[JAFF]

Doyel: Colts' 'plan' for QB Anthony Richardson includes letting him miss preseason game

INDIANAPOLIS – If this is how the Indianapolis Colts are going to develop rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson, then never mind. Just move him to defensive end and be done with it.

Seriously, Colts, what are you doing? Sitting Richardson on Saturday night for the Colts’ preseason game at home – their only 2023 preseason game at home – against the Chicago Bears?

This is your grand plan?

Richardson made 13 career starts at Florida, making him historically inexperienced for a quarterback drafted in the first round. This is his team, starting immediately, but he’s going to need work and time – and a lot of both. With the regular-season schedule bloated to 17 games, that leaves just three preseason games for Richardson to get acclimated to game action. No time to waste, but that was the Colts on Saturday night, wasting their time.


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Wasting yours, too. Lucas Oil Stadium was mostly full, but let’s be honest: How many of you came primarily to see Anthony Richardson?

Hope you watched pregame warmups, because Richardson was out there in his uniform, taking snaps, handing off to a running back. No, he wasn’t handing it to Jonathan Taylor, silly. The Colts haven’t found a way to get the 2021 NFL rushing leader onto the practice field. Taylor’s presence would benefit Richardson greatly – accelerate his development, you might say – but the Colts chose this year, and this player, to make a point about contracts.


Jim Irsay on Jonathan Taylor:It's time to 'get the waters as calm as they can'

Here’s how the Colts are developing their 21-year-old quarterback with 13 career starts beyond high school: Sitting him for the only preseason game at home – and not providing him the team’s most dangerous offensive weapon.


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But the Colts paid some bills Saturday night, didn’t they? The stadium was mostly full. That’s a lot of $40 parking spaces and $10 beers and $8 hot dogs. How many overpriced nachos you think they’d have sold if Colts coach Shane Steichen had announced Richardson wouldn't play?

Wait a minute. You think that’s why Steichen wouldn’t say – I asked him directly last week – whether Richardson would play against Chicago?


An omission isn’t the same thing as a lie, I guess.

Are you like me? Are you getting tired of the Colts, shall we say, omitting to us?

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) warms up before facing the Chicago Bears in an NFL preseason game Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Anthony Richardson didn't play at all?!?

The 2023 Colts offense walked onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium for the first time. The Bears won the pregame coin toss but deferred to the second half, meaning the Colts get the ball first. Imagine how cool this moment could’ve been:

Anthony Richardson striding onto the field for his first game action at home.

Think it would’ve been loud? Preseason, regular season, postseason, I don’t care. This place would’ve exploded had No. 5 strolled across the field. Instead it was No. 10 strolling onto the field, and no, it wasn’t twice as loud. Math doesn’t work like that. Neither does passion. Gardner Minshew, No. 10 in your program but DNP in your heart, walked onto the field with the Colts offense, and this happened:

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Absolutely nothing.

No noise. No buzz. No nothing. Well, almost nothing. A friend of mine was on the sideline when Minshew led the offense onto the field. This is what he heard:

Groans.

Are you like me? Are you getting tired of groaning about the Colts?

Don’t forget what happened at training camp, either. The Colts had 13 sessions at Grand Park in Westfield, and you know how NFL coaches are about practice. They think it’s everything, because nothing can match the coaching a young player gets in training camp. Coaches are really smart, see. So here’s what the Colts' really smart coaches did:

They let Anthony Richardson miss a practice. To recover from surgery on his nose.

Steichen called it a pre-existing condition, meaning Richardson could've had the surgery during the 2½ months between the draft and camp. But, no. The Colts scheduled the procedure for July 30, causing Richardson to miss practice on July 31. That was the fifth practice of his NFL career, and one out of 13 total at training camp. That’s what, about 8% of camp?

Can a rookie as inexperienced as Richardson – can a rookie quarterback as inexperienced as Richardson – afford to miss 8% of training camp? Can he afford to miss 33.3% of the preseason games?

In a league where every little detail matters?

Are you like me? Are you getting tired of having to ask the Colts such ridiculous questions?


Maybe backup OL can't protect Richardson

There's only one acceptable reason that Anthony Richardson didn’t play in the Colts’ only home game of the preseason, and it's actually more of an indictment of this franchise:

The Colts don’t want him to get injured, because their offensive line depth is that bad.

After the Colts’ starting offensive line went head-to-head with the Bears’ starters on Wednesday and Thursday, it’s understandable that on Saturday both teams would sit their linemen, even some of their skill players. Those practices were rough.


Only, not for quarterbacks. They wore red non-contact jerseys. They’re untouchable. Richardson is fine.

The Colts’ backup offensive line? Not good on paper. No telling how bad it’ll look on the field, but here’s a clue: The Bears didn’t play a single defensive starter Saturday, and still the Colts didn’t want Richardson to play. Not behind those guys. Not even to get a few snaps at center and hand the ball to running back Jonatha—er, to running back Deon Jackson or Evan Hull or Kenyan Drake.

Most of the questions for Steichen after the game were about Richardson, as you can imagine. He was not forthcoming, as you can imagine, beyond saying those two joints practices with the Bears this week were “like a game.”

“Those deals, you do get a ton of reps,” he said. “You get tons of reps. It’s a game atmosphere. The energy level is there.”

In the second of two practices with the Bears, on Thursday, Richardson was 2-for-6 on the day. Most of the work was in the red zone.

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You could call that practice, or you could call it recess.

Mayflower video weird, Jonathan Taylor video bad

Are you like me? Are you wondering why the Colts are so weird?

The team showed two pregame videos Saturday night, one on the Colts’ history in Indianapolis, the other on the 2023 Colts. The history video started with some of the most shameful imagery in NFL history, a Mayflower moving truck – the one that snuck out of Baltimore late one night in March 1984 – pulling into Indianapolis. That’s weird.

The video then goes onto show the two most important quarterbacks (apparently) since the franchise moved to Indy: Jim Harbaugh and Peyton Manning. No Andrew Luck. That’s weird.

The second video, of the 2023 Colts, showed Jonathan Taylor briefly, fleetingly, two blink-and-you-miss-it glimpses of No. 28 in the open field. The video spent more time showing clips of safety Rodney Thomas II. More No. 25 than No. 28? That’s weird.

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Then Anthony Richardson didn’t play. That’s weird. But he was followed around the sideline by someone holding a boom mic. And he was the only Colts player who had a stadium camera trained on him throughout the national anthem.

Oh, you came to see Anthony Richardson? Here he is. On the sideline. For the anthem.

And that’s when this happened:

Dozens of fans walk the U.S. flag onto the field, stretching it across almost every inch of green turf. The Eastern Star Church Choir finishes its rousing rendition of the anthem, and those same fans start walking the flag the other way, off the field. Many of them are kids, including the three flag-holding fans closest to Richardson. He sees the kids walking away, taking the flag back, and trots after them. Richardson gets the attention of one, then another, and gives them a palm to tap.

The third kid, he sees what’s happening. This kid is wearing a No. 12 Colts jersey – can't believe the Colts let the kid on the field – and as this kid looks over his shoulder, he sees the Colts’ next franchise quarterback reaching for him, trying to touch his hand.

The kid in the No. 12 jersey is extending a hand, straining, but Richardson is out of reach. Could’ve been a special moment, but now it’s gone.