Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: ALL OVER for Anthony? | Whether We've Seen Anthony Richardson's Last Snap in Indy

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Anthony Richardson is not a free agent, but has he played his last game as a Colt? In our new series examining "Questionable Colts", the Squad takes a look at the beleaguered former top-five pick and what the future may hold. Also, what Richardson would be worth via trade and grading the Colts' 2025 Draft Class after Year 1. Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms: 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/ 📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQ Give the squad a follow on X/Twitter @Schultz975, @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @allenpinkett, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/lockedoncolts Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game.IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Colts Squad Show. I'm your host Derek Schultz, and it's been four days. Let's go ahead and start the 2026 season, guys. How about it? And I'm Zach Hicks, and I'm just seeing that the Indiana Pacers are getting fine for tanking when they're on a two-game winning streak. Fine for tanking and trading for a really good big man, which they haven't had all year. Hello, I'm Jake Arthur. And I'm Alan Pinkett, former Euler. And talking about the draft is probably my least favorite. favorite subject, especially free agents.

Cool's Nation, rise up. It's the Colt Squad, everything Indianapolis Colts every week. Covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the Circle City, the way only the locked on podcast network can. It's time to squad up. The Colt Squad Joe starts now. Welcome to the Colts Squad Show. I'm Derek Schultz, longtime indie sports talker and commoners for the Indianapolis Business

Journal. I'm joined by a nerd name legend and long time NFL running back. You guys know him as Alan Pinkett. And of course our locked on Colts duo is here. That is Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks, your first list in every day, lending their valuable insights to the squad show here as we get going on a Thursday edition of the program. So questionable Colts, that'll be the topic de jour for the next few shows. We'll do a series on this.

Those are guys who are under contract. Important to specify that under contract, not free agents. We're not talking about Alec Pierce in this. category. We're not talking about Daniel Jones in this category. Guys who are under contract to be Colts next year, but may not be Colts next year. We'll start with perhaps the most prominent and talked about one. And of course, that's Anthony Richardson. And we'll kick that off in segment number one, taking a deep dive into the former top five pick and what his future could be here,

at least in the near future. And if it involves Indianapolis, who is to blame for Anthony Richardson not working out? And I'll put in the caveat to this point, even though if you are a, longtime listener of the squad show. You maybe know how I feel and some of the other people on the panel feel about Richardson's book, whether it is still indeed open here in Indianapolis. But we'll talk about that in segment number two. What Richardson could fetch in the trade market.

We'll talk about that in segment number three. I went back to the last couple of years. It's actually kind of interesting to see what highly drafted quarterbacks have commanded in the trade market. And we'll try to play compare and contrast, even though, Anthony Richardson's a bit of a unicorn given his age and his athletic ability and all of that. And then finally, we'll get away from the Richardson discussion. Colts have a 2025 NFL draft class grade after just one year, which I know Allen's rolling his eyes out of his skull right now.

And a prominent media outlet came up with that draft grade and we'll share that coming up later on in the show. But guys, let's start with Anthony. And look, we've been over this time and time again, Zach, right? You know, the good, the bad, the ugly. and unfortunately there's probably been more of the last category than anything else. But just 14 snaps this season. Obviously, he had the eye injury, but he loses the job to Daniel Jones in the preseason. 15 starts in the book, which, you know, it obviously isn't a huge sample size.

And we all know the numbers were not good of around a 50% completion percentage. If you're just talking about, you know, the old school evaluation numbers, but under 160 yards per game. I feel like it would be best for all parties involved just for a split. I think that'd probably be the best thing for Richardson and maybe even the best thing for the Colts just to kind of move on from this, especially if Daniel Jones is your guy. But, you know, what say you about Anthony Richardson's future here in Indianapolis? Yeah, it doesn't look good.

