Sunday’s Week 8 loss to the Texans seemed to be the final straw for the Colts and starting quarterback Anthony Richardson. The No. 4 pick from the 2023 NFL Draft was demoted in favor of 39-year-old Joe Flacco, and one moment, in particular, fueled questions behind the benching.
As the Colts were driving inside the red zone during the third quarter, Richardson removed himself from the game after a sack on second and goal. The Colts had to settle for a field goal on the drive, and Richardson admitted that he took himself out of the game because he was tired.
Colts coach Shane Steichen was understandably asked if that had anything to do with Richardson’s benching. Steichen denied that it played a part in the decision, but still criticized Richardson for it.
Steichen considered the mishap a development moment for Richardson. But even if that wasn’t the reason behind the benching, it couldn’t have inspired much confidence inside that coaching room.
You can’t have a quarterback taking himself out of the game to rest.
Let’s head back to the film room and take a closer look at Anthony Richardson’s Week 8 performance for the Indianapolis Colts.
I had pretty much this entire thing written but wasn’t quite in a position to post it late Monday night. Then the Indianapolis Colts benched Anthony Richardson and it felt like a different approach was needed. There has been a lot of discourse around this move in the football world, so I wanted to really dig in and see what this past game looked like.
Typically, we start with the passing chart, dig into some numbers, then look at a fun play from this past weekend. Instead of that, I thought we’d start with the passing chart, then just kind of roll through some of the film.
One of the main narratives I’ve seen from this game is that it wasn’t nearly as bad as the stats say. And, while I agree with that to some degree, there were issues that showed up in this game that have been with him all season, so I thought it was worth it to bring those up.
So, to kick things off, let’s look at Richardson’s passing chart from this game:
There is certainly some context that colors those numbers in a slightly better light, but a 31.3% completion percentage is not something you ever want to see. PFF has the Colts receivers charted with 2 drops on the game, but that’s remarkably charitable to the receivers even by PFF standards. I’d say there were 4-6 passes from Richardson that should have been caught but weren’t.
We’ll get to those, but we’ll start with Richardson. He has major issues with both his footwork and his timing, and those issues have led to a number of straight-up missed throws. His eyes are seeing things correctly, he knows where to go, but he just misses the throw.
Part of his issue is that it looks like his feet are sped-up on his drop, leading to him hitting the back foot of his drop earlier than expected. That leads to plays where he’s loaded up and ready to throw a beat before he’s supposed to be. He’ll get the coverage he’s looking for and the receiver will be open, but the timing is off, which leads to an inconsistent release.
Then you’ll have times where he is reading everything well, only for pressure to break through the pocket. On this play he initially navigates the pressure well – climbing through the pocket and finding room – only to panic once he breaks and make an off-platform throw to a spot where there’s little room for a complete pass. If Richardson takes a beat when he’s breaking through, he would see the better throw is to lay this up on the right for Alec Pierce to run under.
Then you have moments where Richardson reads everything right, throws a nice ball and the receiver just never sees it.
Or putting a ball up to a receiver on a vertical route, only to see it clang off hands and fall incomplete.
Richardson is still capable of some incredible feats on the football field. It’s a shame Adonai Mitchell couldn’t get his second foot down because Richardson uncorked a perfect throw midway through the 1st quarter with a flick of the wrist.
Or when he hangs in the pocket with 6’4”, 318lb Folorunso Fatukasi [91] running directly at his face and hitting a wide open Josh Downs for a TD.
The highs are high, but there’s a ton of inconsistency in Richardson’s game. Like I mentioned earlier, most of that seems to stem from footwork and timing on his dropback. Nothing is really tied together for him right now, leaving him to rely on his physical gifts to get the job done. And don’t get me wrong, he has some tremendous gifts, which is why we get the highs we get.
Unfortunately, that also means a healthy dose of inconsistency on a down-to-down basis. Even when he works within the rhythm of the offense, it’s just a little off. The timing isn’t quite right.
Richardson is keeping pretty lonely company with his -0.115 EPA per play and -14.6% CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected). His Success Rate (37.4%) is 3rd worst (just behind DeShaun Watson and Spencer Rattler) and his completion percentage (47.2%) is dead last in the league.
