According to CBS Sports John Breech, the Indianapolis Colts are named one of the free agent suitors for potentially unretiring veteran quarterback Derek Carr, who would serve as experienced insurance for presumed re-signed starting quarterback Daniel Jones to start the 2026 campaign:
3. Colts or Chiefs
We’re lumping these two teams together for one big reason: They both have a starting quarterback who suffered a serious injury toward the end of the 2025 season.
Let’s start with the Colts. Daniel Jones had a strong season in his first-year with Indianapolis, but it came to a painful end in December when he tore his Achilles. That’s one of the most brutal injuries in sports and there’s no guarantee he’s going to be ready for Week 1 in 2026. As a matter of fact, if you look at the recovery timeline for quarterbacks, it would be a borderline miracle if Jones were to play in Week 1. Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins both tore their Achilles in 2023 and they ended up playing in Week 1 of the following season, but both of those injuries happened early in the season (Cousins’ injury came in Week 8 while Rodgers tore his Achilles in Week 1. Jones suffered his injury in Week 14).
Not only is Jones’ health up in the air, but he’s also set to be a free agent, so the Colts have fo figure out what they want to do with him, and that’s where Carr comes in. If the Colts decide to re-sign Jones, Carr could sign a one-year deal and be the QB until Jones is ready to play. If Carr has proven one thing in his career, it’s that he can be successful when he has some great offensive talent around him and the Colts have that. They have a solid offensive line, they have one of the best running backs in the NFL (Jonathan Taylor), they have a solid receiving group led by Michael Pittman and they have a solid young tight end in Tyler Warren. This is the kind of team that Carr could thrive on.
It’s not the first time that the Colts, in the wake of Jones’ season-ending Achilles injury, have been connected to Carr—as Indianapolis reportedly reached out to the former Raiders organization and New Orleans Saints starter before bringing back Philip Rivers out of his 5-year retirement. In that regard, it wouldn’t be the first quarterback that the Colts have brought out of retirement recently either.
Because of lingering right shoulder and rotator cuff pain, and otherwise facing corrective offseason surgery, Carr retired during last May. During his final season in 2024, Carr completed 189 of 279 total pass attempts (67.7%) for 2,145 total passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, and 5 interceptions during 10 starts for the Saints.
Right now, Jones and his representation are hopeful that he’ll be ready for the start of this summer’s training camp. However, while Jones is currently rehabbing, that timeline does seem on the optimistic side of things.
If safely re-signed in Indianapolis, it’s possible that Jones’ return could realistically push closer to the start of the regular season, and who knows, for a quarterback who relies on his mobility quite a bit, maybe at least the first few games of the 2026 campaign.
Signing a proven veteran quarterback option makes at least some sense in that regard, but it would assuredly mean that the Colts would be moving on from rising 4th-year quarterback Anthony Richardson as Jones’ primary backup quarterback option due to salary cap constraints.
Ascending 2nd-year quarterback Riley Leonard would also be demoted to 3rd-string again, which may happen regardless.
It doesn’t seem like Carr joining the Colts is very likely, but stranger things have happened in Indiana.