Should the Colts have done more to support Anthony Richardson’s development early on?

The Colts eventually did bring in an accomplished veteran backup for Anthony Richardson, but was it the right guy for the job and soon enough?

Indianapolis Colts 2nd-year quarterback Anthony Richardson was reinstated this week as the starter, after a two-week benching because of the coaching staff’s purported “lack of attention-to-detail and preparation” expected from the team’s QB1.

Per ESPN’s Stephen Holder, those limitations were more as a result of his relative youth—at just 22-years-old, naivety, and ‘not knowing what he doesn’t know,’ more so than as a result of any indictment on his still well-regarded character and work ethic:

“Conversations with teammates and multiple sources have created a clearer picture of what transpired behind the scenes,” writes Holder. “What they laid out was the story of a young quarterback described as ‘naïve’ rather than resistant, a player who didn’t know what he didn’t know. The benching, according to a team source, was an effort to get Richardson’s attention.”

“Meanwhile, in the absence of specific information from the Colts, internet chatter was churning. But off-the-field rumors about character concerns were never accurate, multiple sources said.”

“‘He’s a great kid,’ coach Shane Steichen said. ‘I look at character as No. 1 of my pillars, and he has high character. You can work with that.’”

For what it’s worth, Colts head coach Shane Steichen indicated per The Athletic’s James Boyd, that Richardson had a ‘phenomenal week of preparation’ leading up this Sunday’s road game against the New York Jets:

We also know per Boyd, that Richardson met with fellow Colts team captains earlier this week to help open lines of communication and for them to better understand what he was going through and how they could in turn, help him regarding his growth.

From that perspective, it appears as though Richardson has initially. as Philip Rivers so eloquently once put it in a Colts uniform, ‘turned the corner.’

However, it also raises the question of whether the Colts ‘handed over the keys to the car’ too soon for a quarterback who turned just 21-years-of-age two months of May ago with only 13 collegiate starts at the University of Florida prior to being selected with the 4th overall pick in 2023.

Perhaps, too much was expected, too soon from Richardson which resulted in the recent grounding for the past two weeks, as he’s now allowed to come back from his room.

It’s been at least speculated that the Colts may not have been the clearest on the initial expectations of their starting quarterback position, where following in the line of former franchise greats such as Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, and I’ll even throw Philip Rivers out there for a season, that the QB1 is expected to be the locker room CEO of the organization (i.e, showing up first, leaving last, and being a tone-setter collectively within the clubhouse).

I’ll even go beyond that though.

Should the Colts have paired Richardson with a more veteran and polished backup than say 27-year old Gardner Minshew, with 24 total career starts, as a rookie last season?

Or even had him sit behind a veteran for a whole season before fully taking over the starting quarterback reins once he proved he was ready and could hit the ground running?

After all, the franchise was already on the hook for $18M of Matt Ryan’s $35.2M total cap hit last season—regardless of whether they cut him or not. While the team did save about $17.2M by releasing Ryan during the 2023 offseason—which is clearly no number to sneeze at, it may not actually be that much when you’re talking about the long-term success of your franchise quarterback hopeful—who plays the league’s most important position.

While Ryan’s on-field results clearly weren’t there anymore, he was still lauded for his leadership while in Indianapolis. At the very least, maybe it would’ve been a prudent idea to have Richardson shadow him for the 2023 season as his rookie understudy, going to early AM meetings when the former NFL MVP did, conducting film study with him, etc. Think of it as a rookie starting NFL quarterback apprenticeship of sorts!

We saw firsthand how much a helpful veteran soundboard can aid a young quarterback’s growth. We saw it in 2013, when the Colts signed veteran backup Matt Hasselbeck, who was a former accomplished and proven 3x NFL Pro Bowl quarterback, to mentor Andrew Luck.

Since hanging up the cleats in retirement, Luck has since publicly credited Hasselbeck for his valuable contributions during his early playing career with the Colts.

You can argue whether it’s affected his playing production, but the Carolina Panthers appeared to make a shrewd move signing another veteran and former 3x NFL Pro Bowler Andy Dalton to serve as 2023 #1 overall pick Bryce Young’s caddie during his early years.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Well, the Colts just signed former Super Bowl winning MVP Joe Flacco to serve as a veteran soundboard to Richardson,” who like Luck, is in his 2nd season when a clearly accomplished veteran backup was brought on respectively.

That being said, Flacco has admittedly been a ‘lead by example’ veteran backup, more so than a hands on, actively engaged mentor to a younger quarterback. He was the same for Lamar Jackson while with the Baltimore Ravens, as well as Drew Lock when he was a member of the Denver Broncos, so why did the Colts expect anything differently here?

Still, there’s plenty of culpability on Richardson too.

If we aren’t hearing the same things from his fellow young colleagues like Young, C.J. Stroud, or even rookie Jayden Daniels right now, why were there recent “preparation and attention-to-detail” issues with only Richardson? Maybe he didn’t know, what he didn’t know, but there’s the expectation that he should’ve at least to some extent, even early on. He’s not in a bubble after all.

Perhaps the Colts assumed a little too much when it came to their green rookie quarterback, who just became old enough to legally drink two springs ago and arguably didn’t do quite enough ensuring his utmost successful transition to becoming their new QB1.

They’ve since blown on the cartridge, hit reset on the console, and Richardson was reinserted.