The Indianapolis Colts are already in trouble at football’s most important position. The Colts have been holding a quarterback competition between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones, even listing the two of them as co-starters on their first unofficial depth chart of the season, but that competition may have been derailed before it could truly get going.
On the second drive of Indianapolis’ first preseason game, Richardson took a monster hit from Ravens linebacker David Ojabo, who came free on a rush off the right side of the offensive line. When Richardson got up, his right pinky finger was bent in the wrong direction, having been dislocated. He ultimately did not return to the game, being replaced by Jones and then rookie Riley Leonard. (Jones, as is his wont, struggled against Ravens backups, completing only 10 of 21 passes for 144 scoreless yards.)
The plan had been for Richardson to start and play the first 1.5 quarters, and for Jones to play the remainder of the second quarter. The plan just got shot to hell when Richardson got injured … again.
He had already missed time earlier this offseason with a recurrence of the shoulder injury that has kept him out of games during his first two NFL seasons, and during that time it seemed like Jones was going to win the starting role. Richardson has reportedly been the better of the two players during training camp and was looking like he’d retaken pole position in the competition, but now we don’t know when he’ll get back on the field.
Colts coach Shane Steichen called him day to day and a pinky injury doesn’t sound serious, but if you can’t grip the football correctly, you can’t play quarterback, and the pinky finger does serve an important role in a quarterback’s grip.
Richardson played in just 15 of 32 possible games during the first two years of his career, and despite being built like Superman at 6-foot-4, 244 pounds, he doesn’t seem to be able to make it through long stretches of games without getting hurt. And it’s not like Jones is a paragon of health, either. He missed three games in 2020 and six in 2021, then suffered a neck injury in 2023 before tearing his ACL a few weeks later.
But even beyond the injuries, it wasn’t the most inspiring quarterback competition to begin with.
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Richardson was one of the rawest and most inexperienced passers to enter the league in years when he was drafted, having started for only one season at Florida. He has since barely gotten any more experience, and the product he put on the field last year was subpar to say the least. He had one of the worst passing seasons in recent memory, completing just 47.7% of his passes at an average of only 6.9 yards per attempt. His bad-throw rate of 28%, according to Pro-Football-Reference, was astronomical.
The Colts unsurprisingly wanted to bring in some competition for him heading into Year 3, both because he hasn’t definitively proven that he’s a starting-caliber player and because he is unlikely to make it through the season in one piece. But they also seemingly wanted to bring in “competition” more than they wanted to bring in actual competition. They have a lot invested in Richardson and want him to win the job and prove he’s the guy for the future. He can’t do that if the competition you bring in is too good.
That’s how they landed on Jones, who can technically compete with Richardson for the role and start in a pinch if he has to, but isn’t really enough of a threat to just take the job and run with it. The problem now is that Jones might actually have to play, and then you’re just starting Jones. And as the Giants know, that isn’t really going to get you anywhere.
Colts brass is caught between several different scenarios. Both general manager Chris Ballard and coach Shane Steichen are probably on something of a hot seat this season, given the way recent years have gone.
Best-case scenario for both of them is that Richardson wins the job, stays healthy and finally looks like the team’s quarterback of the future. That scenario is already looking less likely with Richardson suffering yet another injury.
The next best-case scenario for the organization is that Richardson wins the job, stays healthy but struggles badly enough that the Colts land one of the top picks in next year’s draft. The problem is that scenario probably gets the front office and coaching staff fired so that new people can come in and try to develop the team’s next quarterback, which means that if Richardson struggles badly enough that things look like they’re headed in that direction, they probably turn to Jones.
Even in the best-case scenario that Jones doesn’t fall all over himself and the Colts win some games, then they’re just in the same position as the 2022 Giants, who performed better than expected with Jones looking competent but not actually good, and then had to decide whether or not to pay him.
The Giants made the mistake of doing so. The Colts probably wouldn’t and definitely shouldn’t, but then they’re right back to needing a quarterback for next year. And if Richardson’s development went so badly that he was benched for Joe Flacco and Jones in consecutive seasons, then why would the Colts trust this group with the next guy?