Earlier this week, Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen indicated that quarterback Anthony Richardson, who is still recovering from fractured orbital bone surgery, wouldn’t not be activated off of injured reserve for the team’s regular season finale against the Houston Texans.
It came after thoughtful deliberation, as Richardson is still dealing with vision limitations. Specifically, Richardson has had trouble catching snaps, as he’s tried to work his way back. However, he’s actually ahead of schedule physically from where his doctors initially projected him to be in other regards.
Instead, it will be rookie quarterback Riley Leonard starting against the stingy Texans defense, with likely recently signed (then promoted) practice squad quarterback Seth Henigan as the QB2, and unretired longtime veteran QB Philip Rivers serving as an emergency QB3, if needed.
To his credit, even with his Colts future in question, Richardson is currently saying the right things:
He’s also reportedly been working with the scout team in recent team practices, even on injured reserve. He’s had no issue throwing his deeper pass attempts.
However, it’s a fair question of whether his career will continue in Indianapolis this upcoming offseason.
Richardson suffered another devastating injury setback for his early career in Week 6, when a medical band snapped during pregame warmups in a ‘freak accident,‘ fracturing his orbital bone in the process. He was placed on injured reserve and wouldn’t be active again for Indianapolis for the remainder of this season.
It’s been the latest injury for what’s been a myriad of them for Richardson, significantly limiting his early career production and availability.
It proved to be another costly injury for Richardson, as he wasn’t available to play in relief of starting quarterback Daniel Jones, who suffered a season-ending torn Achilles in Week 14, and potentially save the Colts season down the final stretch run. Who knows? Had Richardson played well, maybe there’s a QB controversy in Indy again.
Instead, with injuries to its top two quarterbacks, the Colts made a desperation play, luring longtime veteran quarterback Philip Rivers, who’s now 44-years-old, out of retirement. While Rivers played admirably given the circumstances, and certainly a lot better than anyone could’ve reasonably expected, the Colts just went 0-3 and saw their latest playoff hopes officially ended.
Even if pending 2026 free agent quarterback Daniel Jones is unavailable for training camp—and potentially the early regular season recovering from a torn Achilles, and with Richardson under his rookie contract for next year, it’s hard to realistically envision a scenario under current Colts head coach Shane Steichen where the 23-year-old quarterback will be penciled in for a starting role without another offseason chief QB competitor.
That is, even in the interim during a theoretical re-signed Jones absence (or even if he’s not re-signed at all), Richardson will likely still have to earn the starter’s job outright against a potential top challenger. However, it’s also possible the Colts could elect to provide both sides a needed chance of scenery and trade him elsewhere.
For what it’s worth, Richardson and his medical team don’t expect the vision issues to negatively impact his NFL career any further—and hopefully, it should resolve itself on its own ahead of next season.
See More:
