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When the Carolina Panthers stunned the NFL world by benching quarterback Bryce Young in September, the reverberations of the decision echoed around the league.
Was a franchise that had invested hefty draft capital to select Young first overall giving up on him 18 games into his pro career?
Had Young started his last game for the Panthers, if not across the NFL?
League sentiment centered the decision on three key tenets: the need to restore Young’s confidence, the shallow talent collection around him and the need to establish a winning culture with first-year head coach Brian Callahan.
Young wasn’t capable of elevating or even keeping afloat his team, the Panthers felt. His skills and size were not a recipe for success. So Callahan announced the decision, and the Panthers won their following game before losing five straight.
Fast forward to Tuesday, and news broke of a second 2023 first-round quarterback’s benching.
It’s easy to associate the Indianapolis Colts’ decision to bench Anthony Richardson, the fourth overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, with the benching of the man drafted three spots before him. But a closer look at the Colts’ decision to roll with Joe Flacco shows how different just about everything is about these players.
Shane Steichen on Anthony Richardson 2 days ago: “We’ve got to just keep working through it. He’s got a good work ethic. He grinds through these things. Man, it’s a process. We do it together. That’s why I say this thing is together. This ain’t about one guy.”
Now, he’s benched. pic.twitter.com/kKVqe1sWiu
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) October 29, 2024
Where Young’s 5-foot-10, 204-pound (generously) frame hurts him, Richardson’s 6-4, 244-pound frame allures talent evaluators. Where Young’s 27 collegiate starts and 949 college pass attempts gave decision-makers a solid look at his potential, Richardson’s 13 starts with 393 attempts left them heavily projecting on massive question marks.
And where the Panthers considered how the locker room would view Canales if he wasn’t playing the quarterback most capable of helping them win right now, Colts head coach Shane Steichen arrived in Indianapolis last year after coordinating an NFC champion offense in Philadelphia. Steichen led the Colts to a surprise winning record (9-8) in his first year in 2023 despite losing Richardson to season-ending shoulder surgery after just four starts.
The Panthers (1-7) have a less than 1% chance of making the playoffs, per the New York Times’ playoff predictor. The 4-4 Colts still have a 30% chance.
As is often the case with teams’ decisions on young quarterbacks, what’s best for the team in the short term may not be in the long term.
So let’s unpack how we arrived at the Colts benching a player who arguably needs experience more than anything and what the franchise is risking with this decision.
Colts outlined a plan for Richardson — and now, they’re ditching it
After Andrew Luck retired from the Colts before the 2019 season, the Colts spent years chasing an answer to their quarterback question.
They acquired Philip Rivers and Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan. Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew II each got a season. None won a playoff game, and Rivers was the only quarterback in those five years to reach one. The franchise wanted a longer-term answer, a home run like they’d found in Peyton Manning and then Luck.
So they drafted a high-risk, high-reward quarterback. Richardson’s athleticism and play-making ability were tantalizing; the Colts insisted they were willing and ready to live through the development process as he chased the fulfillment of his potential.
“What we saw with Anthony was the upside of what we thought he can be going forward,” general manager Chris Ballard told Yahoo Sports during training camp last year, before Richardson’s professional debut. “Of course you wish he started 30 games in college, but he didn’t. … He’s got work to do, but he’s very talented and we’re willing to live through the bumps that he’s going to take.
“I think we’ll see a lot of good, too.”
Fast forward to now, and on each side of an October 2023 shoulder surgery, the Colts have seen both. In 10 games the past two seasons, Richardson has completed 50.2% of passes for seven touchdowns, eight interceptions and 1,535 yards. He’s also rushed for 378 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 5.7 yards per carry.
The highlights have turned heads, from Richardson’s four rushing touchdowns in just four games (and not full ones, at that) last year to the two passes Richardson completed for 60-plus air yards in the Colts’ first game this season against the Texans. Richardson found receiver Alec Pierce for a touchdown that traveled 65.3 air yards, and he became the first player in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016) to record two such completions in the same game.
“You want guys that can create and create big plays,” Ballard said. “You got to do it outside of the structure of the X’s and O’s. I think that’s what the special players really do. … There’s moments to do it, there’s moments not to. I think that’ll just be part of his growth, knowing when and when not to.”
Richardson arguably has not figured that out yet. At times, his protection has let him down, and 11 times in 10 games his targets have dropped passes, per Pro Football Focus.
