The Colts’ pivot to Joe Flacco did not produce the kind of results the team hoped for, and the veteran is heading back to the bench. Indianapolis’ Anthony Richardson developmental effort is shifting back to on-field duty.
Although the Colts had demoted Richardson due to on-field and preparation concerns, they are reversing course. Richardson will start in Week 11, per Shane Steichen. Doubling down here, Steichen classified this change as a long-term switch by indicating Richardson will carry the keys for the rest of the season.
Steichen said Sunday he was not planning to turn back to Richardson, whose accuracy concerns had restrained the Colts’ offense. Like Dave Canales did during his initial Bryce Young-for-Andy Dalton change, Steichen reversed course days later. It will be Richardson, who is tied to a 44% completion rate, against the Jets in Week 11.
Richardson had arrived in Indiana as a hopeful savior for a Colts team that had kept shifting to different veterans following Andrew Luck‘s retirement. Instead, the unseasoned Florida product showed concerning flaws after entering the NFL with one season — a highly inaccurate one, at that — of college starting experience. The Colts had been insistent they would keep Richardson in the lineup, but his decision to leave the field for a play against the Texans catalyzed a benching themed around Flacco giving the 2024 roster a better chance to win. The yo-yoing with Richardson will continue now that Flacco has not recaptured his form from his 2023 Comeback Player of the Year season.
Trade interest came in for Richardson, as it did Young, before last week’s deadline. As expected, the Colts passed. But Steichen’s previous comments painted a cloudy picture for the former No. 4 overall pick. Now, the Colts — at 4-6 — will move their season back toward a Richardson developmental project. Although fantasy GMs rostering Colts wide receivers may not be a fan of this development, Richardson certainly needs more playing time after entering the NFL as a one-year Gators starter and missing most of his rookie season due to a shoulder injury.
Richardson’s 44.4% completion number ranks as the fifth-worst mark through six games this century, and although the QB’s 7.2 yards per attempt is not at a basement level, the dual threat’s occasional deep-ball success was not enough to keep him in the lineup in Week 9. But Flacco threw three INTs against the Bills and did not lead the Colts into the Vikings’ red zone a week prior. The 17th-year veteran will shift back to a relief role.
If the Colts stick with their QB plan this time around, they should be able to make a better determination of Richardson’s 2025 status. The team had viewed Richardson’s preparation issues as a bigger concern than his on-field struggles, further calling into question the team’s plan to give him the QB1 gig back so soon. It is possible the team will need to shop for another starter next year, as the Panthers might. Considering where the Colts’ busy offseasons at QB since Luck abruptly left in August 2019, that would not be a welcome development. As such, Richardson making progress will be vital to the Colts’ blueprint.
Richardson, who did complete 59.5% of his passes in limited duty last season, may well need to show notable improvement from his first-half form to keep GM Chris Ballard in place due to the investment made in the raw passer. This switch back to Richardson may well put the Colts’ 2024 contention prospects secondary to long-term development — in an AFC already featuring a somewhat thin wild-card race — but Flacco’s struggles were not justifying Steichen’s previous QB call. Richardson’s form will now be the central Colts storyline for the season’s final seven games.
A brief grounding. Doubt he will be taking himself out of a game again
Take himself out, no. Play himself out, absolutely.
Stop running around with Anthony Richardson. This is how young QB’s lose confidence, make terrible decisions by overthinking and not reacting. He’s not playable right now, but neither is Flacco. Sounds like a desperation move by Indy.
With Flacco giving them nothing, the team has to use the rest of the year to test Richardson’s abilities and fortitude. Can he show improvement over the remainder of the season? How many plays will he need to take off (lesson learned)? If he fails, they can move on without second-guessing the decision.
Flacco gave them more than Richardson.
He gave the Bills more. More interceptions, more three-and-outs, etc…
I never thought they should have benched him in the first place, since I think he needs reps and they weren’t going to win anything with Flacco anyway. But more than anything, I think they should have a plan for his development and stick to it. Yo-yo-ing him can’t be the best move.
