Daniel Jones and Riley Leonard are lined up to spend the 2025 NFL season together in the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback room.
On the surface, that doesn't appear to be remarkable. But when you dig deeper, it gets pretty crazy.
Back in 2019, the New York Giants picked Jones No. 6 overall out of Duke. On Saturday, the Colts drafted Leonard in the sixth round.
And their pedigrees aren't really all that different.
Both began their college careers at Duke.
Jones finished his there, too, while Leonard ended at Notre Dame.
Let's compare their final college season stats (2018 for Jones, 2024 for Leonard):
- Completion percentage: Leonard 66.7 to 60.5
- Passing yards: Leonard 2,861 to 2,674
- TD passes: Jones 22 to 21
- INTs: Leonard 8 to 9
- Rushing yards: Leonard 906 to 319 (4.9 ypc to 3.1)
- Rushing TDs: Leonard 17 to Jones 3
Both are big, athletic quarterbacks who are known as possible running threats.
Except you see there that Leonard was a much better collegiate runner than Jones who also completed a lot more of his passes.
Leonard isn't believed to be an NFL-level passer, while there was still hope back then that Jones could become one.
Jones has been erratic in the league, at times flashing greatness and at other times flashing nightmares.
Clearly, these are two different players, in two different draft evaluation processes, at two different times.
But it's kind of wild in retrospect that Jones went 6th overall and Leonard went in the 6th round.
These guys might not actually be that different.
