One of the most tumultuous aspects of the 2024 Indianapolis Colts season was quarterback Anthony Richardson. He showed flashes of brilliance... and arguably more often, signs of disaster. It all culminated mid-season in a decision made by head coach Shane Steichen to bench Richardson in favor of veteran quarterback Joe Flacco.
While the benching may have been needed, as Richardson seemed to return stronger, there was a lot of criticism surrounding how it all went down. A large part of the controversy involved how the team handled the benching; none of Richardson's teammates evidently knew he was being benched until it had been announced in the media, and Steichen refused to give much explanation about what went into the decision.
Now, in his season-ending press conference, general manager Chris Ballard has shed a little light onto the situation, and what the team's plans for Richardson are moving forward.
Why Richardson was benched
During the press conference, Ballard was asked by a reporter why they made the decision to bench Richardson, considering he and Steichen both had stressed the fact that their young QB -- the youngest in the entire NFL -- needed reps in order to grow and develop as a player.
"Hindsight's always 20-20," he began, and continued,
"You know, in a perfect world, a young quarterback would sit -- just in a perfect world. We weren't living in a perfect world. You'd have a vet quarterback who's winning, and you could sit a guy for two or three years and let him play. But that was not a luxury that we were afforded.And I even told Shane that I wish, you know, looking back, I wish we would have sat him no matter what. All right. But we didn't. We played him. He got hurt."
Ballard admitted that his injury set back his development, which was noticeable at the beginning of the season.
"There just got to a point where I thought he was -- and Shane really was the first one, I saw it, but -- he was drowning. He was," Ballard said. "There was the poise, cause I think he plays with really good poise most of the time, but I didn't feel the same as we went along. And then the Houston game, I didn't feel the same poise that I was feeling."
So he said Richardson needed a break in order to refocus. "One, for just to get him to calm down a little bit. Two, also to prepare," he said. "All the little things you need to do in the building, everything you need to do, let's take a reset and let's take a step back. Okay?"
He also indicated that had Flacco not played so disastrously, Richardson would have sat for longer. "There was a part of me that wished it would have lasted longer," he admitted. "But Joe came in, he had some struggles."
How did Ballard feel about Richardson?
"Struggle and failure are good, they're not bad things if you learn and grow from them, and that's what we'll continue to hope, that he continues to learn from those mistakes," Ballard began. He explained that for him, not everything they saw from Richardson was negative.
"t wasn't like it was just this constant, we're at the bottom of the, and he's making all these mistakes all the way," he said. "No, he had really good moments, and then he kind of took a step back.That happens. It does. It's life. People make mistakes."
He also seemed to call out the media for being too critical of Richardson's progress at the beginning of his career.
"You've written things that have not been perfect. You won't admit it, but you've done it," he said. "To live in a world where all of a sudden you get branded because you make a mistake and you do it on the grandest stage and we ostracize them for it?"
What is Richardson's future with the Colts?
While Ballard seems to still believe Richardson can be the future of the Colts franchise, he also seemed to be more realistic about what his quarterback's limitations may be. It had already been argued that 2025 will be a do-or-die season for both Steichen and Richardson, with rumors swirling that the team may choose to bring in other quarterbacks to compete for QB1.
In his presser, Ballard seemed to confirm that these rumors are true.
"I don't think we can completely stamp it," he said of Richardson's career. We've seen some good things... Anthony's done some really good things, but there's been some potholes too." He added that while he told fans to be patient with Richardson, he also admitted to being blind himself to some of the issues.
"I got excited too about the talent and the wild plays, but now we need the consistency down after down," he said. But the number one thing we have to figure out, and what Anthony's got to work through, is staying healthy. He's got to be able to stay healthy. And that, to me, is probably the biggest question right now. Because now we're going on two seasons in a row where he's dealt with injuries. So that's the first thing."
The second issue, Ballard said, is consistency.
"Getting consistent down after down, play after play, consistency with him. And that just takes time," he said. "We have zero patience as a league with quarterbacks. I mean, you're seeing it throughout the league where guys fail one place, and now all of a sudden, they're doing really well somewhere else. Every quarterback's journey and developmental cycle is different. And I wish I had a magic wand that could wave it and get them to the top of the peak right away, but that's not realistic. The good news is, even with the back, which we think will be fine, he's going to go into the offseason healthy, which last season he didn't. He was rehabbing a lot. So that's going to give him a chance to work on some things going forward that we think will help going into next season."
While it's clear that Ballard still has hope for Richardson, he also made it clear that he's become open to finding a replacement.
"Now, saying all that, we can't beat our head against the wall," he said. "We've got to have competition at the position, just for the fact that competition makes everybody better. And then two, he's not proven he can play 17 games."
There's clearly hope for Richardson's future with the Colts, but it's also becoming increasingly obvious that his time in Indianapolis is running out. He will need to step up, in a big way and fast, if he wants to remain QB1 for much longer.