I will reiterate an earlier point: this isn’t entirely on Richardson. There are issues with the rest of the offense that have contributed to this to some extent. Drops, inconsistent routes and miscommunication have certainly played a part. That being said, Richardson’s issues are impossible to ignore at this point, even with the occasional eye-popping play.
Without being in the building, there’s no way to know the exact reason Richardson was benched after this week. It’s not simply because of his performance in this game, because a lot of the bad we saw this week is the exact same brand of bad we’ve been seeing this season. There hasn’t been any progression, but he also hasn’t gotten worse.
I’ll end with this, and it’s something I kind of touched on earlier: Richardson seems like a smart player. His eyes are in the right place, but the process to get it there clearly still needs a lot of work. I know it’s not as easy as simply saying, “here is what I would do,” because there are personalities and feelings and dynamics involved in these things that no one on the outside truly knows.
That being said, here is what I would do (fully acknowledging that I am working with incomplete information and don’t actually have to make the call or have these conversations face-to-face):
I would commit to sitting Richardson for the year. Joe Flacco is the starter, Sam Ehlinger is QB2 and Richardson is QB3. I’m treating this as a redshirt year. I know organizations don’t truly coach up mechanics that much in-season, but I’d look for ways to do that with Richardson, without the pressure of having to prepare for a game. Get his timing and footwork to a place where he can do it in his sleep. You need a 3 step drop that transitions to a 5 step concept to the backside? Drill that in. Get that portion of the game to be second nature for him.
If you still view Richardson as the future – and I absolutely would – I would make sure the mechanics are as smooth and automatic as possible. You know he can read a defense and uncork a ball 70 yards at a moment’s notice. Get him more consistent with the operation, with an eye on starting him Week 1 2025.
It’s true that he needs his reps, but he’s clearly not where he needs to be right now, and I don’t know that the negative in-game reps are helpful. Make it clear to him that he’s the starter next year, then get his operation buttoned-up. Slow the base part of his game down to where he doesn’t have to think about it. That’ll help with consistency, and they can unleash a (hopefully) fully operational weapon in 2025.
Albums listened to: Laura Marling – Patterns in Repeat; St. Vincent – All Born Screaming; Boygenius – The Record; John Carpenter – Lost Themes
Anthony Richardson becomes 2nd first-round quarterback from 2023 to be benched
It’s been a tough go for every quarterback from 2023 not named C.J. Stroud. With Bryce Young being benched after just two games into the 2024 season, the same fate has not befallen former 4th overall pick Anthony Richardson.
#Colts QB Anthony Richardson on taking himself out of the game in the 3rd quarter: “Tired, I ain’t gonna lie. That was a lot of running right there that I did … So, I just told Shane (Steichen) I needed a break right there.”
Richardson has struggled all season, both with staying healthy and playing at an acceptable level when he has been on the field. On the year Richardson has just 4 passing touchdowns to 7 interceptions, awarding him an abysmal quarterback rating of 57.2 on the season. The boiling point for Richardson came last week when he took himself out of the game on a 3rd and goal play because he was “tired”. While he clearly was exhausted given the previous few plays, many circles will not look kindly on any quarterback taking themselves out of the game at any level of football.
23 starts since high school for Anthony Richardson
the youngest and least experienced (former) starter in the NFL
All this being said, it is not the end of Richardson’s story. The Indianapolis Colts knew they were taking a bit of a project when they drafted Richardson given he had not played very much at the collegiate level and missed most of last year. This will be a chance for Richardson to reset, learn, and come back likely later into this season and show the rewards of patience. Only time will tell if Richardson can put it all together, but it is certainly not a good start for the quarterbacks of the 2023 draft class.
Flacco will now make this third start of the season on Sunday night and against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 9. It’s possible that Flacco, 39, will still be under center the following weeks as well after the update.
On the surface, the news is surprising.
Underneath, it is not. Flacco has played well in his earlier starts this year. He is 1-1 overall in 2024.
However, there was an issue last week for the Colts and Richardson.
In a tight AFC South race, Indianapolis lost 23-20 to the Houston Texans last week who lead their division. Richardson was playing poorly in the outing, and out of nowhere, he decided to sub himself out of the game and later admitted that he was simply “tired” and needed a rest.
