Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - BLAME GAME: Where Indianapolis Colts & Anthony Richardson Relationship Failed

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

A lot went into the failure of the Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson Experiment. How did we get from Richardson being a top-five draft pick to losing his starting job twice within two years? Become a Locked On Colts insider! Ask your burning questions and get prompt answers from someone who's around the team every day! Get special access from the locker room, practice field, and press box! JOIN HERE! Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.BetterhelpThis episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Talk it out, with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/lockedon. 

The Anthony Richardson Project appears to be done in Indianapolis, but who's really to blame for the biggest mistakes of this tenure? Let's get to it. You are Locked-on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts part of the locked on podcast network your team every single day hello everyone my name is Zach Hicks your resident film nerd of horseshoe huddle

dot com and my partner Jake Arthur is our credentialed boots on the ground for the site he's been run around Colts facility quite a bit the last couple days with all the news and notes that have been going on today because you know we don't have training camp to cover cut down day hasn't happened there's no game I think today is the perfect day to give our final thoughts on everything Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts. We're not going to dwell on the Colts backup quarterback for much of this season. So we don't want to just keep hammering you guys over and over, which is Anthony Richardson topics when, look, this is Daniel Jones's team going forward.

But we do want to devote this one episode to it. So we're going to just air out everything that we think and know about the Anthony Richardson situation, where the Colts went wrong, where Anthony Richardson went wrong, why this relationship failed. And what's next for both the team and for. Richardson following this latest development, I guess, in their early story. But, you know, Jake, you are more privy to just information surrounding everything with the Colts than I am because you're there at the facility every day. You're talking to other beat guys. You're talking to people

at the team from your perspective here, Jake. Where do you think the Colts really went wrong in this project of developing Anthony Richardson into their franchise quarterback? There's a lot of points of emphasis you could look at over these last couple of years. You could look at it pre-draft. You can look at it right after the draft, what have you. But, you know, I'm going to, without doing a whole monologue here, I'm going to start honestly with their evaluation of him before the draft in 2023. You know, we hammered Chris and Shane all offseason of what are you looking for in a

quarterback. What do you want? What do you want? What do you want? And what we always heard. was, you know, a guy with accuracy who was obsessed with his crack. That's basically what it boiled down to usually. And, I mean, Anthony's work ethic and being obsessed with the craft and everything as a rookie was awesome.

But the accuracy is something he's never been accused of being accurate, even back at Florida. You know what I mean? So that in itself, they had to pick a quarterback, but you could see right away they were maybe starting to believe in something that they were going to need to seriously. work on fixing and then you know you get in and you fast forward to now where it's going into year three and he's been essentially bench twice and it's like what was the plan ever like was your plan all along just to get him more reps and that was going to fix everything because everything we've heard of no one really has a great answer for where this went wrong and they don't have great answers for you know why was this missing why has he not developed you know we

we talked to cam turner again today uh the quarterbacks coach and he said you know the development of the quarterback is you know that's pretty much my gig here um so i i just don't think we've ever received any detailed plans like did you ever like did you do special work with him like uh teaching what to look for in uh breaking down film like what what was the plan it just it feels like there are so many unanswered questions that may not really have answers because there may not have gone much into this plan other than let's get him more reps. You know, they named him the starter after like one preseason game with Gardner Manchu. And they've later admitted that that was probably a mistake.

But, you know, you can't really put the toothpaste back in the tube at that point. And then here it comes year two and you're noticing his work habits. aren't as good as maybe they were in his rookie year and then his play on the field starts to suffer because of it. Chris Ballard described it as they saw he was drowning. So they bench him and they bring him back after he no calls from the veterans really wanted it. And then Joe Flacko was not good enough to justify keeping him out there. And it's just they have mishandled it in a lot of different ways but it kind of boil it really boils down to starting him right away in twenty twenty three um i mean a lot of it's on him and we're going to get to that in the second

segment because i don't want to make this sound like it's the colts totally failed him because this is definitely a two-sided thing uh but from from their perspective there's just so like each year there has been something big and you'll go to this offseason I think they didn't do well by him by basically selling him that there was going to be this 50-50 competition. And then here we go, the determining factors in why Daniel Jones is the winner is essentially the things that he has gathered from starting 69 games in the NFL. It's like, did Anthony have any possibility of gaining those stripes essentially in three weeks this summer? Yeah. It seems like that was kind of doomed.

to fail from the beginning. So there's a lot of different points you could point to here, but there was points where this was mishandled literally from pre-draft all the way to, you know, the last couple weeks. Yeah, and my thing is I'm a big proponent of the starting a rookie quarterback from day one. I mean, I was that when they first drafted Anthony Richardson. I want him starting day one.