I don't think. I think you're on the money there, Derek, when it comes to a split makes the most sense. And, you know, I know a lot of people talk about continuity and honestly the $10 million that he's going to be making this next season. is around what people are paying backups nowadays anyway. So, I mean, it's really not crazy from a money standpoint. But overall, I mean, this is a young guy you took in the top five. You gave him a couple of seasons to get out there and show what he could do. But when it came time to pivoting to a new option and having that competition in training camp,

Daniel Jones showed to be the better person that fit what they wanted to do. And he had a season, at least the first half, the season before he got hurt was better than anything Richardson had put out there in his first couple of years. Now, it's hard to compare a veteran to a young player, but it's kind of the nature of the NFL, you know, it's not this developmental league. You don't have time to get it right. Even when the Colts on draft night, we're saying, like, this is a young player. We want him to grow into it. We, you know, we're not going to give up on him after one season. We're not going to give up on him after two seasons. But the fact of the matter when it comes to the NFL is nobody has

the time to wait for you. You know, coaches have very short lifespans. General managers typically have short lifespans. I know ours in particular hasn't, but it's just not a league that you can really wait for someone to develop even at that quarterback position. So, you know, I don't think that Richardson's career is over in the NFL by any means. He's going to get a lot of opportunities going forward in other situations. And we're seeing right now, like the era of the refurbished quarterback is thriving, you know, from guys like Jones to Darnold to Baker Mayfield, Gino Smith when he went to Seattle. Like, these guys are finding second life and third life in other situations.

And I think that's kind of what Anthony Richardson needs. So I do think it's kind of over here in Indy. Something with him and Stuyken, I just don't think mesh very well. I think the injuries played a big part of it. And again, Jones being kind of what they were looking for is just going to lead to this ultimate divorce, but I hope that he ends up in a great spot and becomes this next, you know, person that we're talking about, you know, the next Daniel Jones, next San Darnold, because I want that success for him, but I just ultimately don't think it's going to happen here in Indy.

Yeah, I agree. And just even if you're going off of context clues, at the end of the season, Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard were probably the least supportive they have been of his placement on the roster. Now, Shane always kind of is a little evasive with the Anthony topic. But Chris Baller always goes out of his way to say how much they believe in him, comparing, you know, he brings up to Sam Donald and Baker Mayfield and Gino Smith stuff, like every time. But after the season, I felt like he said about a full-length paragraph's worth of stuff kind of beating around the question, beating around the bush of the question

of is there a place on this roster for Anthony Richardson? And, you know, he talked about how well he handled the backup role and was a good teammate and all this stuff, which was not the question at all. And then he finally got to, but it all comes back around to his health and if his eye gets healthy or not. So both Shane Stike and and Chris Ballard have held on to that, his eye is not fully functioning card, which gives them kind of an easy out to make the difficult decision they probably don't want to make of just admitting that this didn't work. But I'm with you, Derek. I think it's just probably best for both sides to just clean split on this one for Anthony.

Go somewhere where you have a better chance to, number one, develop, I guess, if you feel like you haven't developed well enough here in Indy, and have a better chance to play with maybe a shakier starting quarterback spot. There are Anthony supporters across the league, like more than just Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota, I'm sure. So there will be takers. The only question is, will someone trade for that contract?

It's like a little over 10 million that he's guaranteed, fully guaranteed in this last deal for this last year. So that's a tough one. If someone will kind of inherit that contract or if there's like a roster bonus situation that the teams were to kind of offset with. But I agree.

It's probably about time. Like even if Daniel Jones, isn't like even if his prognosis stops being week one, I just don't think they want to go down that road anymore. They've seen enough. You know, I don't think they dislike the person, but like he's probably not giving them behind the scenes exactly what they had hoped for,

or at least what they saw early on when he got drafted. And it's just time, man. Like we can't keep going in circles for full off-season like this. anymore. It's just time. So we've only spoken about Anthony Richardson from the Colts perspective. And

I would say I would probably be in agreement with all of you in terms of cutting bait that the experiment didn't work. But has Anthony said anything? I mean, he's a first round

draft pick. Those guys usually have a ton of prize. and he was a starter in college. He came in to the cult as a starter. I'm sure he believes he should start. Has he inquired about going anywhere else? I guess, you know, what he has to say does make a little bit of a difference, even though he does have control.

