Anthony Richardson breaking Tim Tebow's passing marks looks bad for Shane Steichen

The Indianapolis Colts have a genuine quarterback problem on their hands. While young No. 4 pick Anthony Richardson is in need of more reps and experience to reach his full potential, the early returns on what is essentially his rookie season as a quarterback have been very underwhelming, especially when compared to Joe Flacco.

Richardson has thrown just four touchdowns on the year to go along with seven interceptions. After completing 59% of his passes during his four starts as a rookie, his completion percentage has fallen to a pathetic 44% this season. He hasn't completed more than 50% of his throws in any game this season.

Richardson put together an otherworldly stinker against the Houston Texans. While there were some drops, he completed just two of his first 15 passes and was intercepted. Richardson finished just 10 of 32 for 175 yards. This puts him in some extremely unsavory territory, which is just as much Shane Steichen's fault as it is his.

Richardson's 44.4% completion percentage would be the lowest in a season for a qualified quarterback in the last 20 years. Richardson is beating out luminaries like Tim Tebow, JaMarcus Russell, and JP Losman to earn this dubious honor. Steichen needs to switch things up.

Anthony Richardson's low completion percentage is Shane Steichen's fault

Richardson is the football equivalent of a Maserati, and Steichen is taking him out for highway driving all game long. Richardson's arm is in rarefied air across all of NFL history, and not using that arm downfield would be a big mistake. However, Steichen is going a bit overboard with the verticality. Maybe try some safer, quicker throws more often?

Steichen, who has been fairly flexible offensively in the past, kept letting Richardson chuck it downfield in the Houston game. Every deep ball he hits Josh Downs on is canceled out by three misses that make it tough for Indy to pile up any sustained drives.

While the Colts don't want to get Richardson hurt, it seems like a bit of a waste to have him rooted to the pocket. With Steichen having worked with Jalen Hurts to great effect in the past, perhaps adopting a similar approach with Richardson might snap him out of the funk he has found himself in.

The Colts aren't going to win games with historically inefficient quarterback play. If Steichen wants to keep starting Richardson, which seems like the plan, he needs to make some philosophical changes to get the most out of him.