Doyel: Colts rookie QB Anthony Richardson shows his massive talent, flaws vs. Philadelphia
Indianapolis Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson is so talented, as we saw Thursday night against Philadelphia, he’ll win some games by himself this season. The rest of the Colts’ roster doesn’t look like much, on either side of the ball, but Richardson is so big and fast and elusive and strong-armed, he’ll drag his teammates, bench-press them, sprint them past a couple foes in 2023. Not sure if that’s a guess or a fact. Feels like both.
But Richardson is so raw, so not ready – as we saw Thursday night – he’ll lose some games by himself. Maybe more than a few.
Not a guess. Absolute fact.
This kid is the whole experience, I’m saying, and we saw all of it Thursday night. Even if it was for just one half of an NFL preseason game. Even if it was without pouting running back Jonathan Taylor. Even if it was against an Eagles defense featuring some of Philadelphia’s finest future fry cooks.
The defending Super Bowl champion Eagles played no starters on defense, but I’m not sure that matters. Not when it comes to the things Richardson can do, which are things nobody else can do. He’s the most perfect combination of size, speed and arm strength in NFL quarterback history. Yeah, that’s a mouthful. You’ll get used to it. You’re read it here before, and they were saying it on the Amazon Prime broadcast, Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit, gushing over Richardson’s feet and arms and poise and moxie and even, for a few uncomfortable moments, his deep voice.
Richardson’s final numbers for one half of football weren’t good, but you’ll get used to that as well. His numbers weren’t good at Florida, either, but this whole thing comes back to that second paragraph. Richardson isn’t just raw, not ready, for an NFL franchise quarterback in 2023. He was raw – he wasn’t ready – as an SEC quarterback in 2022.
But he does things nobody else can do. Big, strong, fast, elusive things, which is why the Colts took him fourth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. It’s also why he’s been anointed the starter, rather than Gardner Minshew II, who would complete more passes for more yards and fewer interceptions than Richardson, if given the chance. Minshew wouldn’t lose many games by himself, either.
But he wouldn’t win any by himself. The Colts might go 0-17 with Minshew back there. This roster is that bad.
Richardson? Not sure how good he’ll be this season, but he’ll be fun, and he’ll give us the whole experience: Good, bad, ugly … and incredible.
As we saw Thursday night.
Anthony Richardson: The good
After the Colts’ initial drive was gutted into a three-and-out by consecutive penalties against All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson – a false start, then an unnecessary holding penalty to wipe out a 16-yard run by Richardson on third-and-15 – Richardson led three consecutive scoring drives: touchdown, touchdown, field goal.
The most exciting thing about Richardson was what happened every time the Colts snapped the ball:
The Eagles’ defense freaked out.
Look, Jonathan Taylor’s on my list. I’ve made that clear. But imagine him in the backfield with Anthony Richardson. Scary doesn’t begin to describe that combination, because Richardson by himself terrified the Eagles defense. If that were Taylor next to him, and not Evan Hull (better suited for third down) or Deon Jackson (better suited for the CFL), the Eagles might have just wet the grass at Lincoln Financial Field.
With their sprinkler system people. Grow up!
But really. With Eagles defenders keying on Richardson because he’s bigger than most of them and faster than all of them, Hull and Jackson had room to run. And when Richardson faked a handoff, it felt unfair. It froze the Eagles’ linebackers, their safeties, maybe a defensive end or two. Because what if Richardson is faking the handoff not to pass the ball, but to run it himself?
Richardson ran it himself five times for 38 yards, and if you include the 16-yarder called back because of Nelson’s unneeded penalty, that’s 54 yards on six carries. In one half.
His passing numbers weren’t so good – 6-for-17 for 78 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions – but he had two balls dropped by rookie slot receiver Josh Downs. Richardson showed accuracy at times and mixed a changeup or two among his plus-plus fastball. The ingredients are there.
Either offensive-minded Colts coach Shane Steichen is a chef, or he’s not.
Anthony Richardson: The bad
Richardson has no idea – yet – when to leave the pocket, so here’s what he has decided: Better to leave too soon than too late. The pocket doesn’t have to collapse for Richardson to take off. It just has to buckle a bit, and he’s gone.