But if your offense was so predicated on the quarterback, hitting the peas and cues, doing the little things, and moving the ball efficiently, for you. to have any success for your offense, and you didn't think that Anthony Richardson could be that guy out the gate, how did he win that competition with Gardner Minchu? And it's one thing if you are, you know, like Anthony Richardson, a 21-year-old starter that was very far away for being a good NFL quarterback. And you maybe have a roster like up here. I mean, clearly they view the roster pretty high because after the disaster of 2022, they brought back 20 starters or 21 starters. All they did was change the quarterback and the coaching staff. So they clearly viewed

that roster fairly high, but that quarterback, no matter how high you viewed him, was going to be a lot lower than where you currently viewed that roster. So if you didn't think he was at the level that you needed for this roster to get the wins that it deserved, then why was he starting out the gate? And then if you were going to slow play it, if you were going to be fine with the ups and downs of a young quarterback, why were you holding him to the same standard as a roster that is ready to compete for a playoff spot? You know, so I agree with you in the sense of if this was you're trying to meld two eras together, the pre-Ritchardson era and the post-Richita by having a young quarterback who's not ready with a playoff caliber roster, and you're

going to put them together and have the same expectations for both, why was he starting from day one? You know, it makes sense to start him from day one if your roster is not good enough, but clearly they viewed the roster is good enough when they brought everybody back, you know? So I do agree with you from there. I think if we also look from the organizational standpoint, you know, at the time we were pretty hesitant about it, but bringing in the league's youngest offensive staff to put around a quarterback who just needed a mentor, you know, needed someone to teach them the rights and

wrongs of the NFL, needed just a guiding force, a guiding presence. And when you look what Richardson had early in his tenure with the Colts, he didn't have the veteran quarterback to do that for him. Gardner Minchu is a very aloof, like, on his own kind of guy. Joe Flacco specifically said, I'm not here to mentor him and be that guy for him. And then you look at the coaching staff, Cam Turner's, like, claim to fame is being Norv Turner's nephew. Like, that's his entire resume right there and that he's good friends with Shane Steichen. Like, that's fine to have that. But if that's the main guy developing your quarterback, maybe put someone who kind of knows what they're doing as the quarterback coach. So I think organizationally, they could have handled it

better. And we could even go into the schematic issues where, you know, Stuyken realized that Richardson's best aspect of his game was just hitting the deep ball. And then basically every time he's out there, they just pepper Yankee concepts and four verts. And it was never really just like quick screens and quick passes to get him in a rhythm. It was more so like instead of trying to round him out as a player, it was more so like, let's just do his strengths, you know, because that's what he has his strengths. And maybe somehow the other stuff will come together. So I think organization. There were plenty of issues with this, but probably the biggest one goes back to the issue we've been talking about for a long time is trying to bring this roster that Ballard viewed so

highly and honestly keeping Ballard with that roster and melding it together with a young head coach, young coaching staff, young quarterback that probably wasn't ready for that immediate success they had because it threw off the timeline. So instead of slowly giving Richardson three, four years of reps and just being fine with the ebbs and flows of it, it became, we need to win for this roster. This roster deserves some wins, which is why we get the benching last year, which is why we get the quarterback competition this year. I'm not saying Richardson some good quarterback right now, and we're going to get into his issues, but I do think that that mismanaged timeline did kind of mess up a lot of this

development process. Yeah, you're just dealing with a kid who really needed to be built from the ground up, like on the field and behind the scenes. well and it felt like whatever their plan was missed the mark because again i mentioned this on the show the other day like even when he was at florida there was like some covid restrictions that did not give him the traditional quarterback experience like a lot of stuff was virtual when he got there and everything so this is a guy who needed to be taught how to essentially be a franchise quarterback probably needed to be taught things on film and and do this and that and his quarterback coach cam turner is a

the guy who it's getting a little bit of a track record now because Kyler Murray was a first overall pick and is not really regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. You know, he got made fun of essentially. He became a laughing stock because of the like call of duty thing. That's true. Cam Newton thing didn't work well when they tried to transform who he was as a quarterback. And to your point about the play calling, I vehemently disagreed with what they tried to do, Anthony, in the first half of last year as a quarterback.

