The whole situation is a real head scratcher and just doesn’t add up.
Who had the Indianapolis Colts making a Super Bowl run on your 2024 season bingo card? I sure didn’t. I wanted to see two things happen: I wanted to see the Colts have a shot at the postseason and for Anthony Richardson to get as many snaps as humanly possible. In the blink of an eye, it appears neither of those scenarios are coming to fruition. Shane Steichen made the monumental decision to bench Richardson in favor of 39-year Joe Flacco, citing Flacco gives the team the best chance to win. That part is definitely debatable after Sunday night’s performance, but whether Flacco actually gives the team a better chance now, it comes at a major risk to the future of the franchise.
Maybe Richardson is an absolute bust. He hasn’t exactly set the league on fire during his short time on the field, but I think that is the key word…short. If Steichen wanted to send a message, he needed to be clear that the benching was for one game and a specific reason. This whole thing has been so unclear and ambiguous that no one seems to know what the heck is going on including Richardson, Ballard, and the rest of the team.
Richardson has looked bad to start. So what? We knew he was going to take some time and polish to get where he needed to go. The Colts said so themselves. Here we are less than a season into game action for the young man, and they are already pulling the plug. This isn’t a championship year. Let him have the whole year. Yes, the whole year. That would provide enough data to fully understand whether he is what the team needs going forward. Best case scenario, the Colts make the playoffs with him under center. Second best case, he implodes and you are positioned to draft his replacement. Even the worst case scenario in which the Colts finish around .500 and miss the playoffs wouldn’t be the end of the world with your 22-year old quarterback.
That would have been the worst case with Richardson. Instead, Steichen introduced an all new type of worst case scenario: no quarterback at all. To paraphrase, “when you have two quarterbacks, you have zero quarterbacks.” He took a young quarterback and benched him without warning. The only explanation to date has been that Flacco gives the team the best chance to win. Ok. What about next year when Flacco turns 40-years old? Are the Colts running him back? Are the Colts turning back to Richardson and hoping he learned his lesson and is ready to lead the team again? Are they drafting his replacement sitting at 15th in the draft? What is the plan here? From the outside looking in, the franchise seems completely directionless from top to bottom. Steichen just put that on full display for the NFL world to see.
I hope Anthony Richardson starts again for the Colts. I haven’t loved everything I have seen, but before the team turns the page on him, I want to be sure. The Peyton Manning situation was different, but you can’t tell me it wasn’t a bit frustrating watching him break the touchdown record and win a Super Bowl with another team. I couldn’t stomach to see Richardson ball out for another team after the Colts gave up on him so quickly. Will that be the case? I don’t know. Probably not, but I want to know for sure. Moving on from him to have a 39-year old lead your team is less than ideal, and only leads you right back to the drawing board.
