The Indianapolis Colts drafted quarterback Anthony Richardson out of Florida with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. When you are selected that high, the expectations are through the roof that you will come in and be a franchise savior. As we all know, that can be an overwhelming amount of responsibility for a 22 year old kid, and sometimes it just doesn’t click right away. We saw this with another Colts QB about 25 years ago named Peyton Manning, who came in and threw 28 interceptions in his first year, which still to this day is the NFL record for a rookie.
However, the Colts did not bench him throughout the entire campaign, which was a very poor one in which the team went 3-13. They stuck it out with him and let him learn while he continued to gain experience playing at the NFL level. Eventually, he became one of the greatest signal-callers of all time, and it is because they didn’t give up on him after one season or less. Teams in 2024 might want to learn that same lesson, as they are very quick to give up on players before they even complete one full NFL season.
Richardson has played a grand total of 10 NFL games in his career so far. He has very little experience, and yes, he has struggled for the most part this season. He has a horrible 44.4% completion percentage, four touchdowns to seven interceptions, and a QBR of 37.6. No one is making excuses for his poor play, but after just six games this year, they benched him for veteran QB Joe Flacco.
What that does is lower his confidence, while at the same time denying him valuable experience playing against NFL defenses. The Colts organization has to understand that they are not winning a championship this season with either Richardson or Flacco at the helm. There is no reason not to start a young, highly-talented player and get him as many reps and learning experiences as possible.
The Colts have hovered around a 3.5 to 4-point Week 11 underdog depending on the book regardless of Flacco or Richardson under center.
This is what losing organizations do, however. Indianapolis has unfortunately transformed into that over the years. We have seen the same kind of incompetence from many organizations around the league, including the Jets, Panthers, Jaguars, and other failing franchises. Take a look at what the Chicago Bears have been doing for years and what they are doing to rookie QB Caleb Williams.
They failed to fire Matt Eberflus this past offseason before they drafted Williams, even though he clearly was a lame duck head coach who would be fired at the end of this season. Now, they have potentially ruined what is a generational talent at the position because of their incompetence. They did the same thing with Mitch Trubisky, keeping John Fox employed for a year before hiring Matt Nagy. Then, they did it again with Justin Fields, retaining Nagy for one lame duck year before hiring Eberflus. The cycle of stupidity continues, and the Bears are the definition of insanity for their fans.
None of this had to happen, but unfortunately, we have many unqualified individuals that own NFL teams. This is why they continue to fail year after year, just praying that they can finally get lucky and draft their own Peyton Manning to save them. Then again, they would probably have benched him Year 1, too.
Get up to $1,500 in Bonus Bets at BetMGM! All you need to do is CLICK HERE, sign up for a new account, make your first deposit and bet! Don’t miss out!
Related
