It's safe to say that the first preseason game of the year didn't go well for the Indianapolis Colts. Not only did they lose the game, but one of their rising star rookies - Justin Walley - suffered a devastating, season-ending ACL injury, in addition to the quarterback experiment blowing up in Shane Steichen's face.
Steichen planned for the battle between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones to continue throughout the preseason, with the two QBs switching out during the games. That decision was already being criticized enough, but it grew to a fever pitch after Richardson was injured with a dislocated pinkie finger.
To his credit, Richardson acknowledged the role he played in missing the sack. "That's a tricky one because it's a five-man pro and hot from the backside," he said. "I just gotta get my eyes and be able to react to that. Five man, you're always playing hot, I gotta be on my P's and Q's."
Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen set his quarterbacks up to fail
He further added, "It was going to be hard for me to see anyway because my eyes are looking a certain way. But I just gotta be keyed on when they're bringing pressures like that. I thought it was about to be a nickel (blitz), but they brought it from the other side. I gotta be ready to get the ball back out."
This is definitely an issue Richardson is going to need to address going forward if he wants to win the QB1 job. The Colts-Ravens game proved that, while he has been improving his accuracy during training camp, he still has a lot more work to do.
But ultimately, the bigger issue here is that of Shane Steichen himself.
Steichen sent both Richardson and Jones into a preseason game with very few of their offensive starters. All three starting wide receivers sat out, as did Jonathan Taylor. On the offensive line, Braden Smith, Bernhard Raimann, and Quenton Nelson all sat out, and the only potential starters Richardson had to protect him were second-year center Tanor Bortolini and second-year right guard Matt Goncalves, as well as rookie tight end Tyler Warren.
That, clearly, was a huge mistake.
In my opinion two things can be true:
— Hunter Haas (@Haas_Football) August 7, 2025
Anthony Richardson (probably) missed David Ojabo entirely and should have known he was hot.
Shane Steichen set his potential QB1 up for failure by sending him out there behind backup OTs and without any starting weapons, sans Tyler Warren.
To start with, this robbed both Richardson and Jones of the opportunity to further mesh with the offense. That chemistry is vital if either QB is going to be successful this season. If Steichen's plan was to see how Richardson and Jones would perform in a game, it should have been, at least for a limited time, with some of the starters.
But secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, Steichen put both of his quarterbacks at serious risk of injury by throwing them out there without a strong offensive line to protect them. Steichen has been heavily criticized for his poor play-calling as head coach, and this is another example of how Richardson and Jones aren't the only ones in the hot seat.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen made yet another poor decision, only this time, that resulted in several of his starters ending up injured.