It's not just the QB situation, even though he absolutely deserves the criticisms for his part in botching it for over half a decade.

And no, this wasn't getting unlucky.

First of all, they either didn't do proper due diligence or outright whistled pass the graveyard on the astounding number of red flags this guy has mentally. Like, he's open about the fact he feels he doesn't need to put the hard work in.

Second of all, they completely botched his development. How the **** do you send him out to start his rookie season with all the issues he has both as a passer and mentally? It's just asinine.

They coulda sat him last year for developing, that's a legit concern, but also...you get better by playing.

If guys need that much development, don't draft them that high.

They had boxed themselves in, Ballard being so risk averse and doing things like taking a guard in the top 5 caused this to happen.

If they passed on a QB yet again they were going to be in retread hell for years and years, pretty sure they felt like they had to take the swing.

I had always thought that but Jalen Hurts is a much more accurate than he was some years ago.

This is more on Irsay and Steichen than it is on Ballard. Irsay and Steichen are the ones that wanted to draft him and now they’re the ones who want to bench him. Ballard wanted to keep starting him.

Remember, Steichen is the supposed quarterback whisperer who was going to make him a star. Now he gives up on him after 10 starts.

He got benched for taking himself out of the game for being tired...had he not done that I guarantee he's still playing.

Seeing it happen, I thought he tweaked something and just needed a minute to recover.

Some people still think that’s what actually happened and he just lied about it because he hates that he’s labeled injury prone. Not realizing the reaction it would get.

I’m not sure that makes it any better, though.

I'd assume the locker room made the choice for them. He quit on the team and then went on national TV and admitted he quit on the team. There's no coming back from that without a significant correction and some time.

For a season he did, now he can't throw anything but deep balls to elite WR's.

You get better by playing once you reach a threshold level.

You send someone out there who's completely incapable of being an NFL starter and all you're doing is multiplying by zero. In the process, you're creating (and/or reinforcing) really bad habits.

Richardson needed at LEAST a full season on the bench to even get to the baseline level of performance needed to learn by playing. And due to injury, instability and a lack of veteran leadership in the QB room, last season wasn't that season.

So honestly they need to commit to him being 2nd string this year. And maybe 3rd (if Flacco gets hurt, find another veteran option to start instead). He cannot get better by playing football at this stage in his career.

Firm up his foundation and then maybe you can start to build on it. But right now all you're doing is building in sand. Stack as much lumber as you want on top of that, it's still going to collapse.

The only way forward for him to salvage his QB career might be the Geno Smith path to success. And that'll be far from Indy.

Really well said.

It can be fixed, but there's a limit to it. Boomer Esiason used to sail balls over guys heads. Once they adjusted his footwork, he settled down and became more accurate. Josh Allen is a recent example.

I'm not saying he's gonna be challenging for best comp% but he's got a lot of room for improvement.

He's currently having the best comp% of his career.

Say what you will about Geno coming out of college, but the guy knew how to throw a football. His Jets failures could be linked to any number of things that plague young QBs, but inconsistency of arm technique was certainly not one of them

My theory has always been that you can move things roughly one letter grade when it comes to accuracy.

A C- passer, with some brakes, can become a B- passer. And with a smart system that plays to his strengths, you can work with that to make that B- passer play up to a B or B+ kind of player. I think this is largely what the Ravens have done with Lamar.

But you're not going to turn a guy like Richardson, who's a D passer on his better days, into Drew Brees. If everything goes well, you make him into a guy with average accuracy; a C passer. You might - MIGHT - get a super athletic sort of Eli Manning out of him. Eli's accuracy was never great, but he was aggressive as hell and succeeded when teams were able to paper over that average accuracy by turning the risk/reward knob way up.

Josh Allen is my only real outlier on this theory. He's the only guy I've ever seen go from having that sort of D+ ball placement to being a B, B+ sort of guy (who they can then scheme and use his athleticism to make him an A player).

Biomechanics are a bitch. You can repeat your delivery or you can't. And that's the difference between accurate and not, IMO.

AR is such a unicorn as a quarterback. He does the hard things well(throws a great deep ball, has outstanding pocket presence and awareness, and is decent at throwing outside the numbers), but he is ATROCIOUS at the easy stuff. He’ll sail a screen pass 10 yards over the running backs head. And forget about completing passes in the middle of the field. He just can’t do it. Teams started leaving the middle WIDE OPEN because they knew he can’t make those throws.

It’s easy to see why he was such a tantalizing prospect.

But I think it’s clear that he lost the locker room last Sunday. It’s one thing for vets to give their all for a guy who just isn’t very good if they know he’s out there trying just as hard as they are.

But to tap out like that? While sucking ass at the same time?

It’s no wonder guys are pissed at him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">�� Content Warning<br><br>Anthony Richardson kills a man <a href="https://t.co/Rg1X2ni2dw">pic.twitter.com/Rg1X2ni2dw</a></p>&mdash; Jeremiah (@ColtsTopic) <a href="https://twitter.com/ColtsTopic/status/1858220726399926757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Shit like that is why he's constantly injured...

He has to make every play count because he can't do it twice in a row without taking a break.

Has this piece of shit caught his breath yet?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Poise in the pocket, ball placement, patience. That game-winning drive was everything you want out of a franchise quarterback from Anthony Richardson <a href="https://t.co/cZxo7IcaNT">pic.twitter.com/cZxo7IcaNT</a></p>&mdash; Football Digest (@FoootballDigest) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoootballDigest/status/1858284265185689911?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He was really really good yesterday. They tried to make him something he’s not and it didn’t work. He will never be a pocket passer.

But if he mixes in quarterback draws and a hefty dose of Jonathon Taylor, it opens everything else up for him.

He just struggles to do it consistently and stay healthy.

Good for Richardson- isn't it wild that it was Richardson's 11th game in the NFL? You add in the fact that he's 22 years old and in college he was basically a 1 year starter. It's inconceivable that the Colts organization actually benched Richardson for an ancient Flacco. Let the guy develop for **** sake and live with the ups and downs.

Richardson needs another ~16 games minimum, then make a decision.

They ran a normal NFL game script that wasn’t a bomb every play and his completion percentage went up.

Shocking!!!

Holy shit. How the hell did this dude get taken top 5?!?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Colts?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Colts</a> QB Anthony Richardson said he “couldn’t even stand up” last week due to severe back spasms.<br><br>He said he’s had back issues since eighth grade and got an MRI that revealed a “disc thing.”<br><br>He said his back issues “might be chronic,” but he doesn’t think he’ll need surgery. <a href="https://t.co/Wf6zN6x4ux">pic.twitter.com/Wf6zN6x4ux</a></p>&mdash; James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) <a href="https://twitter.com/RomeovilleKid/status/1874513536543572258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

LOL What could go wrong?

Cocaine. It makes Jim Irsay feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

He should embrace a future role as a Taysom Hill-type gadget player.