9/7 Indystar

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Insider: Have the Colts done enough to help rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson?

Insider: Have the Colts done enough to help rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson?
Joel A. Erickson
Indianapolis Star







INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts have made it clear, in word and in deed, that this season is primarily about one goal.

The development of Anthony Richardson.

That is the mission statement, the north star, the light at the end of the long, treacherous tunnel Indianapolis has been trying to navigate since Andrew Luck’s retirement flung them into quarterback purgatory.

Richardson represents the franchise’s first real chance to climb back into the light.

Indianapolis used the No. 4 pick, the highest pick the Colts have held since they drafted Luck, to take Richardson in April, betting on Richardson’s raw ability and the limitless potential it seems to hold.

Aug 24, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) reacts to a play against the Philadelphia Eagles during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field.
“We like what he can be,” Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard said that night.

Richardson will start the season opener Sunday.

From the beginning, the Colts have made it clear they believe the best thing for the 21-year-old starter is to play, and Richardson made the decision easy by showing the team he could handle the playbook, the pressure, the pitfalls that will surely come for a rookie starting from the jump in the NFL.


More:Chasing Tim Tebow, idolizing Tom Brady, fighting fires: Making of Colts QB Anthony Richardson

Indianapolis firmly believes it has the right man to develop Richardson. First-time head coach Shane Steichen has a reputation for developing quarterbacks, a system of greasing the skids that he fine-tuned while coaching Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts, two of the NFL’s best young quarterbacks. Under Steichen, the Colts will emphasize the plays and concepts Richardson handles best, the same way he sparked Herbert to Rookie of the Year and Hurts to the Super Bowl.


But there are other ways a team can fail to support its rookie quarterback, and after an offseason spent betting mostly on young talent, it is fair to wonder if the roster Ballard has put together is ready for Richardson.


Does Anthony Richardson need Jonathan Taylor?

Indianapolis has the NFL’s third-youngest roster, a group of 53 players that includes 10 rookies, 12 second-year players and a few key spots, like cornerback and the backup offensive line, with little prior experience.

Ballard purposely built the roster this way.


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“We’re young in certain spots,” Ballard said after making the cut to 53. “It’ll be fun to watch these guys grow and play together and grow as a team.”

The Colts have stopped short of saying they are rebuilding, but the Jonathan Taylor contractual dispute that became the talk of training camp has revealed a window into the team’s thinking. Pressed several times on the decision to tell Taylor he would not receive a contract extension until after the season, even though the team has locked up its other homegrown stars before the final year of their rookie deals began, Ballard keeps citing a need to evaluate the direction of his team after hitting rock bottom last season.


“Coming off last season, it’s tough,” Ballard said. “You won four games, you’ve got a brand-new coaching staff and all the circumstances around it.”

Taylor will start the season on the reserved/physically unable to perform list, missing the first four games to continue to rehabilitate his ankle, and it’s unclear what will happen after those four weeks pass. The former first-team All-Pro requested a trade at the beginning of training camp, ended up embroiled in a public dispute and spent the weeks before the deadline trying to find a new team willing to meet the Colts’ trade demands, only to come up short.

The loss of Taylor will hurt.

A healthy Taylor has the kind of big-play ability that only a handful of backs in the NFL can produce, and the threat of a Richardson-Taylor backfield would force opposing defensive coordinators into a crevice between a rock and a hard place. A quarterback as mobile as Richardson has never been paired with a running back quite as talented as Taylor before; the possibilities of frozen linebackers leaving open running lanes for both players remains tantalizing.


But it is also true that Richardson will likely be successful in the running game without Taylor. Historically, running quarterbacks have made life easier on the backs by drawing defensive attention, and the same should be true for Zack Moss, Deon Jackson and Evan Hull.

“The box is lighter,” Moss said.

Taylor hasn’t faced a light box since he was a rookie.

If he can get his ankle healthy, it would still be fun to see what Taylor can do when he has somebody to draw the defense’s attention away from him.

Why do the Colts only have four wide receivers on the roster?

The real potential for problem is not at running back.

Indianapolis remains thin at wide receiver, where the Colts are currently carrying just four on the 53-man roster, and the offensive line, which has zero career NFL starts beyond the starting five.

“I still think Michael Pittman (Jr.) is a pretty good football player, I still think Alec Pierce has upside and is a pretty good football player, and we really like Josh Downs,” Ballard said. “I know the world paints a bleak picture here, but I don’t think it’s as bleak as the world makes it out to be.”

Ballard feels the same way about the offensive line.

The Colts gave up a ridiculous 60 sacks last season, but Indianapolis likes the development of young left tackle Bernhard Raimann, believes in third-year guard Will Fries and decided they wanted upside backing up the offensive line, rather than experience.

“We feel better about where it’s at and where we’re going with it,” Ballard said. “They are young, but how do they become vets? They have to play. You want to line up a bunch of vets? You can do that. … These guys have talent, and you’ve just got to grow with them.”


Indianapolis is counting on an awful lot to go exactly how they hope it might.

If Pierce and Downs blossom, and if Raimann and Fries take the next step, there is reason to believe the Colts will be solid at those positions.

Even if that happens, injury is likely going to strike one position or the other, and then the Colts will almost certainly be giving big snaps to a player for the first time. Indianapolis currently has no outside receivers backing up Pittman Jr. and Pierce on the 53-man roster; the four linemen immediately available would all be taking their first NFL offensive snaps.

The Colts have been hurt in the past by a lack of depth at wide receiver (2018, 2019, 2021) and saw last season how a couple of weak links can bring down the entire offensive line.

