The Indianapolis Colts sided too far on the side of caution with Anthony Richardson's injury in Week 4
The Indianapolis Colts saw Anthony Richardson have his best start to a game in 2024, with him completing three of his four pass attempts for 71 yards and adding 24 yards on the ground. Sadly, that would end up being his final stat line after he took a hit to the hip early in the […]
The Indianapolis Colts saw Anthony Richardson have his best start to a game in 2024, with him completing three of his four pass attempts for 71 yards and adding 24 yards on the ground. Sadly, that would end up being his final stat line after he took a hit to the hip early in the game.
He tried to come back in but took another hit that led him to be taken to the locker room, and eventually lead to him being ruled out for the rest of the game.
Were the Colts cautious or scared?
Now, typically, I'm always for siding on the side of caution with injuries, especially at the quarterback position. But this situation was so peculiar. Richardson ran full speed out of the tunnel after going into the locker room to get the injury looked at. He was running, cutting full speed, and throwing on the sideline. It even led him to rejoin the offensive huddle on the field, but he was pulled back to the sideline shortly after.
You could see how upset he was on the sideline, and the team even took his helmet and ruled him out for the rest of the game. My question now is, how do we go from him rejoining the offensive huddle to being ruled out without a single snap being played? It has come out since that Richardson is dealing with a hip pointer/bruise. So it seems Richardson could have returned, but the Colts elected to play it safe this time around.
Throughout the rest of the game, Richardson could be seen running and moving on the sideline without any real limitations. He even would run on the field during timeouts. So, it seems pretty apparent that Richardson could have come back into this football game. And I understand what the other side of this coin will say, "It's only Week 4", "It's better to be safe than sorry." And I typically agree with those sentiments, this case seems different. Richardson appeared to not even be moving gingerly on the sideline. It feels like his injury history clouded the team's judgment this time around and makes me nervous for things to come if he takes a hit and is slow to get up throughout the season.
At the end of the day, football is a contact sport, and Richardson, like most players on the field, is going to take hits. It's too late to change the staff's decision for Week 4, but I hope this doesn't become a trend of them taking the ball out of his hands out of fear. I think it has to be on a case-by-case basis, depending on the type of injury on the field. But on this one, I personally feel like the Colts should have given Richardson what he wanted, which was obviously to stay in this football game. Luckily for the Colts, they were able to survive the late surge by the Steelers and hold on to win the game even without Richardson.
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