Jesse Minter doesn’t need a reminder of what Daniel Jones can do when a defense gives him easy answers.
The Ravens coach saw it firsthand last season, when Jones and the Colts picked apart a Chargers defense built around zone looks and extra defensive backs. It was the kind of game that forced Minter’s staff to confront exactly how much damage a quarterback can do without living on deep shots. On Sunday, with Minter making his head coaching debut for Baltimore in Indianapolis, that same issue is back on the table.
Minter said Tuesday that the short passing game is a central part of how the Colts create explosives.
"Yes, that is a major part of how they operate, where they get explosives from,” Minter said Tuesday of the short passing game. “It is boots and short throws to (tight end Tyler) Warren.
It is all the little option routes to (receiver Josh) Downs. It is checkdowns to (running back Jonathan) Taylor or designed plays to Taylor and Warren.
“I mean, they do a really good job just kind of trying to figure out what you are in and figuring out where the holes are, figuring out how to put stress on people, create space for the checkdowns by putting routes behind them. So, it is going to be a major emphasis to be able to tackle really well in space and certainly try to limit those opportunities for them to create explosives on throws where they are not really trying to throw the ball down the field."
That was the story in the previous matchup, too. Jones didn’t have to force the ball downfield to slice up the defense.
He went 15-for-18 for 140 yards and two touchdowns on passes thrown within five yards behind the line of scrimmage and five yards past it, finishing with a 136.1 rating on those throws. The Chargers gave up 142 yards after the catch in a 38-24 loss that stood out even over the course of the season.
The Colts found room underneath and turned it into chain-moving production. Jones completed 23 of his 33 passes for 10 yards or less, while Jonathan Taylor pounded away at nickel-and-dime looks at more than 7 yards per carry.
More than half of Jones’s attempts, 18 of them, came within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Air yards were not the point.
Tyler Warren also played a major role in stretching those short throws into bigger gains. His best play came when he sold an engagement at the line, slipped out, and turned a short catch into a 30-yard gain.
Jones did connect on one throw that traveled more than 20 yards, finding Alec Pierce on a deep shot in Week 1 after Pierce returned from ankle surgery. But that was the exception. He attempted only four passes that traveled over 20 yards, and he didn’t need to keep challenging the coverage shells that are a foundation of Minter’s system.
The Colts still managed 14 passing first downs in that game, tying the most Minter’s defense allowed in his two seasons in Los Angeles.
The numbers from last season underline the same point. Jones ranked in the top eight among NFL quarterbacks by throwing 38% of his passes between 0-5 yards downfield, and he ranked 29th in the percentage of his attempts that traveled over 20 yards in the air at 8%.
Now Minter has to decide how much to alter his approach. The question is whether he keeps leaning on two deep safeties, especially with Jones returning from late-season Achilles surgery, or whether he uses Kyle Hamilton in a different way against Warren than he did when he matched up with Derwin James last October.
However Minter handles it, this game already looks like a layered tactical battle. And Jones has already shown he can carve up a defense without ever making it live dangerously downfield.
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