He's under contract. But, you know, he could make his way out of here. I'm sure he can see the writing on the wall as clear as anybody else. I'm sure that there may have been some private conversations, and maybe he's being a good soldier and not coming out publicly and saying, I'm out of here. I'm going someplace else to light a team on fire and take over the league. Haven't heard anything from him.

I am confident he has some plays left in him, some good play left in him. You know, and the league is always looking for someone with freakish ability, athletic ability. And there's plenty of coaches that think they are the quarterback whisperer that they can mold this piece of clay into, you know, porcelain or something like that. You know, so although we are in agreement that, you know, based on what we have seen, the few years he's been here, probably time to go. But I'm very interested in what Anthony has to say about all this.

Yeah, the only thing that I saw, Alan, was, I think this was maybe before the eye injury. He had a meeting, him and his agent had a meeting with Chris Bowerd, and they talked about everything, including the topic of a trade. Not that he went to them and said, I want to be traded, but the topic of it, Jake, am I hallucinating? That happened, right? That's correct. Yeah, okay. I wanted to make sure that I had that right, because we have the highest journalistic integrity here on the cold squad. squad show. We want to only give you the facts.

So I think that's about as far as it went. But like you said, Alan, I mean, you knew, right, as a player, you knew when a team especially was out on you, I would think, or that you had lost trust. I'm not saying that you lost trust of the Oilers or anything like that, but, you know, there just comes a time where you kind of reach the end of the road. And I think Richardson, even as young and even as naive as he's been at times, I think he's been around the block enough to know that, you know, after after the chances, that he was given that he's probably out of him. Yeah, you usually get signals.

Like I remember my last year with the Oilers. I hate to bring up old war stories. But I started at first. I had 200-yard games right away. And then Lorenzo White ends up signing and coming in camp. And then we split reps. And then we made it to the playoffs. And the coaches came out since.

saying, well, we're going to be making some wholesale changes. We're going to make a lot of changes because we're going to try and make a run to the Super Bowl. You want to know what the only change was? My ass was on the bench. So that was my signal that, okay, something might be going on. So I'm sure there have been similar signals in that building, you know, but just haven't heard anything from him. Yeah, I will say this. And I am not an insider.

So do not quote me on any of this. I don't have any ears inside that building whatsoever. But, you know, working in this industry for as long as I have, talking to enough agents and people who do work for teams for as long as I have, everything right now for Anthony Richardson is about selling himself to the next location because he knows there's no future here, right? The cults have all but committed to Daniel Jones. Like every single time they have a chance to talk, their social media is posting things

about Daniel Jones like he's still under contract, which I think is. insane right now. Every single Daniel Jones outing, they are posting like that's their franchise quarterback. Here he is. QB1. Yeah, this is their quarterback. They've made it clear. So for Richardson, everything you're trying to do right now is market yourself to another team. So even if you're going behind closed doors, banging and crying on Chris Ballard's door saying, trade me right now, or I won't suit up anymore, you can't let anybody else know that because what's the last thing that people want from their backup quarterback is a distraction. You know, that's how you get blackball. That's how you get knocked out of the league. That's how you're

you don't get opportunities. So I don't know. Like, like we haven't heard from Richardson, right? Richardson hasn't said, I want to be traded. But,

come on. Like, come on. Behind closed doors, what do we think they're asking for? They're asking for a trade this off season. Like, they know what the future is in Indy.

They have one more year left on this contract. And honestly, to, I guess to preface where we're going to go later in this, a team is going to trade for Richardson. 100%. A team is going to trade for Richardson. going to want to trade for Richardson. You have one more year of control on the rookie contract.