He should be getting reps with the practice squad, or CFL, before he even steps on an NFL field again.
Development-wise? Sure. Discipline-wise? It definitely made sense. If Richardson feels entitled to the job, he won’t care about losing it.
Oooof – why would you say “they weren’t going to win any games with Flacco anyway?” The last we saw Flacco he was winning games with the Browns enough to win Comeback player of the year. Also, in my opinion, Flacco struggled vs 2 of the NFL’s toughest defenses. Richardson vs the Vikings & the Bills would have disastrous & probably worse than benching him.
I didn’t say win any games, I said win anything, meaning like actually contend for something. Flacco was a great story last year and an impressive comeback from being down, out, and retired, but it’s not like he’s going to lead you anywhere at this stage in his career. Seeing if they can develop a young quarterback with potential is more important than playing a 40-year old in an effort to win an extra game or two.
Win anything vs win games? Same thing. Didn’t he “lead” that team last year?
Winning a game or two extra is not the same as contending for anything, which is what I meant. He had a 60.3% completion percentage and a 13-8 TD-INT ratio. Let’s not act like he was a pro bowler last year. He got a lot of points for being better than expected and better than Watson. With a better team around him last year, he squeaked into the playoffs and they got spanked. So again, no, I don’t think they’re contenders even if Flacco plays like he did last year, which I don’t think he was likely to do. Trying to move toward the next contending Colts team is better than holding out hope that Flacco’s dead cat bounce continues and they can climb uphill and barely squeak into the playoffs.
You’re right about Flacco last year. Browns were a solid team with an excellent defense. Flacco was certainly better than Watson, but Flacco had a penchant for turning the ball over (still does) So it was case of addition by subtraction. But Richardson is just god-awful to watch. And yeah, the team owes it to the players and fans to put the best product on the field that it can. That’s not Richardson anytime soon. I can’t remember any worse way a QB can kill a locker room like Richardson did when he took himself out.
He should be sitting, getting reps in practice. He’s obviously not ready for the NFL, and playing him will just ruin him, if there is any hope in him ever being good. There are plenty of reasons to doubt whether he even has a future. He wasn’t good in college, so I don’t know why he would be good in the NFL.
The Colts owed it to their fans to try Flacco. They lost a couple games early where it seemed that if they had semi-competent QB play they would have won…which would have given them a decent shot at the playoffs. But now that we’ve seen Flacco isn’t the answer, may as well play AR and see if any questions get answered.
Don’t tap out this time lol
This is the right move. Should have been all along, but the coach and GM are scared for their jobs so they felt like aiming for the 7 sees with Flacco was the move. (Riiiight)
You gotta keep playing him. He either gets better or he doesn’t, but he was drafted knowing how raw he was.
End of next year is 5th year option decision.
You need to know what you have. It has not been great so far, and I think the chances of chances of success are getting lower, but if he sits they are much lower.
Spot-on correct, imo. If they benched him for tapping out, I can understand that. But they never should’ve benched him in the first place.
This is seriously messed up. They drafted a guy with almost experience really early. Then when he bombed thru lack of experience, they benched him instead of giving him more experience. This is the same as Young. You no longer have any option but to see whether or not he can play.
The right move all along was not drafting a developmental QB who will need 3-5 years of development time with a pick in the top half of the first round.
I get that.
I was really against the Josh Allen at the time. He was raw – and frankly not great in college.
But bc he worked out, everyone thinks their guy will too. Its way more complicated.
But I also don’t know how upset I would be with the Colts for a big swing. How they handled him is more egregious to me than betting on physical ability.
AR is probably the most athletic QB ever ( at least RAS score). It wasn’t just some guy. This was a big swing.
Even if he busts I still think it might not be the worst thing to try.
Ideally, I would pick him lower for sure. But today these players are pushed up.
IDK – I think the gamble on him was necessarily bad. But you need to commit or the pick becomes worse.
