WESTFIELD, Ind. — They preached patience, then didn’t practice it.
The truth is the Indianapolis Colts were in a hurry the minute they drafted Anthony Richardson fourth overall in 2023. A hurry to get him on the field, a hurry to hand him the starting quarterback job, a hurry to find out if the franchise’s years-long odyssey at the position was finally, mercifully over.
It wasn’t.
It’s easy to fall for the trappings of talent, especially talent like Richardson’s, and the Colts did. “An alien,” former top scout Morocco Brown called Richardson early on, adding that his skill set was so rare “it might not come along for another 50 years.” After just one preseason game, the job was his. He was only 21. He’d made just 13 college starts.
Three games in, the Colts ended an acrimonious contract standoff with their star running back, Jonathan Taylor, in part because they believed they had their QB in place. They could start to see the future.
Here’s where that future has led them: Richardson has missed 17 games due to injury, never starting more than four in a row, and missed two more after being benched midway through last season for lack of preparation. “He was drowning,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard later admitted. “Mentally, it was going really fast for him.”
In 2024, Richardson’s completion percentage was a league-low 47.7, and entering Year 3, he finds himself in a QB competition with a free-agent addition, Daniel Jones, for the job that was supposed to be his for a decade or more.
The regret is real, from both player and team.
“I can’t be slacking anymore,” Richardson told himself after his disappointing 2024 season ended.
Ballard wishes he’d resisted the urge to hand Richardson the job right away, a move late owner Jim Irsay pushed for at the time. What the young quarterback needed was the chance to acclimate to the NFL, to learn the job, to watch a veteran’s daily habits and build his own. “He just doesn’t know yet,” Ballard told The Athletic recently. “He didn’t have enough experience, both from a play standpoint but also a professional standpoint of how to get ready.”
But, Ballard concedes, “when you take one high, there’s an expectation. The pressure to play the kid is real.”
The GM caved to that pressure two years ago. He’s vowed he won’t moving forward. Ballard remains intent on playing the long game with the 23-year-old, even if Richardson doesn’t beat out Jones for the starting job this season. In other words: The Colts won’t consider releasing or trading Richardson, even if his third season ends in disappointment.
It’s an unusual approach considering the stakes and risks involved. Many highly drafted quarterbacks who face early struggles are moved out quickly, while they still have some trade value. Consider: Three 2021 first-round picks — Zach Wilson, Trey Lance and Mac Jones — didn’t see a fourth season with the team that drafted them.
The Colts are willing to wait.
“I just think eventually Anthony’s going to be who we think he can be,” Ballard said. “I still believe that. Whether that’s this year or next, I don’t know when it’s going to happen.”
Ballard cited a pair of recent QB reclamation projects, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, to drive home his point: Sometimes, all a quarterback needs is time — and in those instances, a change of scenery — to alter the course of their career. Ballard believes the Colts can still coax the best out of Richardson under coach Shane Steichen and the current staff. He also doesn’t want the only first-round quarterback he’s ever drafted to flourish somewhere else. “Eventually, the light comes on,” Ballard said.
If Jones held any lead in the QB competition coming off spring and early-summer workouts — Richardson was temporarily shut down from throwing in late May after aggravating his shoulder — it appears to have faded a week into training camp. After sloppy starts from both, Richardson was sharper during the team’s first two padded practices, showing off some improved accuracy on the very throws that he’s struggled with throughout his first two NFL seasons. He finished 9-for-11 during live full-team periods Tuesday, including a handful of touchdowns in red-zone work.
😤😤😤 pic.twitter.com/RyxX5l2TGu
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) July 28, 2025
The mistakes were less frequent, though Richardson did flub a shuttle pass on the goal line that spoke to the turnover issues he’s endured early in his career.
When Richardson sat down with his personal throwing coaches and watched his 2024 film, too often they saw him narrowing his feet at the point of release, which led to him consistently missing high. So they drilled all spring and summer, working with Richardson to widen his base and give him more feel for where the ball is going. It’s how he’s starting each practice at training camp, working alone on the field, setting his feet wider than before so the motion becomes second-nature.
“I feel like I got more control over the ball now,” Richardson said after Tuesday’s workout.
Mental reps. pic.twitter.com/zDJDBPMwyA
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) July 25, 2025
It’s not uncommon for a quarterback to struggle with mechanics early in his career, then spend a good chunk of an offseason reworking them. In the pro game, the margins are slimmer, the windows tighter, the defenses smarter. Touch is required, especially in the middle of the field. Talents like Richardson — gifted enough to overwhelm college secondaries with sheer arm strength and scrambling ability — have to find another way.
“That’ll get you a long way in high school and college,” Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “In this league, you need more.”
Can Richardson consistently complete the short and intermediate throws — especially on critical downs — that have sabotaged his first two seasons? It could end up defining his NFL career.
If there was an area Jones had a clear advantage on Richardson heading into camp, it was accuracy. Only 58 percent of Richardson’s throws last season were on target, per Pro Football Reference, while Jones never finished below 70 percent during his six-year run with the New York Giants (most successful NFL starting quarterbacks hover between 70-75 percent).
Steichen explained to both at the outset of camp what would ultimately win the job: consistency, in both preparation and performance. “Being a guy the coaches trust,” was how Jones put it.
That hasn’t been Richardson two seasons in. His play has been too erratic, his preparation too inconsistent. His availability has also given the team serious pause, which is one of the reasons why the Colts paid Jones $14 million on a one-year deal. They’ve yet to be able to count on Richardson to stay healthy.
Richardson said he took no issue with the signing, welcoming the competition. His mindset hasn’t changed, nor has his urgency. “Even if they brought Tom Brady in here — he’s the greatest — I just gotta work and try to beat (him) out,” Richardson said. The young quarterback is still just 23, a few days older than Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick of this past April’s draft, and the stakes are obvious heading into 2025.
Last season humbled him.
“That was my big takeaway,” Richardson acknowledged. “I didn’t do enough.”
The Colts are hoping it serves as the wake-up call his career desperately needed, one that leaves him with a new appreciation for what it takes to win on Sundays.
“Even if things aren’t going the right way, even if it’s not my quote-unquote fault, it is my fault,” Richardson added. “I’m the quarterback. I’m the leader.”
That might be the right mentality, but he’s not the quarterback. Not yet. That job’s still up for grabs, and Ballard has pledged not to rush the process like the Colts did two years ago. That mistake cost them. As long as the ninth-year GM is still here, he’s adamant not to repeat it.
“Do you have the courage to stay the path when things aren’t going right and believe that we’re gonna come out of this thing on the other end in a good way?” Ballard said, reflecting on the last few years. “If it doesn’t work, it might get my ass fired, but I’m willing to live with that because it’s the right thing to do.”
(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
