The Indianapolis Colts created the ideal situation for themselves in one respect. They made a very marketable player available in third-year quarterback Anthony Richardson. Yet with several teams looking for help, they failed to find a trade partner. This feels like a double fatality from Mortal Kombat.
We can argue all day and all night whether the Colts made the right decision to bench AR5 in favor of Danny Dimes- spoiler alert, they didn't. They didn't even make the right choice when they signed Daniel Jones. But that's who they got, and at least for now, that's who the Colts will ride or die with. I'm picturing that's going to last until about Week 4; we'll see.
It's bad enough that the Colts' GM Chris Ballard brought in the wrong QB. But then head coach Shane Steichen made the wrong choice for the starter as well. Talk about cherry-picking; "Well, I think that he’s proven that he’s played good football in that 2022 season...he had a hell of a year that year."
Sure, coach, let's ignore those other five seasons. And by the way, that "hell of a year," he was rated 14th in the league. Um... okay, good call.
The Indianapolis Colts blew it by not trading Anthony Richardson on cut day
Can the Colts still trade Richardson? Sure, they can. But the Raiders were looking everywhere for a QB after Aiden O'Connell went down with a fractured wrist. Las Vegas snapped up a decent backup in Kenny Pickett on Sunday, taking one of the Browns' 37 QBs off their hands.
The Steelers are almost certainly looking for a backup who doesn't qualify for Social Security. I mean, one who has a chance to actually be good. That's a trade that would have been good for both the Colts and AR5.
Now, Tyler Huntley is available for nothing. Desmond Ridder isn't exactly superstar-level, but he won't cost any draft picks to bring in. Hendon Hooker is a project, but he's a freely available one. The window on a trade package to move Richardson hasn't closed, but the Colts made it unnecessarily harder on themselves.