Is Anthony Richardson Destined for the Clipboard? A Former Colt Gives Fans Reason This Is His Final Chance!
Let’s be brutally honest for a second: the NFL draft hype machine is a dangerous beast. Every spring, it falls madly in love with the guy who can throw a football over a mountain in shorts and a t-shirt like Anthony Richardson. But playing quarterback in the National Football League isn’t a track and field event. It’s a high-speed chess match played out over a minefield, with 300-pound monsters trying to take your head off.
Right now, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is learning that the hard way. And honestly, it’s tough not to feel at least a little bad for the kid.
Richardson is currently sitting in NFL purgatory. Earlier this offseason, the young signal-caller essentially raised his hand, asked for a trade, and the Colts politely told him he was free to go shop himself around. The problem? The phone isn’t exactly ringing off the hook.
The Raw Physical Marvel vs. The NFL Reality
If you were building a quarterback in a video game, you’d make him look exactly like Anthony Richardson. He is a physical freak of nature. But the reality of his tape is a tough pill to swallow. Interested teams are looking at a guy who spends entirely too much time in the trainer’s room and, when he actually is on the field, looks completely lost.
We are talking about a player who has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns. He can effortlessly launch a pigskin 80 yards down the field, making the crowd gasp, but ask him to hit a crossing route 10 yards away? Suddenly, the ball is sailing into the third row of the bleachers.
You have to remember how young and incredibly raw Richardson was coming out of Florida. He barely had a cup of coffee in college before jumping to the pros. The Colts threw him to the wolves way too early. He desperately needed a redshirt year—a season to just hold a clipboard, wear a baseball cap, and figure out how to be an NFL professional. Instead, they handed him the keys to the franchise, and the engine immediately flooded.
A.Q. Shipley Delivers a Brutal Reality Check
Can another franchise fix him? Former Colts offensive lineman A.Q. Shipley isn’t buying it. During a recent chat with Kyle Odegard for Vegas Insider, Shipley delivered a quote that hits like a blindside sack.
“Maybe backup is his world,” Shipley said. “Everybody doesn’t need to be the guy.”
Ouch. But Shipley didn’t stop there. He doubled down on the idea that physical potential is arguably the most overrated currency in the league.
“It was one of those classic ‘He’s got a huge arm, great size, and he runs well.’ That’s one-tenth of the puzzle,” Shipley explained. “I don’t really believe in potential, especially when you’re 22 years old. There’s not much more room to grow. You can understand the game better, which will make you better, but you’ve got to have eight out of 10 boxes checked at that point.”
The Football IQ Deficit: Can You Teach Processing?
Shipley is touching on the invisible part of playing quarterback: football IQ. Pre-snap processing is where NFL games are won and lost. Right now, Richardson struggles to decipher what a defense is doing before the ball is snapped. When the blitz comes, the panic sets in. He misses his hot reads and drives stall out.
The terrifying question for any general manager thinking about trading for him is simple: Can you teach that? Can you teach a guy to process information in milliseconds, or is that something you either naturally possess or you don’t? If a player struggles to grasp the foundational mental mechanics of the position, all the arm strength in the world won’t save him.
The Contract Clock is Ticking Loudly
Adding insult to injury is the business side of football. Richardson only has one year left on his rookie deal. In a league where general managers guard draft picks like gold bullion, who is going to trade valuable capital for a developmental project?
If you trade for him, you essentially have to sit him for a year to let him learn behind a veteran. By the time he’s ready to theoretically start, his cheap rookie contract is over, and you have to decide whether to pay a guy who hasn’t proven a single thing yet.
It’s a brutal assessment from a former player who knows what winning football looks like. Anthony Richardson might eventually find a second act in this league, but right now, the only thing he has proven is that he isn’t happy being a backup. Unfortunately for him, that might be exactly what he is.