Bright side, he’s big and fast and yadda yadda yadda. Taking off isn’t a bad option. It’s also not sustainable. Not for 17 games over the course of several seasons. Richardson is a more explosive athlete, but he’s no bigger than Andrew Luck, and Luck couldn’t survive the beating. My suspicion, my fear, is that Richardson will take an even worse beating for the same reason NBA star Zion Williamson can’t stay healthy: The human body has limits, and Richardson, like Williamson, will push those limits. He’ll be in the open field, so big and moving so fast, and it’s like Zion when the 6-6, 295-pounder spins like a little guy and his knee just says: Nope.
Or consider what happens in baseball when a Major League hitter smacks a 100-mph fastball. The ball goes a lot farther than when the fastball is 92 mph, right? Speed times velocity equals … look, nobody told you there’d be math. But Richardson in the open field 10-15 times a game, as scary as that will be for the defense, will be scarier for Colts owner Jim Irsay.
Also bad: Richardson’s consistency. Remember a few years ago when Colts general manager Chris Ballard tired of quarterback Carson Wentz because he couldn’t “make the layups”? Richardson misses them like a kid who’s never shot a basketball in his life, throwing it 10 feet over the basket, er, Michael Pittman Jr.’s head. He throws a screen pass wide of Deon Jackson in the flat. He throws it so far behind Pittman, running a few steps in front of him, that the big Colts receiver puts on the breaks and reaches back and succeeds in catching the ball and hurting himself (he missed just a few plays).
Richardson completed just 54.7% of his passes over three seasons at Florida, one of the worst percentages of any quarterback in the country in that stretch.
Richardson’s accuracy needs work. So does his pocket presence. He’ll learn on the job.
Anthony Richardson: The ugly
Late in the half, his only half, Richardson seemed to lose focus. It felt like he didn’t want to be on the field anymore, like he’d done well earlier and just wanted to be done.
Unless that was just me. Richardson was 6-for-11 at one point, with three consecutive scoring possessions, and I’ll be honest: I was hoping Steichen would pull him. Before the game Steichen had said he’d play Richardson most of the first half, maybe all of it, and with the Colts leading 17-10 with 3:36 left in the half, I was thinking: Most, please. Not all.
Alas, Richardson played the final two series and got worse as he went along, missing on his final six passes. His attempts got worse and worse, as did everything else. On one play he dropped back to pass and, standing alone in the pocket, lost control of the ball as he started to throw it. Officials called it a fumble, and the Eagles would’ve recovered had Pittman not big-brothered the future Philadelphia fry cook who jumped on it first.
Pittman simply took it from the poor guy, a remarkable victory that distracted from the horrible defeat Richardson had just suffered.
If this were a TV commercial, somebody would’ve asked Richardson if he was hungry – then offered him a Snickers bar. Because after his super start, he was looking like Steve Buscemi. Oh come on, you’ve seen the ad. Snickers introduced it during the 2015 Super Bowl.
Anthony Richardson: The incredible
Richardson has a 102-mph fastball but lobbed a beautiful back-shoulder pass to receiver Alec Pierce – whose inability to do anything but run as far as he can, as fast as he can, is starting to concern me – but the pass was broken up. The result was what it was, but the pass was spectacular.
Some of his runs also were spectacular, like the 16-yarder negated by Nelson’s penalty. Richardson needed 15 yards for a first down, encountered a future Philadelphia fry cook after 12 yards, and ran through him like a grease fire to extend the drive.
Or how about the time Eagles linebacker Ben VanSumeren had a free shot at Richardson on a blitz, but Richardson hit the eject button and was just … gone? He spun away from VanSumeren for a gain of 5 yards.
But my favorite Richardson moment – go ahead and get used to reading that, too – was earlier in that drive. Third-and-10 from the Colts’ 38. Richardson felt pressure that may or may not have been there, took off, and had about seven easy yards. But he needed 10, and he’s greedy, so rather than going out of bounds he cut up field for 12 yards. Richardson is 6-4 and 240 pounds, and the nearest Eagles defender missed all of him.
This was Anthony Richardson in full. As long as you don’t look too closely at the scoreboard, you’re going to enjoy this season. Well, some of it.
But opposing teams better get the Colts now, while Richardson's young. Because he's going to grow up fast, and when he does, good luck stopping that.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts rookie QB Anthony Richardson good, bad and ugly against Eagles
