Colts Shut the Door: Daniel Jones Is Not for Sale as Trade Deadline Nears

The phone calls came, and the Indianapolis Colts said no. That, in the end, is the whole story of the latest twist in the NFL's trade deadline week, and it is the kind of firm answer that usually ends a rumour rather than starting one. NFL insider Tom Pelissero reported on Saturday morning that the Colts have received calls about quarterback Daniel Jones ahead of Tuesday's trade deadline, and that they have told every interested team the same thing: he is not available. "The Colts have received calls on QB Daniel Jones ahead of Tuesday's deadline, but they've told interested teams they aren't trading him," Pelissero wrote. It is easy to see why the calls were made. The trade deadline, which falls on Tuesday, November 10, is the last chance for contenders to fix a problem before the stretch run, and quarterback is the one position where a single injury can end a season. Teams with a need and a phone number will always ring, and this week there has been no shortage of teams with a need. The loudest link had been to Minnesota. The Vikings lost their first game of the season last Sunday, and their quarterback room has been held together with tape ever since. Starter Kyler Murray is dealing with a hamstring injury, and backup Carson Wentz will start Monday night's game against the Buffalo Bills. Pundits spent the past week connecting those dots and drawing a line from Minnesota to Indianapolis, where Jones has been the Colts' man under centre. On paper it made a certain sense. In practice, the Colts were never interested. There is a discipline to Indianapolis's answer that says something about where the franchise believes it stands. Teams that are rebuilding sell their veterans at the deadline. Teams that believe they are in the fight do not. By refusing even to entertain offers for their starting quarterback, the Colts have told the rest of the league that they consider themselves buyers, not sellers, and that whatever their season becomes from here, it will be built around the quarterback they already have. For the Vikings, the door closing on Jones means the search, if it continues at all, has to go elsewhere. Wentz gets the start on Monday night in Buffalo, a game that suddenly carries a little more weight than it did a week ago, because it is now also an audition of sorts for the weeks ahead. If he plays well, the urgency fades. If he does not, the phone calls will start again, just to different teams. That is the nature of deadline week in the NFL. Every rumour sounds plausible until someone with real information says otherwise, and Pelissero's report did exactly that. It should put the Jones-to-Minnesota talk to rest, at least for now, though as Heavy noted in its report, it is hard to put a stop to trade rumours entirely, and there is no guarantee the chatter ends with one Saturday morning update. Still, the message from Indianapolis could hardly have been clearer. The Colts were asked about their quarterback, and they said no. In a week full of noise, that is about as definitive as it gets.