It looked like they were plopping him in some Matt Stafford offense and were scared to use him as a runner. So, yeah, there's just a lot of things they've tried to do with this guy that have not worked, but it all zeroes back to like there's no, there was no clear plan with how to build this guy where he needed to be. They're like, he's raw and we can get him there. And it's like, let's just give him a bunch of reps, which I'm probably being naive.

I'm sure there was a lot more. done behind the scenes, but you can't tell, like there's not been details that have come out about that. You can't tell that there was a detailed plan to build this guy from the ground up like he needed to be. Yeah. And, you know, when we look at what Shane Steichen's track record was with young quarterbacks coming to Indy, it was pretty good, right, with Justin Herbert and Jalen Hertz, I think part of my issue with this, and it's the last thing I'll say before we get to our second segment is if you can't really treat Richardson like those two quarterbacks, because Herbert was, what, a three-year starter in college? And he was pretty ready to

go out the gate. And Jalen Hertz was a bit more raw than Richardson, but he was also like a 23, 24 year old quarterback coming in who had seen it all and done it all in college from being a running quarterback, having success, being benched, coming back from the benching, starting for Oklahoma. So these guys were on different tracks. And I think there needed to be a little bit more of an emphasis and attention paid to the young quarterback. And I wonder if Stuyken just kind of treated this like another Hertz and Herbert when Richardson is certainly not one of those guys. I mean, more ways than none and then one. So coming up, guys, we're going to talk more about what part Richardson plays in this because I do think we can't skirt the blame

too much from Anthony Richardson. Because at the end of the day, he also did not work out for the Colts. We're going to talk about Anthony Richardson's shortcomings and kind of where it went wrong for him here in just a second. This episode is presented by Yahoo Fantasy. It is the best time of the year. It's draft time. NFL kickoff is almost here. And that means fantasy football season is back in full swing. This year, Yahoo! Fantasy is turning things up with a fantasy football experience like never before. This year, obviously, Zach, Derek, Allen, and me, you know, the Cold Squad crew, we're all playing on Yahoo! Fantasy, and you absolutely should, too, whether you're a first-timer or you're a veteran-making your millionth league, especially, I think if you're new to

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Just stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo Fantasy football now at Yahoo!Fantasy.com slash locked on NFL. Welcome back every dayers. We are talking the Anthony Richardson experience with the Colts. Where did it all go wrong? We just discussed where the Colts pretty much dropped the ball on their side, but it does take two sides

to ruin a relationship for the most part. So let's talk, Zach, about, where things went wrong from the Anthony Richardson side of things. Yeah, I mean, the one thing we really have to start with is the litany of injuries with Anthony Richardson. And that's not his fault. It's his body's fault, though. Like, you know, where at the end of the day, when it comes to the NFL, the best ability is

availability. The longer you're away from the football field, the less people hold you in this high regard, especially when you're a young player. Like, you've got to be on the field and show it. And I think the other big part of this is when he was drafted by the Colts, one of the biggest selling points with Anthony Richardson was using him as a rusher. You know, was that plus one QB, was using him the design QB run game, the scrambling ability, the ability to create big plays like a Lamar Jackson,

like a Jalen Hertz, like pre-injury RG3, I guess, to go back even further. And if your body's not holding up, it tanks the value a little bit of the prospect. Like, even though I think that Anthony Richardson was the Colts number one quarterback in that draft, if they knew what the injuries were going to be and that would limit them using him as a runner, he's not going in the first round of that draft because as a passer, even with the big arm and the high upside,

that's not what like the overall selling point was for him in that first round. It was the high floor right away is his running ability, is his ability to create big plays even while the passing comes along. And when you take away that floor from him, we saw how low it could go early last season. You know, when you're not using him as a runner because you're scared of the injuries or he's fumbling too much in the running games or you have to

scale that back, it turns into him having to be a passer. And the passing ability just wasn't close whatsoever. So I think at the beginning of all this, it's the injuries. And then the next part is just whatever changed between year one and year two. I don't want to speculate too much because it's not my place. I don't know him personally. And I don't want to, you know, go too much into his own work habits but one thing I can say about the top quarterbacks in football or the guys who have turned this around is they have this like psychotic addiction to film and just getting better and in like 24-7 it is football football at least until they've made it big you see that with pat mahomes josh allen like these guys are outliers that have hit in the NFL because of their

