Colts are building a Jalen Hurts-like plan for Anthony Richardson. But do they have t

[JAFF]

Colts are building a Jalen Hurts-like plan for Anthony Richardson. But do they have the pieces?

PHILADELPHIA - For a day in August, Anthony Richardson lined up in the shotgun and ran quarterback keepers, run-pass-options and scramble drills as Jalen Hurts took an adjacent field and showed him what the fully realized version of what he was doing looks like.

For stretches of that joint practice between the Colts and Eagles, two starting offenses ran side-by-side and could be mistaken for the same scheme. After it ended, Hurts credited one design to being "Shane Steichen's play," an ode to the former offensive coordinator who helped get him here.

"Shane's a guy that is passionate about the game. He loves it. I'm excited for the opportunity he has in front of him," Hurts said. "He's a guy that believed in me. He wanted me to do big things."


Now, Steichen is pouring that same belief into Richardson, the No. 4 pick in the draft.

It's only natural to draw comparisons between Richardson and the quarterback Steichen just took to the Super Bowl. Both played quarterback in the Southeastern Conference. Both entered the league with trademark athleticism but an understood need to develop their accuracy.


The Colts didn't know which quarterback they'd draft when they hired Steichen in February, days after he and Hurts and the Eagles fell just short in a Super Bowl shootout against the Chiefs. But they did see his latest success story up close the previous fall, when Hurts capped off a final drive with a touchdown on a draw for a 17-16 victory over the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"It was too difficult at the end with them having four downs and 12 players on the field with Jalen as a runner and thrower," owner Jim Irsay said.

Indianapolis Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson will make his first career road start this Sunday against the Texans in Houston.
GO DEEPER: Chasing Tim Tebow, idolizing Tom Brady, fighting fires: Making of Colts QB Anthony Richardson

In the coming months, they'd gravitate to the closest member of this draft class to Hurts' skill set.

Chief personnel director Morocco Brown had spent days at Florida's practices and was raving about the highlights Richardson was putting up with his arm and legs. Those skills became hard for the whole league to ignore when Richardson showed up at the NFL Scouting Combine and set or tied quarterback records in the broad and vertical jumps, in addition to running a 4.43-second 40-yard dash at 244 pounds.


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But in the days leading up to the combine, it was Steichen who was all excited about the plays he saw on Richardson's college tape. He promised Irsay that he could develop the passing that had Richardson completing just 54.7% of his passes at Florida.

Steichen had a connection to Richardson already through Brian Johnson, his replacement as Eagles offensive coordinator who was Steichen's quarterbacks coach and served the same role for Richardson in 2020 at Florida.


His early offensive hires In Indianapolis started to build out a fit. Quarterbacks coach Cam Turner has worked with dual-threat passers such as Kyler Murray and Cam Newton. Offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter who has worked with a variety of quarterbacks and skill sets but who did spend 2021 as a consultant in Philadelphia helping to build the offense around Hurts. And backup quarterback Gardner Minshew spent the past two seasons as Hurts' backup.

He planned a pair of joint practices, including one against Hurts and the Eagles in Philadelphia.

When Steichen would label the trait he was really looking for in a quarterback above all others, it happened to be the one Hurts is known for most.

“The guys that love playing that position and love the grind and love the process have a chance to be successful," Steichen said at the combine.

Indianapolis Colts coach Shane Steichen helped guide the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl as their offensive coordinator last season.
This is where Richardson has had to win the Colts over. The first night he was in Indianapolis ahead of the rookie minicamp, he went to the parking lot of his hotel to throw passes with fellow rookie Josh Downs. Teammates often found him buried in his iPad, except when he was on the field, which included a workout he helped organize in his home state in Florida in July.

That commitment, and some growth with NFL terminology and passing concepts, led Steichen to name Richardson the starter after one preseason game. But it came under a promise that the work was just beginning, and Richardson showed some of that when Week 1 of his first regular season rolled around and he arrived to the facility on a players' off day and logged eight hours of preparation for the Jaguars.

Richardson has flashed the commitment and the running skills with 10 carries for 40 yards and his first career touchdown in Sunday's 31-21 loss to the Jaguars. He showed some steadiness as a passer, too, completing 24 of 37 passes for 223 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Steichen tried to use his build and quickness the way he did with Hurts, calling for a rugby-style quarterback sneak on 4th-and-inches.

But unlike Hurts, who converted 37 of 41 of these last season, Richardson was stuffed. Steichen was shocked.

"It wasn’t a yard. It was like inches or like half a yard," Steichen said. "We’ve got to be better there."

The Colts don't have to be reminded that Richardson isn't Hurts quite yet. Hurts got to sit for most of his first season before he began developing his accuracy. He moved from 52% completions as a rookie to 61.3% in his second year to 66.5% last year, when he scored 36 total touchdowns and took the Eagles to the Super Bowl as the MVP runner-up to Patrick Mahomes.

Hurts entered the league with fewer expectations than Richardson as a second-round pick but with more of a runway, having started at Alabama and Oklahoma and finishing as a Heisman Trophy finalist.

"Let's not crown him yet," general manager Chris Ballard said of Richardson on draft night. "We like what he can be."

