22-year-old quarterback Anthony Richardson is entering his second year on the Indianapolis Colts after suffering a season-ending injury in year one that forced him to sit behind Gardner Minshew II.
Minshew started in 13 games for the Colts last year but has recently taken over the starting job for the Las Vegas Raiders. His 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions left Indy just short of a playoff spot and weren't enough to take over the starting job from Richardson who recorded seven total touchdowns in four starts.
The Athletic sent out an anonymous poll to 50 NFL coaches and executives to grade the current starting quarterbacks across the league. Richardson ranked in a lowly 26th place out of 30 total quarterbacks, falling one spot behind his former teammate Minshew.
Both quarterbacks landed in Tier 4, a category for "an unproven player, or a veteran who ideally would not start all 17 games." Placing Richardson in the unproven tier is probably fair, and coaches still had high praise for Indy's starter.
Everybody is scared to death of him in the NFL.Anonymous NFL head coach
Carrying a combination of lethal arm power and strong legs, Richardson creates an incredibly rare quarterback prototype. "This guy can be a problem if it all comes together, because he has the athleticism," an offensive coach said. "You are hard-pressed to tell me, if he keeps developing and stays healthy, that he is not going to be bottom of Tier 2 next year," said another head coach.
The biggest issue for many voters was a sustainability that wasn't seen in Richardson's rookie year. "I don’t see a path for [the Colts] to have a successful offense with this quarterback without putting him at continued risk for injury," a coach said. An unfortunate string of injuries led to him missing nearly the entire season, but hopes are high entering a sophomore season that will prioritize his safety.
10 voters placed Richardson in Tier 3, but the overwhelming majority see him as a player who still has a lot of development to go. Preseason starts showed that trend of inconsistency with some near-flawless drives and some fatal mistakes, but it made clear that there is untapped potential.
The Colts believe in head coach Shane Steichen to have creative game plans with Richardson at the helm, running constant option plays and forcing opponents to respect every aspect of his game.
Indy's first test will be a home matchup against the Houston Texans in a massive Week 1 divisional showdown that could be an important playoff tiebreaker later in the season. Richardson recorded two rushing touchdowns in the first quarter in his few minutes against the Texans last season.