dedication to their craft and you know taking a quarterback in the first round is roughly a 25% to 30% chance of success already right When you're taking an outlier in the first round like an Anthony Richardson, it's probably like a 5% chance at best, 1% chance maybe at best. And the only way that that hits is that this guy is addicted to football, addicted to his craft, and addicted to what he's doing. And it does seem like from all the reports we've got, all the speculation we've got between year one and year two up until the benching that just wasn't him. And that was a lot of time lost for Anthony Richardson. So it's tough to come back from that, man. It's tough to come back from the injuries, and then if you're just not completely obsessed with it,

like these other guys who have been able to beat out the outlier status. Yeah, that's what it comes down to with me. It's, you know, especially the injuries and with how his career started. There was a lot more optimism surrounding the beginning of that 2023 season than early on in the 2024 season. We're going to throw the Houston game out because that was like a crazy game where he had all those highlight plays in 2024. for but yeah i mean that's i i just don't know where you go with that with with the injuries and it's it's just tough to say because i'm trying to find the right way to put it really i know the the colts have kind of spun it that way as well with the injuries the injuries the

injuries it's it's cost him all these reps and valuable time on the field it's like okay well he's not hurt now. So even, and this is a little continuation of the last segment, but like even the preseason game Saturday, for example, great chance to give him reps. So I think it goes to speak more than beyond the injuries. I just think it's they have to be able to trust him, you know, from the preparation and mental standpoint. And that's just something I think that's been lost in the last year.

you know after when he was a rookie and after he was drafted like guys were talking about he was he was almost annoying the fact how much he was pestering them about football football like he was always on and then you know there was you know whatever changed in between year one and year two but i'm with you like a quarterback has to be wired a certain way it's kind of a thing where you either have it or you don't i don't think you can hold a quarterback's hands hand and you know you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink kind of thing like a guy has to be obsessed with his craft to be successful they either say they want to be great or they make themselves great and especially like you mentioned with anthony like that was already

risky pick but it was only going to really work if he was just obsessed with the craft And they didn't say his work habits were poor, but they just weren't really on par with what a franchise quarterback needed to be. So there was that. And then there's some just naivety to it, I guess. Like there are some things that, you know, the tapout was one of them. I don't want to say that was like a breaking point. But it just went to show that this guy does not get, you can't do that.

You know? Yeah. There was that was one thing. And then even the Ravensack, just this preseason, was something where it's like, this guy is still green enough to kind of be missing some elementary things there. You know what I mean? And so from that perspective, I get why the Colts would be apprehensive about throwing him out there. But it just, it seems like the quarterback battle was probably decided before the summer.

You know what I mean? Like I don't think there's many ways. ways they were going to think he was going to change over the summer you know yeah it was either going to be there or it wasn't um but yeah when it comes to him i think it's the injuries and just essentially not not being a guy of daniel jones ilk you know that has all this time in the NFL and we'll just do exactly what he's asked yeah and look at the end of the day we can keep harping on how young he is that he's a young player and and he is relative to the NFL and But at the end of the day, this is, what, a 24-year-old man, 23-year-old man?

Like, you don't get your handheld forever. Like, you do eventually, it's on you to produce. And at the end of the day, if he's not producing, you have to make a move. And I don't fault the Colts for making a move. I fault who they ended up moving to, and I fault the whole process this all season when there was other options out there that I would have liked better. But I don't fault them for moving on because, again, if Richardson's body's not holding up, He took that big step back as a passer and as a player last year overall.

You can still be intrigued by the upside, but at the end of the day, your jobs are on the line. And you do have to make moves when you feel like something's not going to work out, regardless of how highly touted a player is. So, yeah, it's an unfortunate situation. I think both sides bear a lot of blame here. I mean, that's, again, like you said, Jake, all breakups are typically two-sided. And I think that's what this one comes down to. But coming up, guys, we're going to dive into what's next.

next for Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts, is there even the possibility of a future with Richardson with the Colts we're going to discuss here in just a second? Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ballgame with friends or family? Maybe it's game day and you suddenly realize that you want to be in the stands. That's exactly where game time comes in because it's the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress. With the money that you save on tickets, you can splurge on food, drinks, merch, or even invite a bigger group of people to come with you. Game time makes it possible. Game time makes buying

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create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off of your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-N-FL-N-FL-N-FL-N-FL-E-L-L-N-F-E-L-L-N-F-E-L-L-E-L-L-E-L-L-E-L-T-E. Welcome back, everybody. We are talking. And who is to blame for this Colts, Anthony Richardson, fallout? And we've talked about each side. But now we want to talk about what is next because we always hear the Colts say,

they've been saying it since last year. He's not the starter, but we're not done with him. Be patient. This kid's got a future in the league. He might have a future with us. Just stay ready and your time will come. But this is the NFL's act. Like, let's be realistic here.

