Second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson helped the Indianapolis Colts win two of three games after he was temporarily benched for a pair of contests earlier this fall.
For a piece published Friday, The Athletic's Jim Trotter shared how Colts general manager Chris Ballard recently admitted he has one regret about how the club handled Richardson in 2023.
"Looking back on it, I wish we hadn’t played him as a rookie," Ballard said about Richardson. "John Dorsey (a longtime personnel man) called me and said, 'Don’t play him.' John had had the great wisdom from Green Bay, where they sat all those quarterbacks (Aaron Rodgers backed up Brett Favre for three seasons, and Jordan Love sat behind Rodgers for three years). And as they mature and get older, they pick up habits that we were expecting Anthony to have from the get-go."
Richardson made 13 college starts with the Florida Gators before the Colts signed veteran Gardner Minshew in March 2023 and selected Richardson with the fourth overall pick in that year's draft. While most assumed Colts head coach Shane Steichen would start Minshew in Week 1 of last season, Steichen named Richardson his QB1 shortly after the then-rookie made his preseason debut.
That call worked out poorly for everyone involved, as Richardson suffered a concussion in Week 2 and then went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in his fourth career start. Most recently, Richardson missed time this season due to oblique/abdominal strains before he admitted he took himself out of a game because he was "tired."
According to Trotter, that comment was "not the overriding reason for sitting Richardson" but "another piece to the puzzle" regarding why Joe Flacco got a couple of starts. Richardson was far from elite across his last three outings — he completed under 53% of his pass attempts — but he notched a pair of game-winning drives and showed promise that he could eventually become a long-term answer at the position.
"He’s not there yet, but he’s working to get better each day at all the things he needs to get better at. It’s a process," Ballard added about Richardson. "He’s 22 years old. I was so upset at the b------t that was said after we benched him. Are people that clueless? They were saying he’s a bust, that he’s done. I told our local people, 'We’re not done with this guy.' Nobody believed it. To watch him these last three weeks, I couldn’t be more proud."
The Colts are on their bye and will play again until their Week 15 game at the Denver Broncos on Dec. 15. How Richardson performs over Indianapolis' final four weeks of the campaign could determine whether the Colts ultimately decide they're "done with this guy" early next year.
