Benched.
It sounds cold. Maybe even cruel. A sobering NFL reality check.
Yet very necessary in the case of Anthony Richardson.
If Richardson, 22, drafted fourth overall in 2023 to become the franchise quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, ultimately lives up to his lofty promise – in 2025, 2027, in a Colts uniform or not – his benching this week might someday be viewed as some saving grace.
Take a seat, young blood. Watch a grizzled vet, Joe Flacco, illustrate how to handle this enormous job. Shane Steichen, the Indianapolis coach, had to make this move – especially after the young quarterback checked himself out of the game for a third-down play in the third quarter during the loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday.
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If not, combined with other factors, that’s one way for the young coach to lose the locker room. The words coming from veteran center Ryan Kelly on Monday were striking, with candor that is not so common in these types of situations.
Kelly, a ninth-year pro, was taken aback by Richardson’s decision to remove himself from the game because, as the quarterback admitted, he was “tired, ain’t gonna lie.”
“We had a conversation about it, and I think he knows that’s not the standard he needs to play up to and the rest of the team holds him to,” Kelly told reporters. “I’ll kind of leave the conversation we had at that. I know he’s going take some criticism for that, and rightfully so. That’s a tough look.”
Ouch. Talk about accountability. If Kelly expressed as much publicly, imagine how many other players felt similarly as the Colts (4-4) are positioned to at least make a run at the playoffs.
The optics of bailing amid the heat of adversity could take some time – and performance – for Richardson to overcome. Remember the defining image of potential that Richardson demonstrated in Week 1 against the Texans? His sizzling, 60-yard touchdown dime to Alec Pierce was something special. Now there’s an impressionable counterbalance with the sight of him tapping his helmet to call for a replacement when he wasn’t injured.
Even deeper is the lesson that Richardson needs to heed about the tangible element of leadership needed for a quarterback.
Then again, this switch largely reflects performance. Richardson is the NFL’s 32nd-ranked passer with a mark of 57.2 on the season. He has completed just 44.4% of his throws (4 TDs, 7 INTs) and didn’t post a completion rate better than 50% in any of the five games he finished (six starts) this season. That doesn’t cut it.
At least Richardson, in speaking with the media on Wednesday, sounds like he will swallow this medicine in good faith.
‘Of course, it hurts as a competitor,’ Richardson said, via ESPN’s Stephen Holder. ‘Definitely don’t want to be told you’re not the guy anymore for the upcoming week. But it’s all good. Using this moment as an opportunity to grow and just learn from my mistakes.’
He’s not the only one with a lesson to learn. Colts GM Chris Ballard and Steichen bet big on Richardson (6-4, 244 pounds) despite his limited college experience at Florida. He started just one season for the Gators (53.8% completion rate), as was the case at Eastside High in Gainesville, Florida.
The limited snaps before he arrived in the NFL seemingly provided a clue about the developmental curve Richardson needed. And it wasn’t helped by the shoulder injury, which required surgery, that limited his rookie year to four games.
In short, the results show that it was too soon to throw Richardson into the fire. Still, it’s way too early to label him a bust…even though history shows that the success rate for first-round quarterbacks is roughly 50-50.
Sure, Jayden Daniels, drafted second overall in April, has lit it up for the Washington Commanders. Caleb Williams (picked No. 1 overall by the Chicago Bears) and Bo Nix (12th, Denver Broncos) have made promising strides. Last year, C.J. Stroud (No. 2, Texans) was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year. In 2022, Brock Purdy entered the NFL as a seventh-round pick for the San Francisco 49ers and, after cracking the lineup as a rookie, went to the Super Bowl in his second season.
Yet of those five, only Stroud, an Ohio State product, had less than three years of starting experience in college. Daniels started four years at Arizona State and LSU. Williams started for three years at Oklahoma and USC. Nix had five years as a college starter at Auburn and Oregon. Purdy started four years at Iowa State.
So, while expectations for instant impact from young quarterbacks have increased during an age when the passers are generally bettered prepared than they were a generation ago – bolstered by a developmental curve that is ramped up by factors that include seven-on-seven camps and quarterback tutors – each case is hardly identical. Some quarterbacks will need an old-school growth plan. That’s not a knock on Richardson, but instead a word of caution about expectations.
It’s easy to understand why the Colts were so enamored by Richardson’s potential. His physical gifts include that rocket arm. And aligning him with one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and one of the league’s best running backs in Jonathan Taylor offered some ideal support.
Yet even though Steichen has declared how much he believes that growth comes with the experience of playing, it’s up to well-compensated coaches and GMs to strike the balance. Never mind that the Colts have been so desperate to find the long-term quarterback answer since Andrew Luck’s retirement, having tried stopgap veterans such as Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan.
The apparent miscalculation of Richardson’s learning curve has the Colts executing Plan B with another grizzled vet, the 39-year-old Flacco. Heading into the matchup on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, Flacco has thrown for seven TDs with one interception this season.
Steichen explained that the move comes with the realization that he owes it to the entire 53-man roster. That should have been the case all along.
No, he’s not giving up on the hope that Richardson could use his duty as an understudy and the practice reps as a means to someday develop into the vision that existed when they drafted him. When someone asked about the prospect of Richardson someday starting again, the coach said, “That would be great. We’ll see.”
With Flacco, who last year came off the bench (and actually the sofa, too) to spark the Cleveland Browns run to a playoff berth, it’s about trying to win now.
“We’ll get to the future when we get to the future,” Steichen said.
Richardson promises that he’ll be ready for his next opportunity. “When it does present itself, I’m going to take advantage of it,” he said.
When and where that chance comes is anybody’s guess. The Colts are clearly planning to roll with Flacco for the rest of the season. But it’s the NFL, where crazy things happen.
Like the would-be franchise quarterback wanting a break from the action – only to find himself with a seat on the bench for what could be an extended period of time.