Vikings Set to Benefit from Colts Making Daniel Jones Starter

The Vikings will benefit from Daniel Jones’ two-month stint with the team last season despite it not including a single snap.

Jones was named the Colts starter on Tuesday, beating out Anthony Richardson after signing a one-year, $14 million deal in March. 

The former Giants quarterback was signed to the Vikings practice squad in November after New York elected to eat a $22 million cap hit for 2025 to move on from Jones.

Minnesota signed Jones in November to its practice squad after he cleared waivers, and he was elevated to the active roster in the playoffs, but he stayed on the bench behind Sam Darnold and never entered a game. His presence on the active roster, though, meant that the Vikings would get a 2026 compensatory pick if Jones left in free agency.

Where exactly the pick lands depends on a formula that includes playing time; the Colts making him a starter means that Minnesota could get a better pick.

OverTheCap, a website dedicated to the NFL’s salary cap and team spending, has a calculator that projects compensatory picks, and it currently projects that Jones will land the Vikings a fourth-rounder. 

Regardless of where it lands, the pick will be the second compensatory one the Vikings land from a quarterback. The website also projects Darnold—who signed with a three-year, $100.5 million contract with Seattle—to land the Vikings a third-round selection.