Even so, the offense in Richardson’s hands has ranged from inconsistent to incompetent. Richardson’s 57.2 passer rating ranks 34th of 34 quarterbacks who have attempted at least 100 passes this season. His 32.4% success rate (at least 40% of yards required on first down, 60% on second, and 100% on third and fourth) also ranks 34th of 34, per Pro Football Reference.
Flacco, whom the Colts are promoting ahead of Richardson, ranks eighth with a 102.2 passer rating and 21st with a 43.9% success rate.
It’s easy to argue that Flacco is more ready to win against the Colts’ November gauntlet of the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Detroit Lions. That seems to be influencing Ballard as he clings to a job in an impatient league. Only the Miami Dolphins’ Chris Grier has lasted longer than Ballard without a Super Bowl appearance. Since his 2017 hiring, the Colts have reached the playoffs twice and won only one, a wild-card game following the 2018 season.
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Ballard is eager to end that drought and secure his job into 2025. Steichen, meanwhile, wants to show team owner Jim Irsay that last year’s success with Minshew was not a fluke but an indicator of his ability to elevate his cast.
So at .500, with Houston two games ahead in the AFC South, they’re hoping Flacco can deliver the playoff berth magic he gave the Cleveland Browns last season in relief.
He might.
But what impact will this have on Richardson, who talked Sunday after the loss about how he’s a “great passer” who can “run the ball way better than every other quarterback,” except perhaps Lamar Jackson?
Ballard’s 2023 words ring hollow with this pivot.
“With any quarterback, it takes time and he’s got to play,” Ballard told Yahoo Sports 15 months ago. “There’s gonna be some hills and there’s gonna be some really good moments and there’s gonna be some really down moments. I think you can just look at the history of most young quarterbacks: They go through that and you just have to stick with them and let them learn and grow.
“And don’t jump off the abyss and lose yourself.”
As Colts backtrack, expect them to ‘evaluate’ everything — including QB
If Ballard’s definition of losing himself was reversing course on Richardson’s snap count, the Colts had not yet fallen into the abyss on Sunday after the Colts’ 23-20 loss to the Texans.
“We’ve got to just keep working through it,” Steichen said postgame. “[Richardson]’s got a good work ethic. He grinds through these things. Man, it’s a process. We do it together.
“This ain’t about one guy. It’s the team.”
By Monday, Steichen’s endorsement was weaker. Each time he was asked about Richardson starting, the head coach said: “We’re evaluating everything.”
Steichen discussed “ongoing conversations” about the QB’s role in his offense, run game improvement, and alternatives to dropbacks. How could the Colts ease the intermediate throws that have troubled Richardson, and how could they simplify defensive diagnoses for a player with far less experience reading coverages than most players?
Steichen began to hedge on the Colts’ party line that playing Richardson was the best route for his development.
“I think it could go either way,” Steichen said. “There are certain guys who [you] throw into the fire early. There are other guys, let them sit back and watch. The more you play, the more you learn at that position. But is there benefit sometimes in sitting back and watching? Yeah, of course there is.”
Richardson will now have that benefit.
He’ll also have the chance to take advantage of what center Ryan Kelly called a “learning moment” for a young player after Richardson took himself out of Sunday’s game for a play to rest.
Richardson’s decision to tap out for a play because he was “tired, I ain’t gonna lie” has drawn criticism. Coaches and executives across the league wonder about its impact on a locker room full of players who were likely also tired but fought through it as their leader rested.
“He knows it’s not the standard that he needs to play up to and the rest of the team holds him to,” Kelly said Monday. “I’m sure he’s going to take some criticism for that and rightfully so. That’s a tough look. [But] if anyone ever questions how hard he plays, I don’t think that’s the case.
“If you watch the film, surely we didn’t move the ball effectively at times. But he’s giving everything for his teammates.”
When will Richardson next get his chance to give everything for his team?
It’s unclear.
Some around the league wonder how a quarterback comes back from this demotion, while others argue a player who can’t rebound from the humbling doesn’t have the wherewithal to be a franchise player after all.
Young’s next starting opportunity came six weeks after his benching, when Andy Dalton sprained his thumb. Young threw for 224 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 28-14 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
That’s not necessarily indicative of Richardson’s next step, given how different the circumstances of their benchings are.
Expect the Colts to keep evaluating his growth.
“We’re dissecting everything and evaluating everything,” Steichen said. “We’ve all got to be better. We’re sitting at .500. Looking back at what we’ve done, there are a whole bunch of areas we can improve on. I’m not just talking about the quarterback. I’m talking about everything.
“We’ve got to be better moving forward.”