Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen announced earlier today that former Giants and Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones had won the starting job over 2023 first-round draft pick Anthony Richardson. Prior to this announcement, Jones and Richardson had been splitting reps with the first-team offense during training camp.
“He’s our starting quarterback for the season,” Steichen told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t want to have a quick leash on that. I feel confident in his abilities.”
Though he has only seen limited action, Daniel Jones has looked like the best quarterback on the Colts’ roster. In two preseason games, he completed 17 of 32 passes (53.1% completion rate) for 245 passing yards.
Daniel Jones joined the Colts after serving as a backup for the Minnesota Vikings during the second half of last season. Before signing with Minnesota, Jones spent the first six seasons of his career with the New York Giants, where he completed 64.1% of his passes for 14,582 yards, 70 touchdowns, and 47 interceptions.
The end of Richardson in Indianapolis
The Anthony Richardson era has been an unmitigated disaster for the Colts. He hasn’t been healthy enough to prove that he’s Indy’s long-term answer at the quarterback position, with just 15 starts in 34 games. In the world of sports, where the best ability is availability, Anthony Richardson has fallen well short of expectations.
It’s also worth mentioning that when he has been healthy, Anthony Richardson has been awful. Since 2023, he has completed 50.6% of his passes, which is easily the lowest mark in the league during that stretch (6.4% lower than the next closest QB). He also turns the ball over at an alarming rate, with 12 fumbles and 13 interceptions over the last two seasons.
The tipping point for the Colts came last season, when Richardson took himself out of a game against the Houston Texans because he was “tired.” That lack of commitment to the sport and your teammates is unfathomable at the NFL level. Ever since then, the former number-four overall draft pick’s relationship with the Colts has been doomed to fail.
Now that Shane Steichen is going with Daniel Jones as the starting quarterback, the Anthony Richardson era in Indianapolis will probably come to an underwhelming end, barring some sort of major injury. And with Steichen saying Jones won’t have “a quick leash,” it’s clear the Colts will do whatever they can to prevent Anthony Richardson from starting for them again.
Where do the Colts and Richardson go from here?
Depending on how Daniel Jones performs, he could be a bridge quarterback for Indianapolis for the next two seasons. In all likelihood, though, the Colts will once again be looking for a new quarterback when the draft and free agency roll around next off-season.
Daniel Jones is only under contract for one year, which means he’ll probably be playing somewhere else in 2026 if the Colts don’t increase his $14 million salary. Considering Jones is still a mediocre football player, Indianapolis would be much better off letting him test free agency and trying to find its quarterback of the future through the draft.
In the meantime, the Colts need to move on from Anthony Richardson before the 2027 off-season, when his contract is set to expire. That shouldn’t be too difficult since he is a former top-four draft pick who shows some promise, but Indy shouldn’t expect to get a lot in return if a trade is completed.
The good news for the Colts is that Anthony Richardson is still very young and talented. There is going to be a quarterback-needy organization that believes it can fix Richardson and make a trade for him. The Saints, Jets, or Steelers could all be potential landing spots. Then again, he could be the backup to an older quarterback like the Rams’ Matthew Stafford or the Raiders’ Geno Smith. That would be the best situation for Anthony Richardson because he’ll be allowed to sit on the bench and develop his skills more before being asked to go back onto the field.
Anthony Richardson is not done in the NFL. He’s too young and has too much potential for the entire league to give up on him. But it’s safe to say that his time with the Colts will be coming to an end soon.
