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Stephen head
Palm Beach, Fla. – The Indianapolis Colts knew what they were getting when they selected one of the most inexperienced field marshal ever selected in the first round of the NFL draft.
The development of Anthony Richardson, who began only 13 games in Florida, was always going to be a process. And the colts did not hide from that fact.
“We do not crowned it yet,” General Manager Chris Ballard said the day Richardson was recruited in 2023. “He is a young player, he has a job to do, but we like his talent. We like what it can be. What I can tell him is that we recruit him for what we believe we can really be in the future.”
Twenty -four months and 17 beginnings later, the tone of the colts has changed.
Ballard, speaking this week at the annual NFL meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, explained how Richardson’s thinking has evolved as he has fought consistency and injuries during his first two seasons, losing 17 games and completing 50.6% of his passes.
Patience is no longer the operational word.
The Colts signed the veteran free agent Daniel Jones with a substantial contract of one year and $ 14 million to compete with Richardson, indicating that the colts are no longer content to wait for Richardson to take the next step. Richardson and Jones will compete in the training camp for the right to be the owner of the regular season, according to Ballard and coach Shane Steichen.
“We have to obtain consistency,” Ballard said about Richardson. “I think that sometimes competition is good. Over time, it has been shown that to improve, which is the best way to do it? Well, you have to be able to press every day to have high performance. And you do it having as many good players as you can in that position.”
What has also evolved is the emphasis of Colts in the development of Richardson, which is more than six weeks before his 23 birthday on May 22. With Ballard and Steichen under pressure to win after the fourth consecutive season of the Colts without an appearance in the playoffs, the priority is winning by any necessary means.
The perspective that the most conservative jones win the battle of Quarterback could generate a little more consistency in the short term, even if that means less large plays compared to the rise or frequent Richardson.
But there is also a long -term consequence at stake there. It would also mean that the colts do not have an obvious starting marshal beyond 2025, creating the potential to continue their quantar of field marshal of years. Richardson was the first field marshal of the Colts to start the consecutive seasonal openers (2023-24) from Andrew Luck in 2015-16.
“I think the best scenario is that we won the football games,” said Ballard. “That is the best scenario: it doesn’t matter who the starting marshal is, we won the football games. For me, that is what it is. You believe all the rest as they advance. Would it be good if we knew that we had an initiator established during the next 10 years? Damn it is. I mean, I think everyone knows my answer there. I have never gone from being the answer there.
There is a little dilemma for colts in all this: they still see reminders of the reasons why they selected Richardson. This week, Ballard praised his performance after his brief half -season bench, specifically pointing out the player’s performance in a victory over the New York jets and a clutch release, sealing the first game against the Tennessee Titans.
“Anthony has shown some signs,” Steichen said. “Some really good things.”
Ballard pointed out Richardson’s trust at that time as a key factor in his success. He added that Richardson’s technique is inconsistent, like many young field marshal, and offered a reminder that even luck returned to work in his technique before his final season, in 2018. It was not a kind of coincidence, a 60.8% pass race, completed 67.3% of his season.
Trust and technique are things that tend to grow with more experience. And yet, Richardson will get less about that this low season.
Steichen said that Richardson and Jones will divide the practice representatives of the headline from spring training, reducing the amount of opportunities Richardson will obtain.
“You will have to take advantage of the repetitions you get,” Steichen said.
Colts have gone from preaching patience with Richardson to try to accelerate their timeline. What happens later will probably determine where his career is going from here.
