The Indianapolis Colts have downgraded quarterback Anthony Richardson to out for Sunday’s Week 17 matchup against the New York Giants.
According to ESPN’s Stephen Holder, the injury is not expected to keep Richardson out of the Colts’ Week 18 matchup with Jacksonville.
Initially, on Friday’s final injury report, Richardson was listed as questionable. He did not practice at all during the week while dealing with back and foot injuries, although head coach Shane Steichen said the back injury was the bigger issue for him, adding that Richardson was dealing with soreness.
This decision to sit Richardson isn’t all that unexpected given that he didn’t practice during the week. It’s not often that we see a player miss all three days of practice and then still have a full workload in that week’s game, especially for a young quarterback like Richardson, who relatively speaking, is still inexperienced.
Due to injuries, Richardson has now missed 16 out of a possible 33 games in his NFL career, according to the Indy Star’s Joel Erickson.
This, of course means that Joe Flacco will get the start for the Colts. On the year, Flacco has appeared in five games, completing 67% of his throws at 6.9 yards per attempt with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. When Flacco was under center in Weeks 9 and 10 while Richardson was the backup, the offense struggled to get going.
Awaiting Flacco and the Colts’ offense is a New York Giants defense that ranks 24th in points per game allowed this season and has really struggled against the run. We should see a run-centric approach from the Colts in this game, although the quarterback running game obviously won’t be a part of the equation any more.
In order to make the playoffs, the Colts need to win their final two games and get quite a bit of help from either the Broncos or Chargers.
(This article was updated to provide additional information.)
