The Colts swear they're keeping Daniel Jones, and that's your cue to sell

The Colts say they aren't trading Daniel Jones. If you own him in a contract league, that's the best reason you'll get all season to trade him yourself.

Saturday morning went two directions in about two hours. Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport reported first that Indianapolis has held trade talks on Jones, with multiple teams calling and the Ravens checking in before they took Jacoby Brissett. Then Tom Pelissero reported that the Colts have told interested teams they aren't moving him. Those reports fight each other less than your group chat thinks. A team can take calls all week and still decide nobody met the price.

What everyone's blurring is the trade question and the playing-time question. A trade would probably be fine for you. Jones landing with a team that needs a quarterback (ESPN even mentioned speculation about Minnesota, where he has history) likely keeps him on the field. Staying put is what should worry you, and Pelissero's report just made that the likelier outcome. Staying put means staying on a 2-6 team that pulled him for Anthony Richardson in the fourth quarter of a 42-7 loss in Jacksonville last Sunday.

The money is on Spotrac, so you don't have to take my word for it. Jones signed for two years and $88 million in March, with a $44 million signing bonus. Of his 2027 pay, $10.51 million (a $6.51 million slice of salary plus a $4 million roster bonus) is guaranteed for injury now and becomes fully guaranteed on March 15 if he's still on the roster. ESPN spelled out the consequence: if the Colts fall out of the race, they might not want to expose him to an injury that locks in that money, and a benching could come into play.

I've sat in that kind of meeting. Nobody in the room says "sit him for the money." Somebody says it's time to get a look at the other guy, everybody nods, and the real reason never gets near a podium. Shane Steichen said this week that "Daniel gives us the best chance to win right now." ESPN noticed the "right now," and you should too.

The case for holding is real, so I'll give it its due. He starts Sunday against Dallas. His coach backed him in public. And quarterbacks get hurt on Sundays, which is exactly how the Ravens ended up shopping after losing Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley. One bad hit somewhere this weekend and Jones is the hottest name on the market by Monday.

Maybe. But you don't own the Colts' leverage. If a contender loses its starter, Indianapolis gets the phone call and the picks. You get a player who either moves, which is fine, or stays with a team that has a dated, eight-figure reason to sit him in December. If your RSO deal with him runs into 2027, that date hits you twice, because you'd be paying next year's salary for a quarterback whose NFL team might release him in March to avoid its own guarantee.

Your league-mates read the same headlines you did. Half of them saw "multiple teams have called" and stopped there. That half is your buyer, and they're buying this weekend, not after Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET when the deadline passes and the story gets boring. Take a younger piece or a pick and let somebody else do the Colts' homework.

If Indianapolis keeps him and plays him every snap through January, I'll have handed away a few December starts, and I'll admit it right here. I'd rather write that column than the one about holding a quarterback whose own team has a calendar reason not to play him.

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