The Indianapolis Colts hope to get back to .500 but they have to get past the Tennessee Titans this week in order to do so. The storyline surrounding the Colts this week was what they might decide to do at quarterback considering that Anthony Richardson wasn't playing all that great while Joe Flacco and did his job wonderfully.
Richardson was listed as questionable on the injury report with an oblique injury that he suffered during the Week 4 win over Pittsburgh. He was a full participant in practice on Thursday and Friday and that led some people to believe that he'd potentially be able to start his fifth game of the season (and ninth overall in his career).
The Colts ended up listing Richardson as the emergency third-string quarterback while Flacco will be the starter for the second straight week. Sam Ehlinger will serve as the backup quarterback.
Colts QB Joe Flacco is starting today and Anthony Richardson is serving as the No. 3 QB.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 13, 2024
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The easy thought here is that Richardson isn't 100% so the Colts are playing it safe by holding him out for another week. Flacco played out of his mind in Week 5 and they might have figured why not ride with the hot hand for another week and give Richardson more time to recover?
That being said, there have been some comments from the media pointing out how Richardson looks just fine. It's also a bit surprising that Richardson was a full participant in practice but the team opted not to start him.
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Perhaps the Colts are going to let Richardson sit and learn for a little bit before throwing him to the wolves. He struggled with taking care of the football in his first four starts this year and some time to sit back and observe might be good for him.
With that said, Flacco isn't the future of the Colts. The hope is that Richardson is the franchise quarterback this team has been searching for since Andrew Luck retired but this news might have some Colts feeling as though the team isn't feeling confident about that.
Head coach Shane Steichen said this week that if Richardson is healthy, he'll be the starting quarterback for this squad. That leads me to believe that the Colts are simply playing it safe here and that fans shouldn't panic about the team giving up on the former fourth-overall pick just yet.