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Since 1950, more than 960 players have played quarterback in the NFL. And only one has started a season 3-0 while completing 70.0% of his passes, compiling 850-plus total yards, accounting for at least six touchdowns and committing zero turnovers. That quarterback is not Tom Brady or Drew Brees. It is neither Peyton Manning nor Brett Favre.

That quarterback is the Indianapolis Colts' Daniel Jones.

Yes, a player who was waived last season by the quarterback-starved New York Giants, is having a historic start to the season. And the numbers behind Jones' season don't stop there:

  • He is the third quarterback since 1950 to start 3-0, averaging 9-plus yards per attempt and committing zero turnovers. The other two quarterbacks were Alex Smith (2017) and Patrick Mahomes (2018).
  • He has more wins (three) than negative plays (sacks, fumbles and interceptions) this season (two).
  • He is the only quarterback in the Super Bowl era with three passing touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns and zero turnovers in the first three games of a season.
  • He has two games this season in which the Colts had zero punts and zero turnovers. Manning had one such game in his entire Colts career (227 starts including the playoffs).

"Obviously it's one of the toughest positions in all of sports to play," Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said earlier this week, "and [Jones] is doing it right now as good as it gets."

SportsLine's player prop expert Alex Selesnick believes Jones' success will continue for at least one more week. So Selesnick, who is up $2,784 on all prop picks since 2021, has made Jones Over 212.5 total passing yards (-111) on Sunday against the Rams as one of his five best player prop bets for NFL's Week 4.

"This line is simply too low considering how well Jones has played and his bevy of weapons," Selesnick told SportsLine. "And this game has the highest projected total on the slate. This game has serious shootout potential, and I credit Shane Steichen, who has really tailored an offense around Jones' best attributes, which are his mobility and ability to use play action and RPO. I'm comfortable playing this line up to 224.5."

The quarterback nicknamed Indiana Jones has completely reversed his career trajectory. The former No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Jones started four seasons for the Giants and led the team to the playoffs in 2022, the franchise's first postseason appearance since the 2016 season. He then signed a four-year, $160 million with the team.

But then he went 1-5 as the starter in an injury-plagued 2023 season and 2-8 last year and was benched in favor of Tommy DeVito. New York's notoriously tough fans and media made life difficult on Jones, who asked for—and was granted—his release from the team. In the offseason he signed a one-year, $14 million contract with the Colts, who were looking for a quarterback to compete with former first round pick Anthony Richardson. 

Jones has usurped Richardson—and then some. And now entering Week 4, Jones ranks second in the odds to win the Comeback Player of the Year award, at +300, behind only San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (+135).

"I think [Jones] is just seeing it really well," Steichen said earlier this week. "He's seeing it really well, getting us in and out of the right plays, delivering the ball with accuracy. He's playing freaking really good right now."