INDIANAPOLIS — With his bumps and bruises still fresh, and while still coming to grips with the frustration that comes with an ugly loss, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones did what he does after every game.
He sought out the trusted voice that has guided him for the past decade-plus.
In the aftermath of the Colts’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 9, in which a grass-stained Jones was sacked five times and was responsible for five turnovers, waiting until the following day to confront the carnage was not an option.
That very evening, Jones dialed up David Cutcliffe and got to work.
“We did a bit of a deep dive,” said Cutcliffe, Jones’ coach at Duke and, to this day, his closest football mentor and confidant. “It was mostly me listening to him.”
Some of the conversation centered on elements Cutcliffe has always stressed with Jones, like reminders to keep two hands on the football when in the pocket to avoid the strip-sacks that befell him in Pittsburgh.
But much of the conversation was about keeping perspective. Jones was beating himself up over his performance, easily his worst of the season, and Cutcliffe offered some needed balance. He referenced poet Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, “If,” as a reminder.
The stanza of note: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same”
It was just one recent example of how Cutcliffe has been, perhaps, the most important voice in Jones’ ear throughout his years in college football and the NFL, including during his struggles with the New York Giants. Just as Cutcliffe played a similar role in the careers of Super Bowl-winning quarterback brothers Peyton and Eli Manning — both of whom he coached in college — he has been a stabilizing force through the ups and downs in Jones’ career.
And there have been plenty of both.
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“I think it’s helpful to have someone you really trust, someone who’s seen you kind of grow on the field and off the field as a player and knows what you are at your core,” Jones said. “And you’ve got to go back to that.
“A lot of those tougher years in New York, he helped me a ton through that, giving me coaching points and things I needed to work on, but also encouraging me and helping me realize a lot of things that I needed to do to improve and help build confidence. He’s been a huge, huge help for me for 10, 11 years now.”
Cutcliffe’s conversations with Jones this season have had a much different context than many of those they had during Jones’ six mostly tumultuous seasons with the Giants. The No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft, Jones often found himself playing with underwhelming supporting casts and dealing with unreliable pass protection.
He rarely expressed any frustrations publicly. Even now, Jones still talks about the experience mostly in a neutral fashion. But, all along, it was Cutcliffe who was helping Jones process it all.
“I think it prepared him for everything he’s going to face throughout his career,” Cutcliffe said of Jones’ time in New York. “There were times I would go up to New York and we’d just sit down and watch film and he could just be one-on-one. He could say what he was feeling. And I said, ‘You have to express that.'”
The conversations between the pair this season have been much more positive. Jones has been among the league leaders in passing yards and completion percentage in 2025, making him one of the most surprising stories of the season. The Colts lead the AFC South and are in play for the conference’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
“He’s happy,” said Cutcliffe, 71. “He had some good times in New York, but look at the list of coaches and coordinators and different offenses. And, then, it’s been pretty documented, all the issues at receiver and the issues with the offensive line. So, he’s surrounded by a good football team and I can tell you he’s happy.”
The relationship between Jones and Cutcliffe was born out of trust, and that trust has shaped it ever since.
It began with a phone call from Jones’ Charlotte, North Carolina high school coach to Cutcliffe, the coach at Duke at the time. Cutcliffe was alerted to Jones, who was being lightly recruited. Jones was committed to Princeton, but the more prominent programs had shown little interest.
Cutcliffe watched Jones’ game film and was immediately intrigued.
“I called the coach back and I said, ‘Don’t send that to anybody else,'” Cutcliffe recalled. “I said, ‘We’ll take him — immediately.'”
There was just one problem. The Blue Devils did not have a scholarship available for Jones in the fall of 2015. Cutcliffe asked Jones and his parents to trust that the staff would deliver on a scholarship by the spring semester if they could foot the bill for the fall.
“As it was, we had some players that had career-ending injuries and that opened up the door,” Cutcliffe said. “And the rest is history, as they say.”
Said Jones: “I think that whole thing probably had a lot to do with our relationship.”
Now, all these years later, the trust between them has only grown. It’s why, after that regrettable loss in Pittsburgh, Cutcliffe was one of Jones’ first calls. It’s also why, just before reporting to training camp, Jones and Cutcliffe rendezvoused at Samford University in Alabama for some last-minute on-field work (Cutcliffe works as an adviser to the Southeastern Conference in nearby Birmingham).
But Cutcliffe’s pupils know not to expect only positive reinforcement when they seek his guidance. He’s a coach at heart — a demanding one, at that.
Take it from Cutcliffe’s most famous student.
“He always told me the unvarnished truth, and you appreciate that more as the years go by,” Peyton Manning told ESPN in a previous interview. “Because that’s an important part of trying to do as well as you can possibly do, is somebody willing to give you that kind of honesty.”
Manning added, “You know it’s good, but maybe not how good until you look back and see the impact.”
Cutcliffe is folksy and jokey off the field. He has a funny saying for just about any situation, and his players have heard them all before. One such saying, which Cutcliffe repeated during an interview, was “hot stove.”
He explained.
“If you’ve ever cooked and touched the eye of a stove, you get your hand off there with amazing quickness, right?” Cutcliffe said. “OK, same thing. When you get knocked down in football or you get beat, it’s one simple phrase: hot stove. I don’t want to hear it. Get your ass up. Be the first one back up.”
That very piece of wisdom was delivered during Cutcliffe’s call with Jones after the Pittsburgh loss.
“Off the field, he’s a very kind and fun personality to be around,” Jones said. “But the second you step on the field and mess something up, you hear about it in a big-time way. He’s a football coach and he’s old school in that way. He’ll still call me and tell me something about the way I’m carrying the ball in the pocket or getting the ball out quicker or whatever.
“It’s all those fundamental things that you heard so much as a young player as a college guy that I think are still really valuable. And I think that was a big reason why Eli and Peyton would always go back to [Cutcliffe], for those fundamental reminders that every quarterback needs to hear.”
It isn’t surprising that Jones would seek out the extra tutoring. Colts coach Shane Steichen cites Jones’ meticulous preparation as the key to his success this season — more so than his arm talent, accuracy or running ability.
“He is the hardest worker on the team — by far,” backup quarterback Riley Leonard said.
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Cutcliffe wouldn’t have it any other way. But while he continues to pour into Jones, Cutcliffe is also benefiting from this relationship. He watches every Colts game with great anticipation and said talking about Jones’ performance this season is “my favorite topic.” On Sundays, Cutcliffe said, “My wife knows not to talk to me when the Colts are on TV.”
Meanwhile, Jones and the Colts (8-2) roll on, heading into a key AFC matchup on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. Jones will take center stage, and he bring with him the lessons imparted by Cutcliffe through the years.
It’s that wisdom that has helped make him who he is, Jones said.
“There’s no doubt I wouldn’t be here without him and the influence he’s had on me as a player and as a person,” Jones said. “I think what I learned on the field from him at Duke was huge. And then going into the NFL, him advocating for me as someone who NFL executives and coaches trust and know his pedigree, know his background, went a long way for me.
“And, then, in the NFL, he’s continued to coach me and help me and always support me.”
Jeff Legwold contributed to this report.