Then you have the potential of the fifth year option. A team is 100% going to want to trade for that contract. It really comes down to what you can ultimately get for it. But yeah, it's about finding the right destination for him. Like I can almost guarantee behind closed doors. Both sides want to make that move this offseason. And it's almost certainly going to happen. But yeah, you can't come out and publicly say it because people don't want their backup quarterback to be like that. You know, that's how you, like, the best, who are the backup quarterbacks who last the longest in this league,

the Mitch Trubiskees, who are just smiling and nodding on the sideline all the time. Those are the guys who last the longest. So Richardson knows it's a business right now. He's still young and he knows the next location he's going to go. It'll probably be like a backup behind an older quarterback or for a bad team looking for a young quarterback to put out there. So, yeah, he's got to market himself for that. but I can almost guarantee behind closed doors, both sides,

and especially Richardson's side, are going to want the trade for sure this off season. Yeah, we'll see how it ends up going. When it comes to Richardson, if this is indeed it for him, who's most to blame for things not working out for AR in Indianapolis? We'll discuss when the squad show returns next. This portion of the Colt Squad Show brought you by TurboTax.

Tax season doesn't have to take over your life. This year, TurboTax is making it easier than ever to just hand things off and move on with your day. With TurboTax full service, you can have your taxes done for you by a trusted local expert, start to finish without the stress or guesswork. I've talked about this before. For me, it's a lot easier to have a local TurboTax expert in my corner to connect with online to sort through all of the 1099s and W-2s and all that other stuff from freelance businesses

and things like that. If you are self-employed or if you're like me, you do a lot of freelance work could you do contract work. TurboTax is a real lifesaver to get your taxes done and swim through all of the minutia and the forms and also make sure that they're working to get you every deduction possible because I can't identify that stuff. I'm not a CPA. I don't know how to do that. Bang, TurboTax handles that for me and it's a huge stress reliever. For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local turbotax expert for just 150 bucks all in. If a turbotax expert didn't file for you last year, just filed by February 28. Take taxes off your plate. Get back to your life.

Visit turbotax.com slash local. That's turbotax.com slash local to book your appointment today. And we're back on the Locked-on Colts Squad Show. Thanks so much for joining us alongside the locked on Colts duo of Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur. And former NFLer Alan Pinkett. I am Derek Schultz. We are starting a series today called questionable Colts. And the first one that we decided to start off with was probably the most prominent one. Anthony Richardson still under contract for 2026, of course, but on the fence, whether he is actually going to be a cold when they get things underway in Westfield coming up in training camp. So guys, when you talk about the finality here, if it is indeed final for Anthony Richardson, and you're kind of doing the postmortem, even though I guess not to be morbid, but the body

has not been delivered to the morgue yet, right? He's still under contract, as I mentioned. But if we are to assume that the 15 starts for Anthony Richardson, the 17 games, that's it. Who is most to blame for things going wrong here? And I want to preface by saying, it's not just one thing. You know, it's not just the coaching staff. It's not just they are.

As always, it's a combination of things, unless, you know, there are extreme examples like Johnny Mansell. Like, that was pretty much all Johnny Mansell, right? But for the most part, most of these guys fail because a lot of different factors are part of that. But, Zach, what do you think was the biggest factor in just things not happen? for AR here in Indy. Yeah, like you mentioned, there's so many different factors.

And, you know, I know a lot of people have been in this, like, war with each other on, like, teams fail players or players fail teams. Here's the thing. It's a symbiotic relationship, right? It's like these players and teams work together. And I think ultimately, when it's something like this happens, when you are a top five or a top 10 draft pick, it's always a little bit of both, a good chunk of both, right? where it's like, on Richardson's side, like, this was always going to be a big undertaking.

