Colts' Biggest Reason for Hope in AFC Playoff Race Revealed

As the Indianapolis Colts come off of their Week 14 bye and head straight into a heated final quarter of the season for a potential playoff push, there's reason to believe this team has what it takes to overcome their ups and downs throughout a turbulent year and make it to their first postseason appearance since 2020.

The Colts have won two of their last three contests, have the league's 30st-ranked strength of schedule down the stretch, and their starting quarterback has started to show signs of life again of becoming the franchise guy since being benched for 39-year-old Joe Flacco earlier in the season. On paper, it looks like the perfect storm for Indianapolis to make that aspired push to make their way into the AFC's Wild Card Weekend.

However, for the Colts to make those playoff dreams become a reality, this unit may have to lean a bit further into what's made them successful through their most recent victories-- that being Anthony Richardson, according to NFL.com and expert Jeffri Chadiha.

When laying out each playoff contender's biggest reason for hope in the remainder of the season, Chadiha kept it simple for why the Colts should continue to hold optimism: Richardson is making plays.

"Give Richardson and the Colts credit: They took what could’ve been a disastrous situation and turned it into a positive," Chadiha said. "The same quarterback who was benched for a couple games a few weeks ago has turned into a more confident leader who has led his team to two wins in its last three games, with Richardson scoring the deciding points in both victories... If Indy can find a way to beat the Broncos this coming weekend-- Denver has a two-game lead in the race for that final AFC wild-card spot -- then the Colts truly have hope, ending the year with the Titans, Giants and Jaguars. It’s not hard to see Indianapolis finishing strong with that slate. The key is Richardson continuing to play like the player the Colts expect to become a franchise quarterback."

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Since his return, Richardson has re-emerged as the explosive, dual-threat athlete he was selected to be with the fifth pick of last year's draft. Of course, there's still room for improvement for the second-year signal caller when circling his accuracy and consistency woes. Yet, the fact that he's been a catalyst behind the Colts' most recent two wins, having multiple touchdown efforts in both, cannot be ignored.

As the Colts look to take on a softer schedule in the last four games of the year, the positive trends we've seen from Richardson could easily continue. But their first matchup back from bye against the Denver Broncos is when rubber truly meets the road.

For a game with extremely steep implications for Indianapolis and their playoff hopes, Richardson and the offense need to be efficient and have few mistakes to do what it takes to keep them alive for the remainder of the season. The first step for success will be finding a way of boosting his underwhelming completion percentage through his past three games of 52.4%.

Thankfully, Richardson and the Colts will have a few days to prepare before traveling to the Mile High to face the Broncos on Sunday, December 15th, when this Colts squad is put to the test.

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