Can Anthony Richardson be Saved?
The former No. 4 overall pick lost a quarterback competition to Daniel Jones on Tuesday. Is it over for him?
The Indianapolis Colts decided on a starting quarterback on Tuesday. It’s Daniel Jones, not former No. 4 overall pick Anthony Richardson Sr., a Draft Twitter darling and owner of a preseason highlight reel just electric enough to keep everyone from selling their stock.
Richardson was a polarizing prospect from the jump. He was the most athletic quarterback in the Relative Athletic Score (RAS) database, with 24 games of 54.7% completion percentage football for a Florida squad that went 6-7. Billy Napier wasn’t developing him, defenders pointed out. (Florida went 5-7 the season after Richardson left.)
Nearly every draft outlet compared the 6’4”, 236-pound Richardson to former MVP Cam Newton, another mega-sized bulldozer with a rocket arm who played only 20 games in college.
If you can teach Richardson to read a defense, the thinking was, his ceiling is limitless.
Development Hell
Richardson is not the first prospect to be labeled in this way. Athletic, gunslinging quarterbacks are often popular prospects online and in NFL front offices because of potential: the idea that our coaching staff, uniquely talented and equipped for this scenario, can turn a ball of physical tools into a Hall of Famer.
Richardson, Trey Lance, Zach Wilson, Johnny Manziel, and Paxton Lynch have all been drafted in the first round under the pretense that their NFL franchise could find a way to get things to click.
This label is also unfairly applied to Black quarterbacks disproportionately, regardless of their actual skill set. ESPN personalities called Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins “more of a runner than a thrower” before the 2019 NFL Draft. Former NFL general manager Bill Polian infamously suggested that Lamar Jackson switch positions leading up to the 2017 NFL Draft.
NFL Network analyst Bucky Brooks pointed out in a 2021 piece that both Lance and Justin Fields had faced rampant criticism regarding their decision to declare for the draft despite their White counterparts (like Wilson) not facing similar scrutiny. Such was also the case for Richardson.
It’s been known for some time that Black quarterbacks find themselves benched faster than their white counterparts and that teams benching white quarterbacks improve by a greater degree than when they bench Black counterparts, suggesting that there is a cost to this kind of discrimination.
Look also at how Jones, a volatile quarterback in his own right, is being sold to national audiences now that he’s been announced as the starter. He’s a “stabilizing presence,” “can run the offense” and is consistent.
Daniel Jones. Consistent. Do you hear how that sounds?
Let’s not make any excuses: Richardson has not been a good NFL quarterback at any point for Indianapolis. But most of the Colts beat and national media thought Richardson had the edge in the competition because of the flashes of brilliance. Colts coach Shane Steichen leaned toward Jones for operational reasons:
You guys heard me talk about the consistency. That's really what I was looking for. Really the operations at the line of scrimmage, the checks, the protection, the ball placement, the completion percentage, all that played a factor in it. I think Daniel did a great job doing that, and I think A.R. has made strides in that area, but I do feel that he still needs to continue to develop in those areas. I had a chance to talk to both of them this morning. They were both great. A.R. was great. He knows that he still needs to develop and learn in those areas, and he knows that he's one play away.
Steichen also gave Jones a lengthy leash by naming him the starting quarterback for the season, an honor Richardson struggled to earn, even when the quarterback room included Gardner Minshew or Joe Flacco.
He Just Needs More Reps
Most of the reactions to Richardson losing this competition have lamented that the former top pick will not get the reps he so desperately needs to improve.
It’s a reasonable reaction considering that Richardson has thrown 348 NFL passes compared to 911 for Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, 1,031 for Texans quarterback CJ Stroud, 556 for Titans quarterback Will Levis and 586 for Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell, all of whom entered the league in the same 2023 draft class.
Browns-turned-Eagles backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson has thrown 230 passes despite only starting five games to Richardson’s 15.
Part of this is bad luck on Richardson’s part because he has struggled to stay healthy despite his bulkier stature. In two seasons, Richardson has missed at least one game with a concussion, an AC joint sprain, a hip sprain and a back injury. He sprained his AC joint again in May, then dislocated his right pinky on a sack during the first week of the preseason. Indianapolis has responded by putting its young passer in bubble wrap for the final week of the preseason despite already announcing his loss in the competition.
Indianapolis has drawn plenty of blame for this as well. Minshew played in all 17 games during Richardson’s rookie season despite Richardson starting four games before his AC joint injury. Flacco started six games after Richardson was benched on two separate occasions last year.
With the benefit of hindsight, a popular argument is that Richardson should have forgone the 2023 NFL Draft and returned to school — Florida or otherwise — to hone his game further. A similarly popular argument is that Richardson should start for the Colts this year anyway because the Colts will suck, and Richardson could use the reps.
Both of these have obvious flaws — the difference between the contract for the No. 4 overall pick and a top-of-the-line NIL package is still gargantuan, and given the choice, a player will always pick the former.
The Colts could suck, but that will get GM Chris Ballard and Steichen fired, so starting who they deem to be the less catastrophic quarterback to try to cobble together six or seven wins and save their jobs for another season is more important than developing a quarterback they are already bound to divest from.
But beyond those holes, are we sure that more reps make a quarterback better?
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