AR benched - Flacco to start next game
 

https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1851315741397545430

https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1851316432035856672

https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1851316482380099864

Well, not shocked. Mediocrity here we come. I hope they run the fucking ball with JT and not turn Flacco into 40 passes a game QB. As much as AR is a bust, keeping him in only strengthens our draft position.

F it

Big mistake in my opinion. There’s no going back now.

Feels like this has Jim’s fingerprints all over it.

That said, I was surprised by Ryan Kelly’s comments. He tore into AR pretty good. Maybe AR lost the locker room?

I questioned whether he got hurt and didn't want to admit it. Even admitting to being tired post-game could've possibly still been lip service.

But the fact that both Steichen, who never says anything at pressers, and Ryan Kelly both opened up about sitting dude down and ripping his ass... that's proof enough and it's not like they were the only two on the team that had an issue.

I think this was done to save the locker room. The veterans all know that Flacco gives them a better chance to win. I believe they would have kicked the Texan's ass if Flacco played. I feel bad for AR, he's young and has almost no real experience. Maybe sitting him down and letting him figure this out will help him, maybe not. If not, well then we are in QB hell again. We'll probably win 8 or 9 games and our draft position will suck for another QB coming out of college again. It's been damn hard being a Colts fan the past few years, but I'm here for the long haul no matter how painful it gets.

This is professional football, not nursery school. AR is just one member of a 55 person squad. Flacco gives the other 53 players a better chance to win. I'm not concerned about AR's fragile confidence level. He's been playing like his hair is on fire. Sit his ass on the bench, have the QB coach sit next to him and comment on every play and what went right or what went wrong. If he can learn to keep his head when there is bedlam around him, he just might make a good QB after all. Have him work in practice on all the mechanics, teach him how to read the defense, make him understand that he's supposed to be the leader and the one who inspires the others. In baseball, a young player with enormous potential gets sent down to work out the deficiencies and then brought back up. In the NFL, there is no minor leagues, so the player is either sat down or you let him fail and fail and fail. These failings are very unfair to the rest of the team. I watch every game hoping they win, and right now, the chances of that happening are better with Flacco under center.

If he has, indeed, lost the veterans in the locker room due to him pulling himself out of the game, then that is hard come back from regardless on his skill on the field.

Yeah, this might just be the beginning of the end of the AR experiement in Indy.

If it is lets hope it’s the end of the Ballard experiment as well.

Then don’t draft a raw fucking QB and make him your starter from day one.And they certainly haven’t taken this fucking stance on other positions have they? It was ok to throw a bunch of shit youngsters at the secondary. It’s my biggest complaint about Ballard - always relying on youth, never trying to win now.but now all of a sudden is the time to care? Waste 8 games of the season to decide nah let’s care now.The organization from top to bottom has no fucking plan. If they had set AR until he ways ready then there would be no complaint. All I hope is that this means Ballard is done. The team needs real direction and leadership.

Why is everybody pointing to the tap out? The audible and interception at the end of the 1st 1/2 are IMO much more egregious.

In fact knowing now that Richardson audibles to that play in that situation, he should've been benched then and Flacco would've won us the game.

The tap out is bad, then he compounds that worse by saying he was just tired and needed a break just shows how bad this kid's decision making is. But I don't believe for a minute that the tap out is the reason for his benching. I believe that it a disciplinary and performance related benching.

Also, I'm tired of hearing all of these former players and analysts saying that in all of their years in football that they have never seen this in an NFL game.

Harbaugh did it in the 1st game of the '97 season in loss to the Dolphins. The difference is that Harbaugh pulled himself from the game and never went back in. This was a big deal then and I believe led to the fight Harbaugh had with Jim Kelly after Kelly questioned his toughness.

Agree on all counts. Something changed because of Sunday.

Well, I posted my thoughts on what I thought should happen in the other thread about 5 minutes before this was announced, so, that didn't age well.

I am just appalled at how dysfunctional this organization is. This thing is stomach churning, it is pathetic, that is the only way you can view what has happened with this franchise.

To me, you can't look at this from any other prism.

Ballard has been here for 8 years now.

We have had 7 different QB's since the dude has been here. It's actually 10 when you count emergency guys like Hoyer, Tolzein and Eason. Man that's more QB's than years for the dude, and now we're looking at our 2nd round of in / out rotation with the chosen starter being replaced with a player that is absolutely not a long term option.

The NFL is not a place where you can do this, you can't. His inability to stabilize this position should be an automatic pink slip- auto fucking matic. It is so disheartening that this guy has caused such damage to this franchise but remains in the primary position of power.

AR is done, there is NO coming back from this. In turn this franchise is now in another loop of doom. We're headed toward a 8-9, 9-8 record, outside of the PO's and drafting with a pick no where near a spot where we can get a franchise QB.

FUCK YOU CHRIS BALLARD..... FUCK YOU!

Maybe this finally gets Irsay to recognize the obvious. More fans are finally starting to turn on him. Many still think he does an OK enough job that they don’t want to chance being worst though. I mean Luck retired unexpectedly so you have to give Ballard time to enact his vision…..

I don't think he's done. He can come back from this. How many ppl thought JT was done?

I put half of this on the coaches not playing to his strengths (which isn't standing in the pocket throwing right now)

Horrific mistake. Throughout the first half, Colt receivers simply weren’t getting open. Combine that with relentless pressure and a collapsing pocket, and it seems clear to me that no Quarterback, whether he was named Luck or Manning, Brady or Rodgers, Elway or Marino, could have salvaged much of anything.

