NFL Winners and Losers: The Colts are monumentally screwed

The Indianapolis Colts went from being one of the best stories in football to a horror story, and it only took one play. Daniel Jones is out for the season with a torn achilles, and with him goes their season. There’s all sorts of mental gymnastics you can do to find a way for them to get into the playoffs — but the loss to the Jaguars on Sunday pushed their chances of making the postseason down to 50 percent, but more importantly took every ounce of wind out of this team’s sails. They’re done, they’re going to lose their playoff spot to a worse team, and it’s brutally unfair.

It’s par for the course for this 2025 season, which has been rich in unpredictability. The Texans jumped the Colts with their win on Sunday Night Football, as their chances to make the playoffs have plummeted from 96% two weeks ago, to now being 43%. It also made for one of the wildest weekends in football for a single state, with Indiana seeing the Hoosiers win the Big Ten on Saturday night, Notre Dame get snubbed from the College Football Playoff on Sunday morning, then the Colts season go up in smoke on Sunday afternoon.

Not only did it crush a season for the Colts, but it left them in a total lurch. A team that appeared to have put it all together now has almost nothing to hang their hat on.

At the center of all this is Daniel Jones, whose career is now at another crossroads. One of the best passers in the league this season, Jones had thrown for 3,101 yards (6th), 19 touchdowns (7th), and just 8 interceptions (68th) — all with a QBR of 64.9, good for 7th in the NFL. It seemed like Jones had found his forever home in Shane Steichen’s offense, which seemed to really click with his skillset. Jones, along with Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield formed this bizarre triumvirate of QBs taken early, labeled “terrible,” only to light it up on another team.

Seeing Jones go down clutching at his leg on a non-contact injury, then buckle when he tried to stand was just heartbreaking. We’ll know more about the severity of the achilles injury on Monday, but if it was a full tear it will take at least nine months to recover — putting his return right up against the beginning of the 2026 season, with no guarantee he’ll even be ready to go by then. The Colts really can’t move on operating under the idea that re-signing Jones is their play at quarterback. The trade for Sauce Gardner means they won’t have a first round pick until 2028, so they will be too far back in the draft to find a guaranteed signal caller, and there’s no promise Jones will return to form even if he gets healthy again, such is the nature of achilles injuries.

It really sucks, because there’s so much to like about that team. I like Shane Steichen as a coach, and think there’s really something there. I like Jonathan Taylor, and he’s so much fun to watch — and unselfish to boot. The problem moving forward is that I think Indianapolis is in one of the worst spots of the “good” teams now. Taylor has 1,400 carries on his body, which is really getting up there. The defense invested a lot of resources in Sauce Gardner, who has been extremely mediocre this season. Now the quarterback position is up in the air, and Indianapolis has $35M in projected cap space with 39 players signed, without a QB.

This makes their future prospects dicey, and that’s a damn shame.

Sometimes one injury can define a franchise, and as surreal as it seems to make Daniel Jones that guy, here we are. Football is not fair and this is simply another example of that.

And now for more winners and losers from around the NFL.

Winner: Josh Allen

Josh Allen is going to drag the Bills into the playoffs kicking and screaming, if he has to. The story for Buffalo in the latter part of this season is that Allen hasn’t had the tools to make plays, and that’s led to him forcing a lot of bad throws as he tries to will something into existence.

On Sunday we got a glimpse of how good the Bills are when they can find a rhythm and be comfortable on offense. Sure, a lot of that is a product of playing against an absolutely horrific Bengals defense — but sometimes a game like this can serve as a spark to unlock more. This was the quintessential brilliance we’ve come to expect from Allen when he’s playing his best.

The raw stats are impressive enough: 251 passing yards, 3 TDs — then another 78 on the ground, including the game-winning 40 yard run that sealed it all. It’s more about how Allen went about his plays which made all the difference. Nine different receivers were targeted, Allen spread the ball around to always target the open man, rather than trying to force a big play.

Buffalo is in the playoffs again, that much we essentially know. It would take a total collapse losing to the Browns and Jets among their final four games in order to miss out. The question is whether or not this win on Sunday can be a building block for more. The AFC is wide open, it’s simply about whether or not the Bills can take it.

Loser: The Buccaneers

The month of November saw Tampa Bay go 1-3, with their lone win being a three point victory over the hopeless Cardinals — and December isn’t going much better. What was once a lock playoff spot out of the horrible NFC South has now been whittled away to the point where the Bucs and Panthers are tied at 7-6, with their two remaining head-to-head contests deciding the division.

Losing to the Saints was a body blow to the Buccaneers, who really should have dog walked one of the worst teams in the NFL. The saving grace is that the Panthers have also lost to New Orleans, a team that is objectively awful — but loves playing spoiler to their in-division rivals.

This is still Tampa’s division to lose, and they have a soft schedule to close out the year — but there’s no question that there’s been regression over the past several weeks. This team has to put things together and find their form again.

Winner: Blake Corum

It was always mystifying to me that Blake Corum lasted until the third round in 2024. I get all the draft expert logic about him being an older back, and concern that he didn’t hit every ideal measurable — but you don’t run that well for Michigan and be a bad back.

It took a little time, but Corum has broken out this season to become a serious weapon teams need to account for when playing the Rams. This was prevalent against the Cardinals on Sunday when he ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns on just 12 carries. It was a mammoth game and it really changes how teams have to approach facing Los Angeles.

In a similar “damned if you do” approach to the passing game with Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, you now need to do the same thing with the running game with Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. They fill different roles, and it makes it absolute hell to cover both receivers effectively while also needing to be concerned with how the linebacker corps can deal with the different running pace of the two backs.

There’s a very real chance that Corum could become the Rams’ secret weapon in the playoffs.

Loser: The Chiefs

Need we say more? They won’t win the AFC West for the first time in nine years, their path to the playoffs is almost non-existence, and on Sunday night they set a Mahomes-era record for drops. This might be the year it all falls apart.