Indianapolis Colts: The Case For Anthony Richardson
The biggest riser on many 2023 NFL Draft boards throughout the entire process has been Anthony Richardson. A guy who was often considered a Day 2 project in December has become virtually a top-10 lock over the past four months.
When you look at him as a prospect, there is a lot to like, and honestly, he’s something we've never seen before as a prospect. I dive into all this and more on the final installment of “Making The Case” for Richardson.
Richardson is a soon-to-be 21-year-old quarterback from the University of Florida. He has only 13 starts under his belt and posted a stat line last year of 2,549 passing yards, 17 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions. He also added 654 yards rushing with 9 touchdowns to go along with it.
While those stats don't jump off the page, you have to take a deeper look to understand exactly what he had to overcome this season. Richardson was a first-year starter with a new head coach in a system that had no idea how to utilize his strengths.
The talent around Richardson wasn’t great either. Aside from a couple of quality offensive linemen, he had no support and was essentially forced to figure things out on the fly. These things hurt him in terms of his development but he consistently got better throughout the season and the flashes he showed at times were truly special.
Athletically, Richardson is the most gifted player the NFL has ever seen at the quarterback position. That's not a typo, that is a fact. He is 6'4", 244 pounds, ran a 4.43 40-yard dash, had a 40.5-inch vertical jump, and a 10'9" broad jump. He is a true anomaly at the position and it shows up on the tape. The things he can do with that physical profile just can't be taught, but what I like most about Richardson is that he's not an athlete trying to play quarterback; he's a quarterback that just happens to be the most freakish athlete we've ever seen.
When you watch Richardson's tape, there are a ton of things that jump out. He is a natural thrower of the football. His arm strength is obvious, and he has the ability to make any throw on the field at any time. He has issues with accuracy, which I feel is the biggest knock on him, but that may be due to poor footwork, which is correctable.
One thing Richardson does well that I feel is transferable to the NFL is his ability to maneuver in the pocket. His feel for pressure after just over a dozen starts is incredible. The way he maneuvers around the pocket to avoid pressure while still keeping his eyes downfield and not bailing before routes develop is a huge plus.
Most people with Richardson's physical tools would be looking to run a lot more than he did. His process was always about being a quarterback first, and even in the bad plays or “mistakes” that he made, the process was still good, which I'm ok with.
One of his underrated attributes that you don't see from young quarterbacks but Richardson did multiple times this season was eye manipulation. In several different games, you can see Richardson look-off safeties or hold linebackers with his eyes so that a route can come open in a vacated area. These are things you don't see from some multiple-year starters but he's doing in his first full season.
While Richardson also throws a beautiful deep ball, my concern is the short to intermediate areas where he sometimes puts too much heat on throws, or he throws off-balance, which causes him to be inaccurate. People see only 53% of his passes being completed as a major flaw but that's another thing you have to dig a bit deeper with. Two things that attributed to his completion percentage being low were a bunch of drops by his receivers and the offensive system he played in didn't have a ton of high-percentage throws for him. Out of the big-four quarterbacks, nobody had a higher percentage of on-target throws dropped than Richardson.
The last thing I want to touch on is Richardson's mental makeup. He prides himself on accountability. Talking to legendary NFL receiver Steve Smith at his pro day, Richardson said, unprompted, “I’ve just been working. At times, I was very inconsistent throughout the season, so I’m just trying to put that behind me and try to stay consistent because I know inconsistency is not gonna work at the next level.”
When asked what are some of the things that led to the inconsistencies, Richardson replied, “Living up to other people's expectations, I put a lot of pressure on myself because I wanna be great, I want to be the best in the world.”
Richardson is a guy who is really hard not to root for. He has a humble disposition and is really willing to do the work at just 20 years old. He has all the physical tools, and if he has the want to be great then there's nothing stopping him from accomplishing that.
At the next level, coaching is going to be crucial for Richardson. He has things to clean up that guys like Shane Steichen, Jim Bob Cooter, and Cam Turner can help him with.
An Indianapolis Colts offense early on with Richardson would probably be a run-first offense that allows him to use his legs to punish defenses. With Richardson and Jonathan Taylor lining up side-by-side, it changes the math for defenses and forces them to drop an extra defender down into the box, and when defenses do that, it allows receivers like Michael Pittman Jr. and Alec Pierce to have one-on-one situations on the outside.
Teams will literally have to pick their poison, and the Colts, for the first time in a long time, will be able to dictate how teams play them and not the other way around.
Colts general manager Chris Ballard bets on traits more than anyone in the NFL. Steichen has worked with Jalen Hurts for the past two years with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Turner has worked with Cam Newton while with the Carolina Panthers. It seems like the stars are aligning for this marriage between Richardson and the Colts.
On April 27, 2023, the Colts will have their new face of the franchise, and I have a hunch that his name may be "Anthony Richardson."
