What’s next for Richardson as IND looks for trade?
Mike Florio and Devin McCourty break down Anthony Richardson's future as the Indianapolis Colts are looking to ship the 23-year-old quarterback.
Video Transcript
Okay, so, Chris Ballard, the Colts general manager, has addressed the, the reality that Anthony Richardson, the fourth overall pick in 2023, who, you know, he has not lived up to the potential on which he was drafted.
He wasn't drafted because of performance or production- Mm-hmm he was drafted because of potential.
In limited playing time at the University of Florida, they saw enough to make them think he was gonna come in and be a potential superstar, and it just hasn't worked.
And they haven't made any final commitment yet, but of course they're not gonna pick up the fifth-year option on Anthony Richardson.
They are looking for an off-ramp.
They've been trying to trade him.
They've given him the ability to set up a trade.
Nobody has shown significant interest.
At one point there was talk maybe the Vikings would be interested, and there was a clip that made the rounds after that.
We found it from when the Vikings and the Colts played a couple of years ago.
Kevin O'Connell sought out Richardson, and they had kind of a moment where O'Connell was very supportive, and it's like, hey, does O'Connell think he can take this guy and shape him into, you know, the ultimate quarterback?
But it just hasn't worked, and there's nothing out there.
And because his fourth-year contract, fourth-year salary is fully guaranteed, there's no reason to cut him.
Mm-hmm.
He's on your depth chart as a backup to Daniel Jones.
They're gonna keep him around because they're gonna pay him either way.
So I, l- you know, th- this W- we very well might may just see this last year just kind of play out with Anthony Richardson not playing, unless and until Daniel Jones gets injured, which he has a history of getting injured, and just becoming a free agent next year.
Yeah, it's, it's one of those situation that's I don't wanna say it's unfortunate.
Like, hey, when you're the number four pick, that's great.
Hey, there's, there's nothing bad about being the number four pick, but when you get, when you get drafted on straight potential, I think the expectation is just so high because of the different things that teams see in you.
And then I think the hard thing now for Anthony Richardson is all of the talk that was coming out of Indy when he was playing of, you know, he wasn't the guy that everybody kind of needs at the quarterback position, to be in early, to be there late.
Those are kind of the, the questions or the, the comments and rumors that kept coming up.
So yeah, I, I can imagine it's hard to trade a guy like that when you bring up all these different things that could be an issue.
Even from a backup position, a lot of teams are sitting there, they're like, "Does it make sense to bring in a guy to be a backup who might not be the hardest working guy in our room?"
So, I think for him, though, eventually some type of new scenery you hope kind of triggers something, he could get rolling.
And I think that's Right now, that's what we see out of the quarterback position, is you're These guys are now getting a second chance or a third chance at a lot of different places, and the hope is you end up with the right coach that can help you kind of get the answers to the test and then trigger some of that potential and some of those things that you might be able to be great at.
And I think that's why, you know, Kevin O'Connell's the guy that if there's any type of rumor that he might like you, everyone's saying, "Man, let How can I get to Minnesota?
How can I..." He took a bunch of quarterbacks off the street and he made them good, and then Daniel Jones goes there for a year, for, some time, and then Sam Darnold's there for a year, and you look at some of the success those guys have had, that, yeah, he seems like the guy you wanna be around.
Man, you hope for Anthony Richardson, he ends up in that situation with Kevin O'Connell or anybody to help him kind of turn his career around.
And, you know, ultimately they didn't pursue him this year.
They got Kyler Murray for 1.3 million, but they could get Anthony Richardson next year as part of his effort to reset his career.
What a compare and contrast, Kyler Murray to Anthony Richardson from one year to the next.
How different that would be.
And I mean, I don't wanna You know, Kyler Murray, incredible athlete, but we're talking about two guys who have extremely different- Oh, yeah physical statures- between Kyler Murray and Anthony Richardson.
Here's a little bit of Chris Ballard speaking recently about whether or not any real trade interest materialized for the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft.
Nothing yet, no.
Nothing yet.
Surprise you that there wasn't some interest?
Nothing surprises me anymore.
And I, I just think it's Can we have a little patience here and, and see what happens, you know?
I mean, I think I talked to a lot of y'all about, you know, a long time at the owners meetings about it.
And, so we just kind of will let it play out as it does over time.
An injury elsewhere could create a need, but again, you got a guy that doesn't have a lot of reps, doesn't have a lot of, have a lot of experience.
There's that cloud hanging over him about how hard he worked when he was the starter.
They, they made it clear last year the door was wide open for Daniel Jones to come win the job, and he did fairly easily.
I mean, we heard early on in the process.
This didn't go down to the wire.
This wasn't, "We'll let you know on Sunday," as of the Tuesday before week one.
It was clear fairly early that Daniel Jones had won that job.
So he's got a lot of work to do to get a team to be willing to trust him.
And you got the injuries on top of it, whether it's injuries happening during games or this freak fluke orbital fracture because an exercise band snapped in the locker room before the game back in October, I think, against the Cardinals.
Yeah.
I can't imagine as a player.
Like, you watch that press conference a- and you gotta show up to work.
Like, it, it's like anybody at, at any job where, hey, publicly your boss is telling everyone, "Hey, man, we're trying to get rid of this guy.
We, we just gotta be patient.
You know, maybe, maybe we'll be able to get rid of him," and now you gotta show up.
And, and in his situation, you have to show up and get better.
Like, as much as that sucks knowing that your team doesn't really need you there and they kind of wanna unload you somewhere, you have to have the mental focus to come in and say, "I have to be ready because at any moment I'm, I could be traded somewhere and I could be in a new situation.
And if I waste time being frustrated that I know I'm not gonna play, that they don't really wanna work with me or whatever the case is," you just set yourself back for your next location.
And I, I just think, I think sometimes in, in NFL and in football, we kind of, we lose sight of, like, hey, man, if we told anybody to show up to their job and say, "But you're gonna hear publicly in front of the whole workforce and everybody else in the industry that you're no good to the team, but still you need to show up and work," a lot of people would be like, "No."
Like, "I'm going to HR.
I'm getting my union involved."
That's a normal thing now we have in the NFL where a guy's on the trading block and he just, he just has to show up and go to work.
And in his case, he better go to work and he better learn as much as he can still learn from Shane Steichen, who's obviously been a good offensive coordinator and good game planner in this league.
He has to continue to do that work.
Sometimes you're just backed into a corner.
Sometimes you're in checkmate.
Sometimes there's nothing you can do to help your long-term interests, financially and otherwise, than to just say, "I'm going to work.
I'm gonna do what I do and things will work out.
If I do everything I'm supposed to do, if I fully commit myself to this, something will work out at some point- Yeah somehow."
You gotta have that faith or you never get yourself out of this bad situation.
