Anthony Richardson and the danger of quarterback daydreaming
It's not over for the Florida QB but the countdown is on. And blaring. We examine a player — and a Colts team — at a crossroads. What happens next could drive quarterback decisions in 2025 & beyond.
His cannon arm. His breakaway speed. One outrageous chef-d’oeuvre of an NFL Combine. Anthony Richardson was built for both this moment in sports media and the Indianapolis Colts. Film fiends cherry-picked two or three plays for dramatic social-media narration. Hype built. Hope followed. The quarterback who didn’t even throw 400 passes in college was The Gamble these Indianapolis Colts had been avoiding.
On April 27, 2023, it made perfect sense to embrace the mystery because the previous 1,342 days — all the way back to Andrew Luck’s shocking retirement — GM Chris Ballard resisted such a project. This organization insisted on recycling veterans: 39-year-old Phillip Rivers to a reclamation project (Carson Wentz) to a 37-year-old Matt Ryan.
They could look past the 53.8 completion percentage that ranked 13th amongst 14 SEC quarterbacks, the 6-7 record, all bloopers. Richardson was a 6-foot-4, 244-pound all-terrain vehicle of a quarterback fresh off a 4.43 in the 40, a 40 ½-inch vertical and 10-9 broad jump. Apply a barrel of bleach to those hours of college film and, voila, the Anthony Richardson Experience is condensed down to one mesmerizing seven-minute highlight reel. If the pick hits? Good Lord, it hits. Said one scout: “Think Michael Vick with a Brett Favre arm.”
Moments after Richardson and Roger Goodell shared a bear hug, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah compared the quarterback’s body to Cam Newton. “Rare, rare, rare size/speed combination. It’s a little bit of a roller-coaster ride when you watch the tape.” And initially? This coaster was worth a three-hour wait at Universal. The Colts saw firsthand how Richardson’s electric game could ignite the entire team when he erased a 23-0 deficit against the Los Angeles Rams to force overtime. Soon after that OT loss, quarterbacks coach Cam Turner described Richardson’s play as “contagious,” as a true “spark” for the entire team. “One little play here leads to two, to three, to four and that’s how you get a comeback,” Turner told us. “It leads to the defense making a big stop or the special teams getting a return. Momentum is real.”
After four games, Richardson landed on season-ending IR.
Into Year 2, accuracy issues worsened. This “roller-coaster” was now inducing vertigo for all and the lowest of lows wasn’t a football thrown into the stands, wasn’t any of the incompletions through a 10-of-32 afternoon against the Houston Texans on Oct. 27. Rather, at the end of the third quarter, after getting drilled on a scramble for no gain, Richardson popped up and tapped his helmet.
He wasn’t concussed, wasn’t injured at all. He was tired.
On third and goal, he quit.
He sent the worst possible message any quarterback can send any locker room.