After learning that the Indianapolis Colts had not only signed another quarterback - Daniel Jones - in free agency, but that they were planning on making him compete for his job, Anthony Richardson had good reason to be worried. Richardson's first two years in the NFL were not easy; though his rookie season showed promise, he was sidelined by injury, and in his second season, his performance was inaccurate and inconsistent, laced with just enough glimmers of potential to keep hope for his future alive.
By all accounts, Richardson's career in Indianapolis hinges on his 2025 performance. If he continues to struggle, it's not likely that he'll remain with the Colts in any fashion in 2026. Yet some have pointed out that Richardson - and all NFL quarterbacks - are being held to unfair standards. And judging by his recent comments, Chris Ballard agrees.
In an interview with Up & Adams, Ballard had a lot of positive things to say about Richardson, and insinuated that they haven't given up on him yet.
Anthony Richardson has "major upside."
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) April 1, 2025
Colts GM Chris Ballard on being patient with young QBs in the NFL.@heykayadams | @Colts pic.twitter.com/JeSnGNnLt3
"Look, I've talked about some other media members here this morning about kind of what's going on in the league and the lack of patience and the quarterback carousel that you're seeing. You're seeing guys go on their second, third, fourth team, and they're being successful," Ballard said. "Especially with young quarterbacks, we want them to be superstars right away, and that's not always the case... Knowing Anthony, and knowing how young he was, and the lack of experience, and what he's gained so far, and what he's going to gain going forward –– we still think there's major upside. When that happens? I'm not Nostradamus in that way, but we think it'll happen eventually."
This is an interesting take, to be sure, because that exact criticism was leveled at the Colts for their treatment towards Richardson in 2024. Richardson is, after all, the youngest quarterback in the league, with very little experience - and Ballard is far from the only person pointing out that the league, and its fans, expect immediate perfection. Yet this is how the Colts treated Richardson in 2024, which makes these comments from Ballard, while correct, rather hypocritical.
As JJ Watt said about the Richardson controversy in 2024, this is a huge problem throughout the league.
"There is such an epidemic in the NFL right now of ownership and coaches trying to get a young guy to play at such a high level so early, which yes, we all want to. We would love if everybody came in and played like CJ Stroud or Jaden Daniels. It would be incredible. But we're churning through these young guys so fast. If you are in a situation where you are rebuilding an organization or you're drafting a young quarterback to build around, you better understand what situation you're in. You better understand that that might not be Super Bowl in year one or year two, but that guy could develop longer term. You look at Josh Allen's beginning of his career. He didn't exactly start out great, but you develop over time and you grow. Some of these guys need a little bit of time to step in and grow and learn and have growing pains."
He concluded,
"We expect instant gratification today. And that's just not the fact. You judge me off my first 10, 11 games in the NFL, I should have been benched. I should have. I should not be in the league," he admitted. "If I was a quarterback playing the way I played, I never would have made it to where I am because somebody would have benched me because I wasn't playing enough. But I could get through those growing pains. I could learn. I could understand what it's like at the NFL level, how you have to play these offenses, everything that they do. So it's so hard with everything we're asking these young quarterbacks to do. And then when they don't do it within their first four or five, six weeks, we're like, nah, move on next one. And then you look at Bryce Young's situation, you take him out and then Andy Dalton gets hurt. Now he's got to go back in and try and figure it out. It's really, really hard with how much pressure we put on these guys so early."