The perfect storm that led to Colts QB Anthony Richardson's benching and eventually regaining the starting job
The last month has been quite the ride for Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts.The team benched their 2023 first-round pick ahead of their Week 9 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. Just as abruptly, the team handed Richardson back his starting job after just two weeks. Now that his benching is over, let's discuss what we […]
The last month has been quite the ride for Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts.
The team benched their 2023 first-round pick ahead of their Week 9 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. Just as abruptly, the team handed Richardson back his starting job after just two weeks.
Now that his benching is over, let's discuss what we learned over those two weeks about Richardson and the team, as well as what his return under center means for the Colts' offense and the team as a whole.
The roller coaster that was Anthony Richardson's two weeks on the Colts' bench
The Colts may never give a detailed answer on the full reason they benched Richardson, but I can share with you what I think happened via the writing I've seen on the wall over the last couple of weeks. Let's start with Richardson's play prior to being benched. While I don't think his performance drove this decision, I think his struggles made it so that option remained possible.
He showed regression as a passer in multiple ways, and the team's efficiency in the passing game took a massive hit as a result. It's important to note that Richardson had to play a tough stretch of secondaries this season, and an injury forced him to miss arguably the worst defense on the schedule in the Jacksonville Jaguars. A game where Joe Flacco was able to put up solid numbers despite the loss. Now, even though the strength of opponent matters here, Flacco's play in that game produced a more efficient passing game. The Colts shared that they believed Flacco gave them the best chance to win games right now. I personally don't agree with that statement, and to be honest, I don't think the Colts agree with it. But the reason they were able to say it was because they had that Jaguars game to point to and call it "evidence," so they didn't have to say what I believe the actual reason was.
After announcing that Richardson was back as the starter, head coach Shane Steichen finally shared some more concrete info on areas the team wanted their QB to improve during his two-week benching. All of these are behind-the-scenes work where they believe the young quarterback was falling short. Those things were happening behind the scenes before his final start against the Houston Texans. Still, whether they want to admit it or not, his decision to tap out during a third and goal during that game and the public reaction to it afterward was the final straw for one or more of the Colts' decision makers. Tapping out as the QB outside of an injury-related reason can't happen, but being so candid with the media afterward led to every national sports talk show ripping him and the team to shreds for the next 48 hours following the game. And I think evidence over the past decade has shown strong words from the national media and even the fan base have had an impact on the team's decisions. So whether we want to believe it or not, someone high up in the Colts building cares about what the public depiction of this franchise is, and I fully believe it played a major factor in Richardson being benched.
The Colts offense finally realized their offensive identity
When the Colts benched Richardson, they announced that the plan was for Joe Flacco to be their starting quarterback for the "rest of the season." Instead, it only lasted two weeks. Like his benching, I think multiple factors led to him being named the starter again. One of these is the outside world's opinion of the team, which seems to matter a whole lot to someone in the Colts building. Richardson was benched right after the criticisms of their young QB, and the franchise reached its loudest moment. Ironically, he was reinserted into the lineup after the fan base and the national media world's opinion shifted to Richardson needing to be the starter again the Colts did just that.
The next reason comes from how the Colts' offense performed without Richardson. The team traded efficiency in the run game with Richardson for what they believed would be a more efficient passing game with Flacco. The reason this move was flawed from the jump, though, was that even if Flacco was able to drastically improve the Colts' passing game, which he wasn't able to do, the run game is very clearly the identity of this offense, and has to be the engine that drives the offense. I wish they wouldn't have had to watch the run game struggle over the past two weeks outside of a couple of big runs by Taylor to pad his stats. I wasn't a fan of this experiment, and I still believe the Colts handled this situation just as poorly as they could've publicly. But I also believe this will lead to a better offensive product for the rest of the season. This is not only because I expect Richardson's improved weekly process to pay dividends on the field but also because I think it's evident that the Colts now understand what many of us have known all year long. The run game is their identity, and they are finally going to act like it.