Benching him does throw a chunk of red meat to a certain portion of the fan base, but it does so at the expense of the team’s long term success. As Bill Polian once commented, you can’t succeed as a GM if you cater to the whims of the mob.

When you take a deeper dive into his stats vs Houston, you see that the average depth of his target was 16.7 yards. Stroud’s, on the other hand, was
7.8. In today’s NFL, it’s hard to look good when you’re running a vertical passing game.

Hope you're right and that this is the coaching staff seeing that the rails have left the tracks and they're trying to slow things down for AR before he goes crashing off a cliff. But in all likelihood this means he's probably done at least w/ the Colts.

I wonder if AR told Steichen and/or Kelly to go fuck themselves when they tried to talk to him about tapping out of the game.


Think someone posted that Harbaugh had to take fluids at the half. If so then there's probably more to him pulling himself than just being tired. Like he had the flu or something along those lines.

fuck Ryan kelly

who the fuck is he? not really in defense of AR here but Kelly isn't exactly Jeff Saturday

The problem is AR is not accurate at all on short passes. So going w/ deep throws is actually playing to AR's strengths.

There in lies the problem. Richardson is making the O-Line look bad. Don't get me wrong, the O-Line was not very good Sunday. But teams are now recognizing that Richardson's strength is also his weakness, in that he relies too heavily on the deep passing game.

that is an insanely quick end. would be absolutely insane to give up on AR that quickly. so I'm sure that is what will happen. this franchise is a mess

Another thought is that AR is hurt again and the Colts don't want to say anything until it's further checked out. Guessing that probably isn't the case, but we'll see if he ends up on the injury list tomorrow.

No he has regressed horribly

Something had to be done

o


He's a pretty good offensive lineman ...... who should know when to shut his big, fucking mouth.

You're right, he's not Jeff Saturday ...... if he was Jeff Saturday, he wouldn't need to publicly pile on a player who is down.

o

If you saw the presser, Kelly imo didn't rip into him that badly. He didn't have to, because I'm sure the entire offensive locker room told Steichen what they think.

He’s the longest tenured player on the roster. He’s a captain.

Regardless of what you or I think of him, his voice carries a lot of weight in that locker room. And he wouldn’t just be spouting off what wasnt the opinion of a lot of the players.

Thats why it raised eyebrows.

All that said, I think the move to Flacco is good news for Pittman and especially Downs. I think Downs is one of the top slot receivers in the league and he’s basically useless with AR at quarterback because AR can’t get him the ball consistently.

Look for Downs to break out with Flacco at quarterback.

When Luck retired in 2019, I said the Colts would be set back for a decade. This is season #6. Maybe they will be fixed and ready to go for the 2029 season.

This is a completely horrible decision. Richardson has been bad this year, but he's not going to get better sitting on the bench.

Ryan Kelly blasting anyone is hilarious, considering how terrible he's been this year.

That's just nonsense. Maybe 2039.

He's not going to get better, period. Never mind this year. He is who he is. He has been that his entire career rather it is high school, college or pros. He is not a QB.

Nate Adkins was on JMV and pointed out that AR has a better passer rating and fewer turnovers through his first 10 starts than Josh Allen did.

This idea that AR will never amount to anything is stupid. Give the kid a chance.

That’s one of the reasons I hate this move.

I agree, I think he can come back from this too. He seems like a great kid, pulling for him big time. Not ready to give up on him just yet.

Was just listening to a segment with Orlovsky. By his account- 6 passes that should have been caught and by his count, would have been 200 extra passing yards. He said AR should have had 3 TD's. Orlovsky said his review of the film, outside of the INT, AR actually had a pretty good day, and this is his reward.

Another thing and man Steichen needs to pony up on some fucking blame here. In the season that Hurts was wrecking the world there was an average of 11---- -ELEVEN fucking designed QB runs---- ELEVEN!

Sunday, AR had 2!

If you're fucking scared of running him, then fucking make the switch to a drop back offense, with the damn drop back QB and explain that. Starting to really get tired of some Steichen nonsense!

I again contend that damn series after the fumble with the three and out- was one of the fucking worst mismanaged series we've had in a long damn time - well at least dating to the end of the first fucking half at least!

Damn...

Man this franchise is a complete fucking dumpster fire!

The Colts organization is being very unprofessional, they may be doing irreparable harm to their relationship with Anthony Richardson. I have to believe Steichen criticized him after the game and AR went off on him? Otherwise you just say he tweaked something and let Flacco have a shot. They could have benched him without airing so much dirty laundry....in the end, if AR is a bust, Chris Ballard has to go!

I don't think that he will never amount to anything. But to audible to a pass at the end of the 1st 1/2 in that situation is borderline insubordination. I would have sat him the entire 2nd 1/2.

Yeah, this is really a fucking disaster. I don't understand how you can send him to the bench without sending Ballard to the unemployment line at the same time. Like it or not, this is his guy, if he isn't OUR guy, then Ballard isn't the COLTS guy either.

Send him the fuck home and tell him to take the 22 year old frat bro look with him!

Personally, I think you have to move AR at this point. This is now a circus. So Flacco gets hurt the ball goes back to AR- with EVEN more pressure. So what happens if Flacco just completely shits the bed- how in the fuck do you go back to AR "hey, we thought you sucked so bad we took the ball away from you, but hey man, can you go out there and not suck as much for us?"

Incredible, immeasurable fucking mess this team has once again created.

I look for AD Mitchell to break out