In an interview with The Athletic’s Jim Trotter, Indianapolis Colts’ general manager Chris Ballard acknowledged if he could do things differently, the team would have sat Anthony Richardson as a rookie to let him develop.
“Looking back on it, I wish we hadn’t played him as a rookie,” Ballard said via The Athletic. “John Dorsey (a longtime personnel man) called me and said, ‘Don’t play him.’ John had had the great wisdom from Green Bay, where they sat all those quarterbacks. And as they mature and get older, they pick up habits that we were expecting Anthony to have from the get-go.”
The Colts selected Richardson with the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft out of Florida. Richardson came to the NFL as an uber-talented but raw and inexperienced prospect, having started only 13 collegiate games.
However, obviously knowing this, the Colts prepared themselves for the growing pains that were to come and were planning to navigate that learning curve through on-field reps rather than learning as a backup.
Slowing Richardson’s development was a season-ending shoulder injury that limited him to only four games as a rookie.
Ballard’s hindsight on this situation is likely stemming from the decision to bench Richardson following the team’s Week 8 loss to Houston. While on the field Richardson struggled through the first half of the season, what the Colts really wanted to hone in on was his day-to-day preparation, which they felt wasn’t up to the standard of what’s needed to be a successful NFL quarterback.
Presumably, by sitting as a rookie, Richardson could have learned and instilled those habits before moving into the full-time starting role, potentially resulting in a smoother transition for him from college to the NFL.
While the two games that he sat out certainly isn’t a season’s worth of time, even taking that relatively minor step back has paid massive dividends for Richardson and the Colts’ offense.
Since returning to the starting lineup, Richardson has seemingly improved in all facets, most notably displaying a greater command of the offense and operating within the timing and rhythm of the play-call, leading to better, more steady play from him, which includes leading two fourth quarter comebacks in three games.
