Can the Colts Rescue Anthony Richardson?
CAN THE COLTS RESCUE ANTHONY RICHARDSON? – I remember the 2022 NFL draft quite well. With the Colts sitting at No. 4, the buzz here was that Indianapolis was going to draft a quarterback and make him the face of the franchise. And with Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud obviously going 1-2, the local media wanted Anthony Richardson.
Personally, I didn’t care one way or the other. I’m not a Colts fan (I’m not a fan of anyone), and I’m perfectly happy to bet against them when they do something foolish. And they’ve done a lot of foolish things over my five years in Indianapolis.
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But this…this seemed especially foolish. And the Colts now seem to agree, as they’ve benched Richardson for Joe Flacco to try to win now. And while that seems to be the right move, it speaks to how yet another team has failed to develop a quarterback.
The story isn’t over for Richardson, of course, but it seems like it’s a long way back from here. Here’s a look at how we got here and whether it can be saved.
The Colts Rushed Richardson
Incredibly, the best football advice I’ve ever heard didn’t come from an actual coach. It came from Gene Hackman playing Jimmy McGinty in The Replacements, very early in the movie. While recruiting Shane Falco to play for the Washington Sentinels, McGinty tells him exactly why he failed as a pro quarterback: “You should have been carrying a clipboard that first year, not trying to carry the whole team.”
But too often, NFL teams believe in the old adage of NFL standing for Not For Long. Once, a team would draft a quarterback in the first round and chain him to the bench until the season was lost. Then, after 10 or 11 games, the rookie would take the field and play in some low-pressure situations, letting him get his feet wet and prepare for next season.
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But over the past two decades, teams have thrown that out the window. Now, most teams will force a quarterback into the starter’s role before he’s ready. And if he proves to be ready, like C.J. Stroud was in Houston, it can lift the entire team.
But if he’s not ready? Then you have a problem. These athletes are in their early 20s, and for many, it’s the first time they’ve been on their own. And at quarterback, confidence is everything. You have to have the organization believing you’re the guy. If you don’t, it’s hard to keep that confidence and carry a team.
No other position in sports has that reality. Baseball players spend years in the minors before getting to the Show. Basketball players, even those who carry a team, are still one out of five guys. But a quarterback touches the ball on every play. He controls most of the action. And if he crumbles mentally, you’re sunk.
Richardson’s Accuracy Wasn’t Fixable
This is an indictment of both the Colts’ brain trust and the NFL’s belief that intangibles matter more than results. When I was in college, Kansas State had Josh Freeman under center. And when mock drafts had him going in the first round, none of us could believe it. We’d been watching Freeman for three years when he’d face Missouri. And we knew the knock on Freeman: big arm, impressive body, but the ball was as likely to end up in the hands of the defense as it was in the end zone.
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Yet the Bucs drafted him in round 1 anyway. And they found out that Freeman’s inaccurate arm couldn’t be fixed. He was what he was: a player with physical gifts but an inability to consistently read defenses. He had two strong seasons in Tampa Bay, but ended up with 68 interceptions against 81 touchdowns and only started two more games after leaving Tampa.
Richardson was out of the same mold at Florida. Impressive physical build, but he wasn’t accurate. And the Colts fell in love with the arm strength and convinced themselves they could fix the accuracy. So far, no good. Richardson was 2-for-15 at one point against Houston, and he’s been one of the most inaccurate quarterbacks in the NFL.
Can the Colts Rescue Anthony Richardson?
Much will depend on Richardson’s reactions. Getting benched isn’t the end of the world, but it’s a tough thing to overcome. Once you lose the confidence of the locker room, it’s very difficult to get it back.
The biggest thing for the Colts to watch is how Richardson learns from this and how he handles things in practice. If he shows marked improvement with his accuracy, maybe the Colts can give him another shot in 2025. But the reality always existed that Richardson had a high ceiling and a low floor. He didn’t play much at Florida, and he’s not in a situation where his team can afford to be patient with him.
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For whatever reason, the Colts believe they need to win now, and Joe Flacco is clearly their best option for that. And that’s why the answer to this question is probably a no. For the Colts to save Richardson, they need to be willing to be bad for a year or two to let him learn without the pressure. That’s not their reality, which means the Colts’ best move is probably to see if they can deal him to someone else with a chance of fixing him.