He had 13 starts in college or whatever it was, right? 13, 14 starts in college. It was always going to be a very big undertaking for him to get ready for the NFL game. And ultimately, whether the work wasn't put in, whether it just didn't materialize, he hasn't taken the steps. And I think he would even be honest about this. Like, he's not the quarterback. He probably expected to be at this current age that he's at. on the other hand, the Colts probably could have been better about his development,

maybe rushed him a little bit early on and threw him out there when maybe he wasn't ready. But another massive part of this, and honestly what I think might be the biggest part of all this, is the injuries. Like, you can't get better from the bench. You can't get better when every offseason is spent rehabbing. You know, every in-season is spent rehabbing. Like, you have the best way to get better in the NFL is being on the football field, is actually being out there.

And if you're not on the football field, at least taking that time in the offseason to get better and better. And he's been in recovery for most of this time. So, you know, I think a lot of it. Like, again, he was so far behind the eight ball coming into the league, being so young and so inexperienced. And then you throw in injury after injury after injury. And these were not small injuries, right? These were multiple concussions. These were a throwing shoulder injury.

This is nearly losing his eye this year as a backup quarterback in a freak accident. Like, these are just massive. massive injuries that put a player so far behind the eight ball that it's just a very difficult situation to be in for a young player. But yeah, you know, I think there is blame to go all around, but I will say not to be the biggest like Shane Steichen defender in the whole world, but I do think people go too hard on the coach with this where it's like, look, we look at Shane Steik and in his history in this league, right?

And almost every quarterback he's touched has turned into gold, right? He goes back to with the Chargers, Justin Herbert. one of his best seasons was that first year with Shane Steichen. Jalen Hertz's best career season came under Shane Steichen. Gardner Minchew's best career season under Shane Steichen. Daniel Jones' best career season under Shane Steichen. So I don't think he just all of a sudden forgot how to coach Anthony Richardson, but he knew how to coach all these other quarterback.

So I do think Richardson does bear some fault in this, in a good chunk of the fault. But certainly faults goes to the coaches as well, and then just dumb luck with these injuries. I mean, we've seen this so many times in the NFL from Paris Campbell, to Jolani Woods to Juju Brent's. Players can get derail from injuries, and especially when you're a young

and inexperienced quarterback like Richardson, sometimes it just doesn't work out when you have these injuries. I mean, and this isn't even to say like Richardson's done for his career, right? Drew Breeze couldn't stay healthy with the Chargers, gets to the open market, goes to the Saints, and barely misses a game the rest of his career

and becomes a Hall of Famer, right? But still, it made sense for the Chargers to move on from Drew Breeze because he couldn't stay healthy on that contract. So all this to say, It's all the pieces involved are at fault, but I think just the injury, all the injuries on top of it with him being such a young, inexperienced and raw player really derailed this thing from the start. Yeah, it was an organizational situation, literally from the top of ownership all the way on down to Richardson himself. So the Colts maybe, you know, I think they were pretty sold on Richardson when they drafted him.

but they knew they had to take a quarterback. And obviously, Richardson had a much higher ceiling and Will Levis because that was the two choices, essentially, at that point, without trading up. So there was that, there was starting Richardson right out of the gate after, like, I think, one preseason game. We probably should have seen that one coming because I feel like, I think on draft night, it was either Erse or one of these, Stuyken or Ballard said, you know, you learn by getting reps and you learn by playing, essentially. So we should have known pretty early on he was going to be starting.

And from there, I think the fault kind of lies on Richardson and his body failing him. Things maybe could have gone positively if he hadn't gotten hurt as a rookie, hadn't gotten hurt as a rookie. Because, I mean, he was all in. He was a sponge. He was almost annoying the coaches with how much he was like in their pocket about, you know what's this about what's this about what how do you do this this this like he was doing all the things every single thing they wanted him to do um as a rookie but then of course he gets hurt

