The Colts Questionable QB Battle

The Colts Questionable QB Battle

The Indianapolis Colts are in quite a peculiar position right now. They have a roster that boasts
a nice blend of youth and experienced talent that can certainly challenge in a weak AFC South if
they were led by a reliable quarterback, which brings us to the issue at hand – they probably do
not have one.

Indy have a quarterback room made up of the undrafted Jason Bean, 2025 sixth-round pick
Riley Leonard, New York Giants exile Daniel Jones and problematic 2023 first-rounder Anthony
Richardson. The battle for the starting spot in Colts blue and white was set to take place
between Richardson and Jones according to plenty of speculation during the off-season, which
was further confirmed by Jake Arthur of Sports Illustrated over the past couple of weeks. Arthur
reported on 29 May that “the Colts did four segments total of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills on
(Wednesday 28 May) with Richardson taking the first-team reps in the first two segments and
Jones taking them in the second half of practice.”

It was further reported by Arthur that Colts head coach Shane Steichen “explained that (the
Colts) may continue rotating in this method because each new day often carries a different
theme for the offense to work on (short-yardage, goal line, first, second, and third downs, etc.),
and they want both quarterbacks to be able to work on the same things.” This however, was all
before the news of Richardson’s shoulder injury hit the headlines.

Nick Shook of NFL Media reported on 5 June that Steichen had informed the media Richardson
has “got some aggravation in his AC joint… Obviously, he'll sit out for minicamp. We'll see when
he comes back. Not gonna put a timetable for training camp on it, but when he does come back,
we'll ease him into throwing, and then we'll go from there”. The injury to Richardson puts his
chances of being the week one starter for Indy in serious doubt, but does Jones give the team a
better chance of winning games regardless of any other circumstances?

As a Giants fan, I need to set my biases aside to answer this question (although I remained high
on Jones up until last season’s set of disaster-class performances). He certainly offers this Colts
team a more experienced player than Richardson, but his last few years in New York do not
necessarily point to this being a good thing. Jones’ confidence deteriorated in an alarming
fashion following the signing of his four-year $160 million with Big Blue after an unexpected
playoff wildcard spot and victory in 2022. Last season Jones only managed to throw eight
touchdowns and seven interceptions in ten games on his return from an injury plagued 2023,
before losing the starting job for good with the team who drafted him.

It is worth pointing out that it is not solely Jones’ responsibility that the Giants went 3-14 last
season and the injury to star left tackle Andrew Thomas certainly did not help him. Jones more
often than not appears to need more time to get through his reads than the average starting
NFL quarterback and the continuous injury woes of the best player on the Giants offensive line
was always going to make his life under center even harder. On the other side of the Colts coin is an inexperienced Richardson who while displaying flashes of immense arm talent and strong rushing ability, is ultimately far too raw to be starting in the NFL.

Richardson threw eight touchdowns and twelve interceptions on an alarmingly low 47.7%
completion with the Colts last season and it is worth noting that the next lowest among starting
quarterbacks was divisional rival Trevor Lawrence with 60.6% (Jones had a 63.3% last season).
Richardson did add four rushing touchdowns to his scoring total last season, but had nine
fumbles to go alongside these scores. Richardson is only 23 years of age so he may well
improve with experience at the highest level, and the presence of a 28-year old veteran such as
Jones who has gone through some turmoil and injury issues in his career may well be of benefit
to the young quarterback.

When looking at the options available to the Colts, I think the safest bet for them would be to
start Jones at the beginning of the season, and to keep Richardson as an unpredictable force
that they can turn to if Jones cannot return closer to the form that earned him his big payday in
2022. Indy’s protection against the blitz was not very strong last season, allowing a 52.2%
pressure rate which was the second worst in the league. If this performance continues into 2025
Jones will find it very hard to succeed in Indiana, and I can see the team turning back to
Richardson in Week 8 after a tough run of games against the Rams, Raiders, Cardinals and
Chargers. The Colts play the Titans in this gameweek and Steichen may see this as the easiest
game in which to ease the young signal-caller back into a starting role.

There will be many factors that play into Steichen and his coaching staff’s decisions at the
quarterback position in 2025, but the NFL is a results business and everyone is fighting for their
jobs. The Colts head coach will not be taking any prisoners this season, with a real chance that
his team reaches the playoffs if he nails their moves at quarterback. 

Over to you Shane.