A rookie quarterback needs consistency in both spots.

'He’s really got some poise to him that’s unique'

Indianapolis believes deeply in Steichen’s ability to put guys in the right spots, to find the best way to use all his weapons.

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“He’s got a really creative mind of how to use the pieces,” Ballard said. “Whatever a player’s strengths are, he’s going to do everything he can to put him in position to do that.”

The Colts believe deeply in Richardson’s ability to transform the offense, both in his ability to open holes for the running game and his preternatural pocket presence, a knack for navigating the pocket that limited the sacks he took in his one season at Florida.

Asking Richardson to lift the entire roster around him seems like a tall order in the quarterback’s rookie season. The last time that happened in the NFL was arguably Luck’s rookie season in Indianapolis, and more than a decade has passed since that brilliant campaign. In recent years, even the NFL’s best young quarterbacks — players like Hurts, Herbert, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen — needed time to develop into the kind of quarterback who can make everybody around him better.

Maybe it won’t end up mattering for Richardson if Indianapolis plans go awry.

NFL history is littered with quarterbacks who went through hell as rookies and still reached their potential. Peyton Manning, the best player in Colts history, is the most obvious example, and Indianapolis is confident that Richardson can handle the hard times that will inevitably happen during his rookie season.

“He’s a pretty cool customer,” Ballard said. “He’s really got some poise to him that’s unique. There are going to be ups and downs. We know it, everybody in this room knows it, I know it. …. You’ve got to keep stepping up and learn from every situation, the good ones and the bad ones, and keep moving forward.”

If everything goes right, the Colts think they’ve given Richardson enough support as a rookie to start him down the developmental path he needs to take to make all of their wildest dreams come true.

Ideal outcomes rarely happen in the NFL.

And it’s fair to wonder how it might hold back Richardson if it doesn’t all go according to plan.

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Frustrated by hamstring, Colts TE Jelani Woods confident he can contribute when healthy

INDIANAPOLIS — This is not the way Jelani Woods wanted to start his second season in the NFL.

While the rest of the Colts get ready to take on the Jaguars in Sunday’s season opener at Lucas Oil Stadium, Woods is watching from the sidelines, rehabilitating the tricky hamstring injury that has plagued him throughout the offseason, hoping this move finally gives him a chance to get it healthy.

Woods wanted to be out there with his team, getting ready to build on the promise he showed at the end of his rookie season.

“Most definitely, that’s the most frustrating part of it,” Woods said. “Coming in this year, having certain expectations for yourself and then having a setback like this, it can kind of get a little frustrating. But it’s an obstacle, and you just have to get past it and move forward.”

Indianapolis Colts tight end Jelani Woods (80) catches a touchdown pass while being guarded by Kansas City Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill (22) on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022, during a game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
More:Chasing Tim Tebow, idolizing Tom Brady, fighting fires: Making of Colts QB Anthony Richardson

Woods has been battling a pulled hamstring, an injury that is both common in NFL players and tricky to rehabilitate. A hamstring pull cannot be pushed; the leg can feel good when it’s still susceptible to injury.


And the big tight end aggravated his pull late in training camp, ruining his plans to get back in the offense in time for Sunday’s season opener.

Woods was instead placed on injured reserve, a move that sits him down for at least the first four weeks, theoretically giving his hamstring the time it needs to fully heal.


“Because sometimes I was trying to come back and ended up making it a little bit worse, or not feeling exactly 100%,” Woods said. “(Going on injured reserve is) just trying to take that precaution so I won’t make any more bad decisions.”


Woods isn’t expected to miss a lot of time beyond the minimum reserve stay, but he doesn’t want to issue a timetable right now. If there is one thing he’s learned about the hamstring this offseason, it’s that it has to be all the way back before a player is good to go.


“I don’t know exactly when,” Woods said. “It’s just getting back comfortable running full speed, everything like that.”

Indianapolis could use a healthy Woods, who bounced back from a slow start to his rookie season by catching 18 passes in the final six games and averaging 12.5 yards per reception, a remarkable number given his position and his team’s lack of downfield throws last season.


Woods was one of only three Colts among the team’s top receivers to average more than 10 yards per catch last season; Alec Pierce and Ashton Dulin, who suffered a torn ACL in training camp, are the others.

That kind of downfield ability is theoretically a perfect fit for a Shane Steichen offense built around creating explosive plays.

“You want to create explosives, and you want to limit them on the defensive side of the ball,” Steichen said. “If you look around the league, winning the turnover battle and winning the explosive play battle is a big formula to winning in this league. Is it everything? No, but it’s a huge part of it.”

Woods is confident he’ll be able to fit into the offense seamlessly once he returns.

Even with the lack of time on the practice field.

“That’s pretty simple,” Woods said. “I’ve been here so much, just mentally preparing myself, so when I come back, I won’t be missing a beat, outside of the physical aspect of it. That will probably be the only thing, physically getting back into running, hitting a little bit, trying to make up for all the missed time.”

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He will also have to carve out a role within a tight end group that already has four players on the active roster: Mo Alie-Cox, Kylen Granson, Drew Ogletree and rookie Will Mallory.

Indianapolis has been excited about the development of Granson and Ogletree, and even though neither player has the downfield ability Woods can bring to the table, they will likely have established roles in the offense by the time Woods returns.

“Once I come back, I’m trying to add whatever I can to that,” Woods said. “Definitely excited about the offense, about what it could become after a few weeks, once we really gel.”

Woods just wants to get back on the field and be a part of it.



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