Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson did not practice at all during the week leading up to Sunday’s Week 17 matchup with the New York Giants.
Although he played all 62 offensive snaps against the Tennessee Titans, Richardson came out of that game banged up, dealing with back and foot injuries.
During the week, head coach Shane Steichen said it was soreness that Richardson was dealing with and that the back injury was more of the issue than his foot.
Will Anthony Richardson play on Sunday?
Despite Richardson not practicing at all during the week, the Colts initially listed him as questionable for the game on Friday’s final injury report.
However, on Saturday, the Colts announced that Richardson had been downgraded to out for this game. As the week unfolded, that always seemed to be the likely outcome. It’s not often we’ve seen a player miss an entire week of practice and then take on a full workload on Sunday, let alone a young and inexperienced quarterback.
While Steichen attributed soreness to Richardson missing practice, once the team announced that he would be out for this week’s game, a report from George Bremer said that Richardson was dealing with back spasms.
“In regard to Anthony’s injury status…as Shane mentioned it’s more of his back (spasms) than his foot and the lack of mobility and movement. We were hoping to see more improvement today, but that wasn’t the case.”
According to ESPN’s Stephen Holder, Richardson’s injury isn’t expected to linger into next week.
Colts QB depth chart
With Richardson sidelined, Joe Flacco will make his sixth appearance and fifth start this season. In those games, Flacco has been efficient as a passer, completing 67% of his throws at a modest 6.9 yards per attempt with nine touchdowns to five interceptions.
Among quarterbacks who have had at least 120 dropbacks this season, Flacco ranks 16th in completion rate, 22nd in yards per pass attempt, and 19th in passer rating.
Those figures are neither great nor awful, but in Flacco’s two previous starts against Minnesota and Buffalo, the Colts’ offense struggled to find the end zone and any rhythm, mustering just 19 total points in those two games if we exclude the touchdown pass to Alec Pierce with two seconds left on the clock and the game out of reach against Buffalo.
Awaiting Flacco and the Colts’ offense is a Giants defense that ranks near the bottom of the NFL in scoring and has struggled to defend the run. This should be a Jonathan Taylor-heavy game.