The Indianapolis Colts are going to come to a harsh realization sooner rather than later: their quarterback room is miserable. Don’t take my word for it, though. NFL executives weighed in on the tier level of all the veteran quarterbacks and the Colts two signal callers were one of the bottom tiers. Daniel Jones ranked slightly above Anthony Richardson as the No. 30 ranked veteran quarterback and Richardson was the No. 32, only ranked higher than Spencer Rattler and Kenny Pickett.
This is not what you want to hear as a Colts fan as Jones was supposed to be a contingency plan at best. Now he’s most likely the Week 1 starter and Richardson doesn’t appear to be any closer to developing into a real starter in the NFL. Everybody is realizing that Richardson is taking too long to develop and the fact that he’s only ahead of Rattler and Pickett is proof they don’t think he’ll do much of anything.
The Indianapolis Colts quarterback room is in terrible company with one other NFL team
The only other team with a quarterback room as bad as the Colts is the Cleveland Browns; that’s not the company you want to be in if you’re the Colts. And truthfully, the only reason Richardson is above Joe Flacco is because he played in Indianapolis and ended up replacing Richardson after he was benched.
This Colts team has a lot of quarterback issues they didn’t anticipate. They drafted Richardson as the incumbent to Andrew Luck after his abrupt retirement. And it’s been worse than having Phillip Rivers, Matt Ryan and Carson Wentz in consecutive seasons … combined. At this point, do you blame the Colts for rushing his development as an inexperienced quarterback or do you blame Richardson for not rapidly improving.
In the preseason opener last weekend, Richardson was smacked by a Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman and dislocated his pinky finger. But it was a play that an average NFL quarterback should have avoided. It makes you wonder why it looks like he’s regressing rather than progressing?
The Colts are about to face a hard truth about Richardson. I’m sure they’re going to be hesitant to let him go, knowing he is still young enough to wait. But they’ll have to decide how long is long enough to accept mediocrity before moving on.