That is something unheard of for a starting quarterback in the NFL. The headlines that followed were expectedly bad for the team and QB and now Flacco will get the nod.
Things could change after Week 9 and until then Jets Wire will provide updates as information becomes available.
Flacco will now make this third start of the season on Sunday night and against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 9. It’s possible that Flacco, 39, will still be under center the following week as well after the update.
On the surface, the news is surprising.
Underneath, it is not. Flacco has played well in his earlier starts this year. He is 1-1 overall in 2024.
However, there was an issue last week for the Colts and Richardson.
In a tight AFC South race, Indianapolis lost 23-20 to the Houston Texans last week who lead their division. Richardson was playing poorly in the outing, and out of nowhere, he decided to sub himself out of the game and later admitted that he was simply “tired” and needed a rest.
That is something unheard of for a starting quarterback in the NFL. The headlines that followed were expectedly bad for the team and QB and now Flacco will get the nod.
Things could change after Week 9 and until then Bills Wire will provide updates as information becomes available.
Anthony Richardson’s biggest problem was a lack of experience the Colts won’t give him.
Through 10 career starts, Anthony Richardson has shown that he’s a glorified exercise in frustration. The quarterback has completed barely over 50 percent of his passes while turning the ball over (a 5.3 interception percentage) at a staggering rate. We’re talking about a quarterback dwelling in 32nd in expected points added (EPA) and completion percentage over expected (CPOE) by nearly half a percentage point. For all intents and purposes, even given the small sample size, Richardson has played like one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks this century. Full stop.
But this was likely always going to be the case for a player many deemed painfully unpolished coming out of Florida. Contrasted to someone like the Carolina Panthers’ more seasoned Bryce Young, Richardson needed reps, in earnest, to work all the kinks out of his game.
Unfortunately, the Colts and head coach Shane Steichen won’t give the former No. 4 overall pick the opportunity. On Tuesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Colts were benching Richardson for veteran Joe Flacco.
It’s a devastating shot across the bow of Richardson’s career but one that probably had to be made nonetheless:
QB change: The #Colts are planning to start Joe Flacco this Sunday night against the #Vikings, sources say. A major move, as the former first-rounder Anthony Richardson heads to the bench. pic.twitter.com/p6jQuGh3iu
It’s a bit trite to say, but Richardson really did have a developmental curve similar to that of Buffalo Bills superstar Josh Allen coming out of college. Both players were toolsy physical titans seemingly constructed in a lab to play football. Both had cannon arms and impeccable athleticism on the move. Both needed significant work as accurate short and intermediate passers — I’m talking multiple years — to be viable starters in the NFL.
The difference is that the Bills gave Allen time because they saw meaningful progress year over year before he finally exploded in 2020. By comparison, Richardson was backed into a corner to start 2024 after losing his rookie year to a shoulder injury. He was almost forced into having a leap year come out of nowhere despite throwing less than 100 passes at the professional level (and less than 400 total in college). Instead, he struggled.
It doesn’t matter how naturally talented you are: experience is always the greatest teacher. Richardson simply didn’t have enough to meet the Colts’ (unreasonably?) high expectations.
That in itself is the cruel calculus for an organization that sold itself out on an extremely raw quarterback prospect. To reach his ostensible high potential, Richardson required at least a full year of working through game plans and trying to process on the fly. Maybe two. If it came with struggles in the form of wildly inaccurate passes that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, so be it. This was supposed to be a long-term process borne out of patience.
This was the deal the Colts made the moment they drafted Richardson.
Credit: RBDSM.com
By that same token, the NFL remains a business. There are 52 other players on the Colts roster who expect their leadership to make pragmatic decisions that are best for everyone. Yes, quarterbacks take the lion’s share of precedence over other positions for good reason, but that setup only happens for established stars. All changes are on the table for rusty anchors like Richardson that mostly drag everyone down. So, at this specific moment in time, Flacco is unquestionably a better option for Indianapolis than Richardson. While a journeyman, Flacco is someone other Colts veterans don’t have to worry about pulling his weight.
Because, for the most part, he probably will.
It’s shortsighted and cruel to Richardson’s overall development because it probably never happens without injury. But the Colts can’t afford to center his needs at the expense of everyone else’s or risk a not-so-subtle mutiny.