early on and i think from there things kind of changed a little bit um he wasn't you know obsessive about it anymore from that point and we we definitely saw that tumultuous second season where they admitted they finally had to pull him off the field when he was drowning because things had just gotten way too much for him and he just no longer was in control whatsoever of what was going on on the field. And then, yeah, like stuff like that and then everything from there on out is kind of on Richardson because it started to get to the point where it was no longer about his development and they needed to start winning games and saving job and stuff like that. And you kind of can't hold their hand at that point anymore. So, you know, I think

there were little things along the way as well that just you know derrick you said it the naivity of it all like the tap out i don't think was like the the death knell in it by any means but like he was very telling like quarterbacks know you can't do that um and i know that's been brought up a lot but it's legit like what quarterback doesn't know you can't do that and like the preseason game earlier of the summer where he misses that very obvious uncovered blitz that dislocated locates his pinky on the play, you know, and he didn't even really miss any practice time. But it was just the little stuff like that where I think the Colts were like, God, man, like, we just need someone who's more ready, you know. And then Jones wound up being exactly that.

I think he exceeded everyone's expectations. But they just needed an adult in the room, a quarterback, if that makes sense. And that wound up being Jones. Yeah. And I just think, you know, you mentioned the naivete, of it, naivete on Anthony's part, but, Zach, was there also naivete on the Colts? Like, did the Colts fully understand what they were signing up for? Like, it's exciting to be like, oh, hey, like the high ceiling guy and we know it's going

to take time. And, you know, part of me was like, well, do you? Do you really know how much time is going to take for this guy? Because this is, this is raw than raw. Like, this is so raw that there's really no comp in NFL history for Anthony Richardson. I'm sure they knew what they were signing up for in terms of like what this process was going to be like. I just think they probably misjudged, how do I put this? I really don't want to disparage anybody. So I think they just misjudged the steps taken on both sides to get there, I guess is the best way I can put this without going too far into the behind the scenes with it all. And the steps that were going to be taken on his side and even on their side as well.

to really get to where they needed to be. And they just weren't taking. I mean, look, if you're going to overcome being such a massive outlier, you need to basically do like what Josh Allen did in his early parts of his career, which was, I mean, Alan was spending his entire off-season with bio-kinetic coaches or whatever and like doing diagrams of his exact throwing motion and working on his arm with every top quarterback expert and doing all of these, like, just really in-depth training stuff. In the season, he was doing similar stuff.

Like, he was putting so much work into his body and his throwing motion and to get better, and he was eventually able to get over that hump where Richardson kind of just kept going back to the same QB coach he had since college, right? And this is at least something that's out there that I can talk about. Like, he just kept going back to the same guy he had throughout college, and that was really the extent of his off-season work. So it's kind of tough. Like you've got to have this like otherworldly commitment,

otherworldly devotion to overcome being such an outlier. And they just didn't get that, you know? And that's what happens when you bet on an outlier. They were all willing to make that bet. It just, they just missed, you know? So then you move on, you go to the next one. And that's what they did with Daniel Jones. So, you know, I don't hate the swing.

I don't hate the chance they took. It just, it just didn't work. out and then you you got to pivot from there. So the technology is a wonderful thing when it works. So I haven't heard anything Zach or Jacob said. So I hope I don't repeat anything you said. But in regards to the question, this is an easy one for me. The GM is to blame. But I'll say this. more first round quarterbacks bust than any other position. But, you know, if you don't take a swing, then you don't score. But, you know, in regards to some of the things that happened along this ride with Anthony Richardson,

like him tapping out, you know. and I have fellow teammates that that talk to me about that. And that's the one thing they remember about him more than any athletic ability. And it's just one of those, it's unacceptable to them that he would do that. Like he lost all credibility when he tapped out. But that goes back to the GM also because usually, I mean, they will, they do. so much study on the person they want to pick in the first round. You know, going back in their lineage, seeing who they hang out with, you know,

do they have a police record? You know, they go so much in depth that they should have known that something like this could potentially happen. A tapping out incident could happen. And, you know, if it was a... fourth or fifth rounder, then you could blame it on a scout and one of the scouts would get fired. But for a first round pick, you know, that is all on the GM. But I'm not trying to hang Chris Ballard because, you know, when you look at the athletic ability and raw talent,

