Florida football’s former star quarterback [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] made waves in the National Football League’s 2023 draft in April, finding himself taken with the fourth overall pick by the Indianapolis Colts — a team that had the Gainesville native in their crosshairs heading into the annual event.
While it has been some time since that epic day, the terms of the young signal-caller’s rookie contract had still not been hashed out. That is, until Monday when NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported that the two parties finalized Richardson’s four-year contract worth a fully guaranteed $33,990,000.
The deal was done in coordination with Richardson’s agent, Deiric Jackson, and also includes a fifth-year option in accordance with rules regarding first-round selections.
The Colts’ rookie camp opens up on Tuesday, which likely put pressure on the franchise brass to get a deal done. Richardson had been participating in prior rookie and mandatory minicamps dating back to May, noting similarities between how Napier runs his program and what he has seen at the NFL level thus far.
“The OTAs, the way Coach Napier did it, and the things he made us do, leading up to OTAs, I can see the resemblance in Indy, when I’m up there practicing with them,” Richardson told Swamp247. “It’s more structure for the players to do their job instead of the coaches having to coach them, so Coach Napier definitely does create a sort of independence when it comes to you doing work and wanting to do work.”
The Colts open up the 2023 preseason on Aug. 12 on the road against the Buffalo Bills with a kickoff time slated for 1 p.m. EDT.
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