There's a lot of different ways we can break this down. But like, where do you see the future? of Anthony and the Colts right now. Yeah, I think when it comes to Richardson's future with the Colts, I think the only truthful thing that Shane Steikin said was be ready because you're one snap away. Because he is one snap away. If an injury happens to Daniel Jones, Anthony Richardson will be back out there as the guy. In terms of everything else he said, though, about them still believing in Anthony and

him just developing behind the scenes a chance for him to sit and we still like Anthony and value him, look, they're done. at least Shane Stuyken's done. We don't know what Chris Ballard's thoughts are on Anthony Richardson at this time, but Shane Stuyken is certainly done with that project. And even if Richardson were to come in for an injured Daniel Jones and play a couple games, I think even with Jones healthy, they would just put Jones back out there. It would take Jones really like crapping the bed for Richardson to be the starter again.

And then even then it wouldn't be because they view Richardson highly. It'd be because Jones wasn't the guy they thought. So yeah, I think the process is done here with the Colts. Ultimately, I wish that they would trade him because I just hate having the looming cloud of like this kind of conversation always being here with him on the roster when you're kind of done with him. So I wish they would trade him, but likely they wouldn't get the capital that they would want in a trade. So it's probably better for them to sit him for all of next season as well, let him hit the free agent market and hope that he gets kind of this Daniel Jones. resurgence just in terms of like look when you're a quarterback has been the NFL for a couple years the best thing you can ever do is just not play for a season because other teams will be like

oh my gosh wait this guy could actually be really good like your stock just flies to the moon and people forget about you or when your stuff is in the past so if he could get a decent contract the Colts can maybe get like a fourth round comp out of him but ultimately yeah I think he's just the backup quarterback for the Colts at this point I don't think Shane Syken has any interest in that project anymore maybe chris ballard does but he's not the one making the decision at quarterback uh but yeah i think it's over for for richardson in indianapolis i think the first sign obviously was the benching last year that this was probably not going to end well and now i think this is just the the conclusion to it all i think it's just going to be a lingering thing now with him

being the former highly drafted backup quarterback for the colts for this year and probably for next year as well yeah if i'm looking if this year is obvious you know like if daniel gets hurt of course he'll go in or i think if you're looking at like week 11 week 12 and there are a couple games under 500 and daniel jones has not been good but there's like a chance they can still get back into the playoff picture maybe you make a move then um but yeah in terms of going into a season where he is being given like the opportunity to be the starter i think that's done yeah i don't it it seems so unlikely that they legitimately are like holding out this long rope of patience to be like you know what this is finally the year that's what this offseason was supposed to be honestly um so yeah i'm

curious you know what the trade market might be if there's teams reaching out about price right now which I was actually asked this on a different show today. I don't think the Colts will be seeking out suitors by any means because I do think they want him at least on the roster. And that part of it is Chris Ballard's thing. Now, if Anthony or his agent Derek Jackson requested a trade, I think that would be way more likely. But I don't think the Colts are just going to initiate one.

We've seen in the past if a player is disgruntled and wants out, they are willing to work with them and figure something out and maybe get them out yeah but i know there's been other other trade offers that colts have received before that they had no interest in and just totally shut it down i think that's probably what we're looking at here yeah i think the col i think anthony or derrick jacks would have to request a trade in order for that to happen i mean we'll see i mean Derek jacks and obviously talked to stephen holder recently and you know they're going to be having some talks and figure out what the future is because they have they have to clear the error on this one yeah and one thing i really want to go into for a second here

is where chris ballard has especially said this a lot recently where it's like we made a mistake not to sit him early on so like the benching was us kind of revamping that decision i guess this that's how he would try to spend this as well the next time he talks is like oh yeah like you know guys like jordan love and pat mohomes all sat like this could be good for anthony but here's a thing man it's one thing if he's a 21-year-old quarterback coming out of the draft and you're saying look he's not ready yet we're going to give him time to marinate and develop behind gardener minchu minchu's going to take the hits for us Richardson can come in when he's ready that's different than hey here's this here's this thing you have called a starting job you have it now you're not good enough we're taking it away and then oh now you have to compete for it and now you don't have it anymore like that's very different regardless if it was earned or not right from from anthony richardson the fact that that he is not like the fact that he got the job taken away from him and then he lost the job this this summer as well that's very very different than benching him out the gate and you can't just do both you know you can't be like oh we're writing the wrong of not benching him out the out the onset

because you didn't that like that decision wasn't to bench him that decision was just to not like he wasn't ready yet but by starting him from day one you said oh he's ready let's get him out there and then taking it away from says you got worse or your standards not good enough and we're like that is a very, very different message. So, no, this is not what this is about. Like, they know what decision they're making when they bench a quarterback, and then when they have him lose a quarterback competition in year three, again, the NFL is not forever, right?

