Colts fans will be on red alert after seeing this Anthony Richardson stat

Over the course of the offseason, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson has been the center of much praise and anticipation. A return from an injury which prematurely ended his rookie year is shaping up to put the Colts in a great position, not just for immediate success, but long-term success as well.

However, we must remember he is a young and inexperienced quarterback. In particular, there is an aspect of his game that might alarm Colts fans.

On a recent episode of The Fantasy Footballers Podcast, host Andy Holloway dove deep into Richardson as a passer. We know he's a talented runner, but as a passer, there is still a lot of room for growth.

Holloway used Richardson's collegiate tape as reference:

"He's historically inaccurate. In college, he was a 54 percent passer," he said.

It gets far worse.

"You take away just screen passes, he's under 50 percent," Holloway went on.

If Richardson can't complete more than 50 percent of his throws that are not screens, that doesn't bode well for him at the pro level.

Looking back on his small sample size that was in 2023, there are additional stats which are alarming. Richardson not only finished under 60 percent completion (59.5) but he also made a significant number of "bad throws."

Per Pro Football Reference, over 21 percent of Richardson's pass attempts were considered bad throws, or throws that had zero chance of being caught by the intended receiver.

For context, let's look at a middle-of-the-road quarterback like Derek Carr. In 2023, Carr's bad throw percentage was at 15.3.

Even better context: Gardner Minshew, who is known to be wildly inconsistent and was Richardson's backup last season, finished with a bad throw percentage of 15.1 last year.

The Anthony Richardson hype train must slow down

This isn't to scare Colts fans, but more so to tame the expectations. The Richardson hype train has gotten out of control, especially for a player with only four career starts. For goodness sake, he was recently compared to both Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson.

Talk about pressure on a young player. This has to stop. Richardson is obviously a professional, but there is something to be said about putting too much on the shoulders of one player, and particularly one as young as Richardson.

There have been countless examples of a top draft pick, and particularly a quarterback, to receive far too much hype and it's gone on to significantly impact their career. One of the most recent examples has to be Justin Fields, formerly of the Chicago Bears and current Pittsburgh Steeler. The excitement from his athleticism and ceiling got to an unhealthy level.

Pretty soon, it was evident that Fields had been "ruined," in a way. The Bears put too much on his back and the hype grew out of control, despite skepticism still ringing in the background.

Indianapolis has to be careful with Richardson. Fortunately, they have done an admirable job putting enough talent around Richardson on both sides of the ball. The key, now, is going to be helping him develop in a healthy manner and not allowing the pressure to become too much.