But the Colts have to wonder now whether the offensive personnel they've placed around Richardson has a chance to give him that same trajectory, at least starting this season.

Philadelphia was still building back in 2021, Hurts' first season as a starter and Steichen's first as offensive coordinator. Without A.J. Brown and with a rookie DeVonta Smith and a second-year Hurts, the passing game was a work in progress. Hurts threw just 16 touchdowns to nine interceptions, and the Eagles ran as often as they could.

Under Shane Steichen's guidance, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts grew from a second-round draft pick to the runner-up to the MVP trophy in 2022.
But they were able to lead the league in rushing in a 9-8 wildcard season behind one of the most stout offensive lines in the game, led by All-Pros Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. Their line was so deep that a first-round pick in Andre Dillard was mostly a versatile backup. It allowed Miles Sanders to average 5.5 yards per carry to lead Steichen's "running back by committee" approach, and though Hurts led the Eagles with 784 rushing yards, he got to be just a piece in a backfield with four rushers with at least 400 yards.

The Colts are searching for the same line dominance, line depth and backfield right now. They opted to roll back the five linemen who ended last season on a high note in the run game, though the opener did not follow the trend. Richardson ran 10 times for 40 yards, but the rest of the backfield had 16 carries for 25 yards.

The inability to run the ball prevented the Colts from putting the Jaguars in the same blender the Eagles had defenses in, where they must bring an extra safety into the box, move the other one to the middle of the field. With vacated sidelines, Hurts could then attack with play-action deep shots. It's a fit that could be more intriguing with Richardson, who can launch the ball more than 60 yards consistently. But against the Jaguars, not a single one of his 37 attempts traveled more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Indianapolis' backfield was missing 2021 rushing champion Jonathan Taylor, who is out the next three games at least, as well as second-string running back Zack Moss. The Colts are banking on Moss bringing stability back this week, but he's just one player, and he's one injury away at a physical position from the same issue returning.


Health is a concern with the Colts offensive line, too. They are counting on bounce-back seasons from All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson and former stalwarts Ryan Kelly and Braden Smith, plus a second-year leap at left tackle from Bernhard Raimann. But behind that group, the Colts do not have any linemen who have started an NFL game. That depth could be tested this week with Nelson nursing a toe injury.

And though Dallas Goedert hadn't broken out at tight end for the Eagles until 2021, he'd still had back-to-back seasons with at least 500 receiving yards, or two more than the Colts' depth chart combined. Indianapolis will be without Jelani Woods for the next three games at least, leaving Kylen Granson and Drew Ogletree to take strides.

Thus, the skill positions are light. Michael Pittman Jr. is one cog Richardson can rely on to be open even if he's not, and they connected for eight passes for 97 yards and a touchdown Sunday. The rest of the wide receivers had four catches for 35 yards, leaving Richardson to check down to his backup running backs seven times.


Like he did with Hurts early on, Steichen incorporated some of Richardson's college elements to get him comfortable, such as pistol looks and half-field reads. He also utilized those legs early on bootlegs and designed runs. That lessened in the second half once the hits started coming, and the Colts had five straight drives total four plays or fewer.

After Richardson finished the game on the sidelines following a shot to the knee, the quarterback on the other side expressed some concern.

"Just try to protect yourself," Trevor Lawrence said of Richardson. "The hits add up in this league and they are a little different than in college."

Richardson has fought injuries before, missing chunks of his senior high school season and second year at Florida. But his first start still surprised him in how sore he was the next day.

“I woke up with some feelings I had never felt before," he said. "So many of the vets were like, ‘Welcome to the league, Rook.’”

The Colts were always going to be a work in progress with the quarterback they drafted No. 4 overall. Irsay and Ballard have brought up their 4-12-1 record last season as a key reason they're holding off on extending Taylor, who has requested a trade and did not attend the season opener. He is out until at least Week 5 while on the Physically Unable to Perform List.

The Colts believe that Richardson can only learn by playing, but to gain the reps he didn't in just 13 starts at Florida, Richardson must be on the field for practices and games. That can mean resisting the urge to overuse his rushing, which is a challenge for Steichen as a play-caller as well as for Richardson when he decides how much yardage to fight for with the ball in his hands and no Taylor to carry the offense.

Indianapolis Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson ran for his first career touchdown in a 31-21 season-opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Richardson estimated that he's slid seven times in his life before this season, but he acknowledged after Sunday that that might need to change.

"Definitely," he said with a laugh. "Definitely."

Richardson is soaking up any opportunities he can find to get better. One of those steps, he said, will be to reach out to Hurts for advice through Johnson, the Eagles offensive coordinator who coached Richardson at Florida.

He's watched Hurts' film, seeing in it the peak of what Steichen's scheme can do with a dual-threat MVP contender at quarterback.

Likewise, Hurts has watched Richardson play. He, too, is hopeful for what the quarterback can become -- if this can all come together.

"He's really talented. He's big and he's fast and he has a strong arm. He's always had that. It'll be cool to see how he pieces it together," Hurts said.

"I'm excited to see how he plays under Shane."

[Brylok]

I'll believe it when I see it.