Colts

• Mike Sando of The Athletic notes the Colts used the transition tag on QB Daniel Jones, setting a $37.8 million baseline for one year, before signing him to a two-year, $88 million deal that ranks 13th among 16 veteran quarterbacks on starting-level contracts.
• One executive said: “I think they did the right thing with him. They couldn’t afford not to have him. Let’s face it, their troubles all started by drafting Anthony Richardson. Here they are.”
• Another executive criticized using the transition tag rather than letting the market determine Jones’ value, saying: “You probably had a natural transition tag anyway, because Daniel wasn’t going anywhere without checking with you first. It’s not like he wanted to go to the Jets. The Vikings had no ability to sign high-priced players, so they weren’t really a factor.”
• On the downside risk, an executive explained: “Let’s say another team offers him $50 million a year over four years, and $110 million is fully guaranteed. What is worse: That awful deal where you are tied to him for $110 million for the next two years, or what you just did? Your downside is an extra $15-20 million over two years, but at least you get him for two more years on the back end.”
• Regarding the alternative, one executive noted: “There are worlds where they don’t tag him, he gets paid elsewhere and it would have been hard to find someone to fill that gap. This was the smart play if you are banking on him continuing to thrive in Year 2 of your system. By the same token, I do not know if it pushes the needle.”
• Virginia RB J’Mari Taylor said he has a visit or meeting lined up with the Colts. It’s unclear if it’s a 30 visit or a Zoom meeting. (Greg Madia)
• UCF DE Malachi Lawrence has 16 official 30 visits, including with the Colts. (Mike Garafolo)

Jaguars

Jacksonville watched a number of its former players walk in free agency, with the one external addition coming in the form of RB Chris Rodriguez Jr., thus far. Jaguars HC Liam Coen joked about their “window shopping” during free agency, and explained their strategy with plenty of returning starters and draft picks. 

“Yeah, impatient, let’s call it that for me,” Coen said, via SI.com’s Jared Feinberg. “This offseason, James has been obviously, ‘nah dude,’ but I’m (like), ‘I’m window shopping, pal. I’m starting to window shop. Just give me some feedback here.'”

“It’s like, look, you’re going to pay premiums for players, top dollars. And we just weren’t really in a place to want to do that with 10 of 11 starters on offense coming back and 11 draft picks. It’s just not really how we wanted to operate this offseason. That was clearly communicated to me, which I appreciate.”

Jaguars

Jaguars OT Anton Harrison is entering the fourth year of his career, and the team elected to activate his fifth-year option for 2027. Jacksonville HC Liam Coen said he was pleased with how Harrison developed in their system.

“I was pleased with his response to our arrival and some of those challenges that went with a few of those first few months specifically, and as we went throughout the season on a week-in-and-week-out basis, but there’s not a lot he can’t do athletically and physically,” Coen said, via John Shipley of SI.com. 

Coen thinks Harrison can continue making progress to become a top-level offensive tackle. 

“So, I think that he is seeing a little bit more of the vision and pathway of, ‘Man I could do this for a long time and at a high level and make a lot of good money and help a team try to try to win as much as humanly possible,’ and hopefully we can take another step with that progression and that mindset and mentality this year and see an even better version of Anton as we continue to see.”