to Fourth Fest. As temperatures are expected to be hot, free water will be available at stations throughout the event.

Fourth Fest takes place Saturday at the American Legion Mall. The street party starts at 6 p.m., while the fireworks show starts just after 10 p.m.