By no means is it over for Richardson’s future in Indianapolis. I’m of the opinion that this move is more of a complete reset for a limited quarterback that needs to take an extended breath without getting overwhelmed. Maybe it’s enough to see him start to turn the corner next year or perhaps even later this season.
Still, we can’t kid ourselves.
If the Colts weren’t willing to be patient with Richardson’s warts and blemishes now, when will they ever be? Everyone should already know the answer to that question.
Joe Flacco is in and Anthony Richardson is out at QB for the Colts
The only excuse Anthony Richardson will have for being tired Sunday when the Indianapolis Colts play the Minnesota Vikings is because it is a night game.
The 2023 first-round pick will not be the quarterback for the Colts, That role goes to veteran Joe Flacco.
Richardson made unfortunate NFL news in Week 8 when he pulled himself from a loss to the Houston Texans because he was tired before a key play.
That obviously didn’t sit well with coach Shane Steichen and Richardson now will be the backup to Flacco.
The Colts have benched struggling quarterback Anthony Richardson in favor of a veteran who is familiar to Broncos fans. Indianapolis is turning the offense over to Joe Flacco, who started two games earlier this year when Richardson was injured.
Up next for the Colts (4-4) is a road game against the Minnesota Vikings (5-2) on Sunday Night Football in Week 9. Six weeks after that game, Denver will host Indy at Empower Field at Mile High on Dec. 15.
Richardson, 22, completed 44.4% of his passes for 958 yards this season with four touchdowns against seven interceptions. He has also rushed for 242 yards and a touchdown and fumbled six times. Flacco, 39, has completed 65.7% of his passes for 716 yards with seven touchdowns against one interception.
After 11 years with the Baltimore Ravens, Flacco spent one season with the Broncos in 2019. He went 2-6 as a starter in Denver. Flacco has spent time with four other teams since his stint with the Broncos. His career win-loss record is 104-83.
While the Vikings seem set with their roster and lineup, the Colts have questions at quarterback that need to be answered.
The Minnesota Vikings have gone from 5-0 to 5-2 and are now heading toward the bottom of the highly competitive NFC North. They are set to face the Indianapolis Colts, who are having struggles of their own, which makes their matchup in Week 9 much more interesting.
While the Vikings seem set with their roster and lineup, the Colts have questions at quarterback that need to be answered.
When speaking to the media, Colts coach Shane Steichen was asked if Anthony Richardson would start for the team on Sunday night. His response was “We’re evaluating everything.”
The Colts have had mild success with the second-year quarterback out of Florida, but at times, he has looked lost. His poor performance is that of a quarterback with less than 20 college football games to his credit, whereas his backup, Joe Flacco, has enough experience for three quarterback careers.
Either way, the Colts are looking at an interesting matchup, but for the Vikings, they have to favor playing Richardson rather than Flacco.
The Colts sound like they’re pulling the plug on Anthony Richardson.
It’s been a rough second season for Anthony Richardson with the Indianapolis Colts. Just eight games in, it sounds like the Colts are done being patient with the former No. 4 overall pick.
On Monday, after the Colts disappointingly lost 23-20 to the AFC South division rival Houston Texans — where Richardson admitted he took himself out because he was tired — head coach Shane Steichen was asked about the young quarterback’s starting status for the Colts’ upcoming Sunday Night Football matchup with the Minnesota Vikings.
After Richardson completed just 10 of 32 passes against the Texans’ defense, Steichen was essentially as noncommital as possible about sticking with his young gun:
I asked #Colts HC Shane Steichen if QB Anthony Richardson is the team's starting QB:
"Today he is, yes."
Is he the starting QB for Sunday's game against the #Vikings:
Oof. Any time a football coach says, “We’re evaluating [everything],” to a straightforward question about a healthy starting quarterback keeping their job, it’s all truly up in the air.
Per RBDSM.com, Richardson is 32nd in the NFL in expected points added (EPA) and completion percentage over expected (CPOE) composite. He has just a 57.2 passer rating among all qualified passers, and he’s tied for third in the NFL with seven interceptions thrown.
The numbers and Richardson’s coach don’t lie: he’s probably about to get benched.