it's almost like, how do I pass on this? you know, because potentially this could be, you know, the best pick that they ever had if it worked. But it didn't work, but then most quarterbacks don't work in the first round, unfortunately. Yeah, and I think, you know, we talk about all these things that could have been done, even if all those things are done. And sometimes they are for some of these quarterbacks. It's still just for whatever reason doesn't work out. I can't hate on the Colts for taking a swing. You know, swing big, you can hit the ball far, but swing big, miss big.

And it looks like they miss big on that pick. What would Anthony Richardson command in trade compensation? We dug through some recent high draft pick quarterback washouts to compare, and we'll share that when the Colts Squad Show returns next. This portion of the Colts Squad Show brought you by Fanduel. The winter games are officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for events. You only get to see on the biggest.

stage every four years. And that's why following the winter games on FanDuel just makes sense for metal counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sports you care about most. FanDuel gives you more ways to stay connected to the action. I got super duper emotionally invested in the two Corrie's and Team USA Curling, who had a great gold medal match. Ended up falling a little bit short to Sweden, but that's okay. They came home with the silver. Some of the athletes in Luge, that stuff is just insane to me. And you got hockey heating up now, women's ice hockey, USA just dominating, men's hockey getting going

as well. The Winter Olympics are fantastic and a lot of fun, especially with Fandul. The winter games are on. There's no better way to follow them than with Fandul. Fan duel, play your game. We're back on the locked on cold squad show. Don't ask me to explain luge or curling or really any of these sports, even hockey. I love watching live hockey, but I'm like, what the hell is going on here? I got you for hockey. Yeah, there you go. That's my thing right there.

Besides being our film guru on Locked on Colts, he is also a big hockey aficionado too. Jake Arthur's here. So is Alan Pinkett. I'm Derek Schultz. Thanks so much for joining us as we're about halfway through this Thursday edition of the Colt Squad show. So we're all kind of an agreement here that Anthony Richardson likely won't be

with the team in 2026, but you're not just going to straight cut him, right? He has some value out there on the open market. And I went back and looked at, again, Richardson's such an outlier and such a unicorn that it's really hard to say that any of these guys are cops. So I'm just going to list it out just to kind of give folks an idea. I wanted to see what some, what I would qualify as washout quarterbacks that were high draft picks ended up getting. Zach Wilson was dealt from the Jets to Denver along with the seventh rounder to get a sixth rounder. The Patriots got a six round pick for Mack Jones from the Jaguars in 2024.

maybe calling him a washout is tough. They did have that one nice year in 21, or he's pretty good. Bears got a conditional six. It could have been a fourth had he reached a certain snap count, but that did not happen in Pittsburgh for Justin Fields in 2024. And then the 49ers somehow got a fourth round pick for Tray Lance. I don't know how that happened, but it happened.

Richardson turns 24 in May. He's still under his rookie contract. So I guess both of those things are enticing, but really outside of the youths, and the athletic ability. I don't know what else there really is. I mean, six rounders, Zach, is that what we're thinking? A conditional fifth?

Something like that? Yeah, the absolute max would probably be like a conditional fourth is what I'm thinking. Like if you hit certain thresholds, conditional fourth, minimum would probably be like a sixth rounder. But yeah, you're going to get something for him because what's the most important thing? If Alan could hear me, he would agree, I think. I can hear you now. You can hear me. There we go.

The most important thing when it comes to the NFL. on contracts is control. The control you have over a contract because if Richardson pans out, I know this is the biggest thing is the if, obviously, right? But you have to work in this world of if you're trading for a contract, right? If this player works out, you have immense surplus value and team control, right? So you still have one more year of Richardson on this rookie contract, still $10 million, but I believe with the way the trade is, the Colts could still eat like good bit of that, like half of that for you. So you could be paying him like, what, $5 million. this next season by taking him on, which would be a low-level backup.

