The NFL keeps saying they don’t want to give the Comeback Player of the Year award to someone coming back from nothing but being terrible. But they just keep producing awesome comeback stories. This season, Daniel Jones is writing a feel-good story right now during a 3-0 start with his Indianapolis Colts.
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Jones has not just been leading the Colts to wins; they’ve been putting up big numbers on offense, and he is the catalyst for that success on the scoreboard. He has been getting it done through the air and on the ground, sitting top three in passer rating while also sitting top three in rushing TDs.
And with all of that success has inevitably come another excellent nickname for the guy who already has two of the best in the game. Jones went on Pardon My Take to try to explain the origins of his three most popular nicknames.
“The Danny Dimes thing, I think, started right when I got to New York. I think that was like a Giants Instagram, social media people started that. Indiana Jones, just now. Vanilla Vick, that was—I don’t know when that was. When I tripped (Laughs) on Monday Night Football or whatever it was.”
Jones has seemingly come a long way since those Danny Dimes days with the New York Giants—and especially since those dark Vanilla Vick days. Jones has three rushing TDs and three passing TDs with no turnovers through three weeks. No one has ever done that in the Super Bowl era.
Indy has also punted just once through three games. Again, a first for the Super Bowl era. The team’s NFL-high 103 points through three weeks are also more than any Peyton Manning-led Colts team. And that’s saying something. Of course, when asked to rank those three nicknames, Jones chose the latest one, the one bestowed on him by his current fanbase, as his favorite.
“Probably Indiana Jones, probably Danny Dimes, and then Vanilla Vick.”
Of course, Big Cat attempted to claim the “Indiana Jones” nickname as a creation of his own; there’s no way to really check the veracity of that claim. All that matters is that Danny Dimes has transformed into Indiana Jones.
He’ll be looking to maintain his high level of play heading into probably his toughest test yet in Week 4. Next up, he’s got a road date with the Los Angeles Rams, who are tied for the league lead with 12 sacks. For those thinking that might be too much for Indiana Jones to handle: the team the Rams are tied with atop the sacks leaderboard, the Broncos, lost to Jones in Week 2.
