This one might seem a bit dated already but I didn’t want one of the stupider stories from the past few weeks to go by unchecked.
The Colts have been weird at QB this season. Richardson, getting a mulligan on his rookie year, started us off. He held his own against Houston in week 1 and delivered what is still the throw of the season with an off-balance fling for 60 yards perfectly into a touchdown. Then he sucked a bunch in a loss to the Packers and a win over the Bears. Then he got a hip injury, was kept in the game, and the injury got worse. Then Flacco came out and beat the Steelers. Flacco balled out against the Jaguars, also in a loss, and then held the fort in a won over Tenessee. Then Richardson comes back against the Dolphins and is unremarkable. To this point Richardson seems to be Kaepernick: bullet cannon of an arm and an athletic freak, but low accuracy and absolutely zero touch pass game. Richardson was not inspiring in his return and then in the Texans game the young QB made a big mistake.
I’ve never seen a QB admit they got tired before and take themselves out of the game. Players removing themselves is not unheard of, in fact it happens all the time, but when was the last time the QB did it? I don’t think Richardson was wrong to do it per say, but he was absolutely a fool to admit it. If he said he got the wind knocked out of him there’d be no issue. If he said he thought he tweaked something and needed a moment to check, I think this would be a non-story. He specifically said he was tired, didn’t think he’d be able to run the next play, and took himself out. Sports media exploded. Every player you can think of was slamming the guy. It makes sense too: Richardson was drafted as a raw athletic freak. Endurance and athleticism is something he was supposed to have. Old ass Joe Flacco scrambled for 21 yards in a play earlier that year and played the next snap no problem, but this early 20-something kid built for action was pooped? Even if it was true, you don’t admit that.
Sure enough after a week of giving Richardson the ol’ “he’s our guy” defense Shane Steichen suddenly went back on his word and now Joe Flacco gave the team the best chance to win. At the time it was confusing. Richardson is the future (presumably), Joe Flacco is not. Richardson is the kind of raw prospect that needs as many reps as possible. Benching him for Flacco is silly. It felt like Steichen might be feeling pressure from his notoriously unhinged boss or maybe was rebelling against him to begin with. Flacco looked like ass against the Bills and Richardson came back out for the Jets. He then proceeded to have his best game yet against the Aaron Rodgers Failure Posse. In retrospect it seems like it may have been a punishment benching for one week to get Richardson to a better place as motivation. For the moment, maybe it worked? Beating the Jets isn’t an accomplishment but he looked like a viable QB during the game, which is.
The Colts play the Lions this week. I assume things will go poorly.