Im not sure I want to make a habit of selecting outlier players, but in this one very specific case, its not terrible to try.
* IDK – I dont think the gamble on him was necessarily bad.
The other draft options were Will Levis, Hendon Hooker, Aidan O’Connell or Dorian Thompson Smith. None of them are having any meaningful impact either. Sometimes you have to swallow the poison that looks least likely to kill you.
There was a point where Lions fans here told me Hooker was better than Goff. Blasphemous.
Fully agree. You can’t go back and forth with this. If you wanted to bench him and have him learn, the correct time was last year. You put him in, pulling him tells him that you think he’s terrible, then putting him back in so soon after tells him “well wait, the other guy was even worse”. So the message is not that it was about having him learn on the sidelines, just that he sucked and is back in only because his backup sucked even more.
Committing to getting the highest pick possible to draft his replacement.
He should do well against the pathetic Jets this week, renewing hope that he’s finally “figured it out”. But don’t hold your breath, Indy.
I doubt it. The “pathetic Jets” defense isn’t bad.
Seen the Arizona game?
Is wasn’t bad under Saleh. It’s pathetic now. They averaged only 17 points allowed per game under Saleh in five games. 25.8 points allowed per game in the five games since firing him. 255.8 yards allowed per game with Saleh vs 348.8 yards allowed without Saleh.
now now lets be fair and include the 70 yards in DPI per game on sauce.
Heard an interesting stat about Sauce this week.
Austin Johnson – defensive lineman – has the same number of career ints as Sauce.
Hold your comments trolls – its just a fun tangential stat.
@bills
Why does that even matter lmao.
Sauce is a two time AP and PB and a DROY Nobody knows who Austin Johnson is.
I think you missed part of the post.
It was bad under Saleh. Assuming thats stats from this season, youre using PPG from 4 weeks, two of which included the Titans and Patriots. Watch week 1 and the same exact issues the defense is plagued with now were still evident then. Cant stop the run, cant make a tackle, too many penalties. Using PPG with context has mislead your conclusion of how the defense has played all year. Imo, theres been 0 difference between in performance between Ulbrich and Saleh this year
They’re skilled, but those abilities are not translating into results on the field. The Jets will be cleaning house in 2025
Yeah, firing Saleh was a huge negative for them on the year. No disrespect to Ulbrich, who may have have been good independently as a coach, but the Jets defense collapsed after Saleh was let go.
Woody Johnson probably thought it would be a shot in the arm, but it was more like taking a shot to the head. He should’ve just let him complete the season then parted ways afterwards.
I agree. And let’s remember-Woody never hired Saleh, anyway. That was Christopher, while Woody was abroad.
@pileofsandwich Yeah, they looked “great” collapsing (again) in the final minutes yesterday. Richardson ran all over them too!
What a mess!
Maybe Tony “No Mas” Richardson should take his ball and go home. His, you go down to that red car and cut across, and you go over to that tree and I’ll throw it to you”, style of pee wee street ball doesn’t translate the NFL. I think Billy Napier got to stay at University of Florida was because he said,” Remember that year you stuck me with Richardson, he was so bad that that year shouldn’t count.” When they thought about it they agreed and he got to have another year. There’s always the CFL, as a wide receiver.
Nah, this is stupid. Pick a lane. Either let him develop in the background or on the field. At this point, the former may be better, but going back and fourth won’t help at all.
Nice flip-flop … don’t really kno what they want to do. Knock on Richardson outa his 1 starting yr in college ? His 54% comp rate as Gator n somehow higher ups thought this would vastly improve vs professional defenses that are bigger, stronger, smarter, n faster @nfl level, showing different defensive fronts n exotic blitzes run by greatest DCs in world … math don’t add up. On to nxt “big” FO project.
Flacco has played bad, but he will be fine going back to the bench till they need him again. Can Richardson take advantage of another chance?
Oh, so Irsay made a call…