Coming out of college there wasn’t much buzz around quarterback Anthony Richardson.
In his one full season as a starter at Florida in 2022, he threw for an unimpressive 17 touchdowns to nine interceptions while barely completing above 50% of his passes.
He was extremely raw in terms of throwing the ball, but the two things he had going for him was that he was an extremely dynamic runner and was only 20 when he entered the draft.
Richardson saw his stock rise exponentially after a combine performance where he displayed his next level athleticism and arm strength.
This prompted the Indianapolis Colts selected him with the No. 4 pick in 2023 with full disclosure that he would be a project.
The organization immediately stressed patience after they selected Richardson, but a little less than two years later, they might be running out.
After a second straight injury riddled season that saw Richardson lose his starting job in the middle of the season, Indianapolis finally had enough and brought in competition to try and push their young quarterback to the next level.
They ultimately decided on Daniel Jones and while the tone from the organization is still positive on their third-year quarterback, they clearly aren’t willing to just wait and pray he improves.
Earlier in the week, Colts head coach Shane Steichen spoke about how Richardson needs to improve on his accuracy if he wants to win the job and general manager Chris Ballard had more constructive criticism saying, “We’ve got to get the consistency.”
That has been the main issue with the former Florida quarterback to this point in his career.
He has plays like week one last season against the Houston Texans when he fired a 60-yard nuke to wide receiver Alec Pierce and then proceeded to complete just six more passes over the final three quarters of the game.
Richardson possesses all the talent in the world, but what good is talent and potential if it’s only conditional?
All the elite quarterbacks in the league have found ways to be at their very best not only almost every week, but mostly every drive they are on the field.
The Colts still believe that Richardson can reach that point, but as of right now he’s not even close.
He has all the tools to be a superstar in this league for the next decade or more, but if he doesn’t lock in this summer and make some tremendous improvements, he may never get the opportunity.