You can't just keep changing things up until, like, one day he'll develop and just, he's not going to be on this team long enough for that. So, no, you can't just go back in time and restart the process there. When you do all this, it's a very different respect here. So, yeah, no, this is definitely not. like that situation. If Chris Ballard tries to spin it that way, it's like, oh, no, now we're giving him the time to sit and develop.

The ship has already sailed. Like, you can't do both. You already made your decision. Stick with it. And it kind of also goes to my whole thing with, you know, the constant benchings and unbenchings last year, the benchings and all this stuff this year and like all that kind of stuff. It's like, make a decision and stick with it.

Have some conviction. If you're telling me, Daniel Jones is better for winning football games. Even if he's not winning football games, stick with your decision. Stick with it. I want to see you ride it out. Same with Joe Flacco last year. When they put Flacco in there, it's like, I have a duty to my team here to win some football games and get the better quarterback out there. And then they switch it up after two weeks. Like, have some conviction. If this is what you think, do it. Do it. Just stop going back and forth and then making this all about more than what it is here. Like, stick with your convictions

here and go with it. That's my biggest thing here. But yeah, we're going to get sold a lot of stuff on like, oh, we still believe in Richardson, it's not what, like, it's over, man. It's over at this point. It's been three years. Like, if he can't beat out Daniel Jones in a training camp battle, he's not going to be your franchise guy. He might, one day when he's like 28 with the Seahawks or the Vikings or the Raiders, he might, you know, be a guy for them.

But he's done here in Indy. He's done unless an injury happens to Jones this year, Richardson comes in, and he's just awesome. that's really the only way that this works out here in indie but that's extremely unlikely yeah i mean by the way chris is should be speaking next week all right so keep a look out for that everybody you know what he's going to say i'm already telling you what he's going to say yeah usually does during roster cuts so yeah there's i know they don't want to bad mouth anyone especially while they're still in the building they don't want to do that they don't want to damage that relationship

even further. But like if a guy's been your opening week starter for the previous two years and you had to bench him last year and now you're telling him he's not good enough to be your starter now, that's not how you. That's not how you operate with a guy who you think could eventually be your franchise quarterback. Right. That would be totally unprecedented.

That doesn't happen. It's just, again, I know you kind of have to sell people on the optimist. optimism in that he's not done here because you can't say this is the end of the road while he's still your you're planning for him to be your backup and again he's one play away but yeah it's we've all heard too much of it to this point like we could kind of see through it the same reason i don't totally believe that the leash for daniel jones is infinitely long this year because we learned last week with joe or last year with joe flacko that wasn't true his leash was two weeks long right remember he said specifically last year of flaco he's our

or the rest of the season. Then two weeks later, he was matched for Richardson. So again, Shane Steichen's pretty flaky, so I'm assuming that we'll see them bounce around between these two quarterbacks a lot this year, just because that's how Steichen has been. But I'm with you, Jay. Like, it's like, we're going to be sold a bunch of BS

because that's just how you have to treat it. But at the end of the day, they made their decision. They don't believe that this Richardson project going to work. And I think they're justified to think that at this point. But there's a lot of issues that happened the last couple of years to get us to this point. And at the end of the day, Richardson is just not at the caliber of quarterback that you want him to be in year three of his NFL tenure. And that's just the painful fact of it all.

They think Daniel Jones can lead their offense to more success this season. So that is how we're going to treat it on this show the rest of the season. That is our big Anthony Richardson conversation. We're going to talk more tonight on the Colts squad show at 9 o'clock on here on the channel. So make sure you're tuning into that. And then after that, we transition into full starters on the Colts and back. who are going to play a little bit. So we're going to talk more Daniel Jones,

talk more other players in the Colts and talk, you know, away from the Anthony Richardson situation. But we do want to thank you guys for making Lockdown Colts your first listen today. And every day, NFL fantasy draft season is here. So for your second listen, go find the Locked-on Fantasy Football podcast

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