And then you still have the control if he does something decent for you to pick up that fifth-year option after that. So that's what it's about. You're not really trading for players in the NFL. You trade for contracts. That's why a player making $20 million who everyone thinks is a decent player gets traded for a six-round pick or a seventh-round pick. But a player on a rookie contract gets moved for a third-round pick, gets moved for a fourth-round

pick because you trade for contracts. You don't trade for players. So, yeah, if you're trading for a quarterback contract on a rookie deal still with two more years of control, I think it's going to be like a fourth, a fifth, maybe a six if nobody's interested, but look at the nature of the free agent market at quarterback this offseason. Look at the nature of the draft. I think they could maybe get a fourth, but I've been kind of just operating from like

a fifth round pick standpoint this off season. You know, Trey Lance is certainly. a good comp to look at because Trey Lance was so young, barely played, was injured all the time, but was that top five pick. So if you can get a team that's just desperate for young talent like Arizona, for instance, like Arizona has no means to get a young quarterback. They have a new young coach coming in from a staff that liked Richardson. The RAND staff did really like Richardson in that draft class. Maybe you could get like a fourth out of them. But that would be the best case scenario for the Colts. I think more realistically, it's like a fifth or six. But

somebody will trade for it. It's a quarterback contract on a former top five pick where half the league had him as a top five, top 10 pick in that draft. So you're going to get something from him for sure. It's just how much are you going to get? It's going to be the big question. Yeah. Last time I discussed him on the show and like what they might be able to get,

I said probably baseline six with escalators up to a four. The Colts love to do those conditional round picks. You know, they did that with Carson Wentz as well. Yeah, it's based on playing time, obviously, first and foremost. And, like, if he makes all pro, like, second team, all pro or something, it can go up to a fourth. Or if the new team gets to the playoffs with him as the starter, something like that. But, yeah, like, obviously the talent is there. Like, the last time we really saw him playing football, it was decent football.

Because if you remember, it was when he was leading those fourth quarter comebacks against the Patriots and the Jets. after the absolute dumpster fire that was like the first half of 24. So he has put some good tape out there. He has some things you cannot teach or coach out of anyone. The arm strength is undeniable. He has a clutch factor. He obviously has athleticism. His ability to avoid sacks is second to none.

But then he obviously does a lot of that boneheaded stuff or just really misses the layup. So that mixed with the. injuries. It's tough. I think other teams probably have more leverage than the Colts do. I don't think they would outright release him unless like it just got to the point where there was no trade partner and his representation just wanted him out, you know, but more likely than not, on average, you're probably going to get like the fifth rounder, I would guess. it was weird for the Cowboys to trade a fourth for Traylance in the first place because he wasn't even the starter.

It was just going to be immediately parked behind Dak Prescott. But I don't know. There's some teams out there like, you know, obviously Minnesota, if they want to push J.J. McCarthy, Miami, if they want to do something about Tua. I don't know about Las Vegas if, you know, how much Tom Brady might have, how much sway he might have. I don't know if that's really his kind of quarterback.

Arizona was a good mention. So there are some teams out there that makes sense for him to compete to be the starter or just like plop in there and develop him behind some sort of quarterback guru at coach. You could do that as well. But there should be takers for Anthony still. I just don't think there's any reason for a team to trade like a third or better for him. Well, you also want to look too at the teams that have like 10 plus picks, right? because teams don't like to add 10 plus rookies typically to your roster, right?

So you usually see them package some picks to move up or I think that was the case with the Cowboys and they traded for Lance. I believe it was a fourth round comp pick they traded for him or they had a fourth round comp pick coming back. So that's why they traded a fourth round pick is because they knew they had a comp pick coming. So those are the teams to look at like I don't think the Raiders are going to move for Richardson whatsoever. I think the Raiders have like 12 picks, this upcoming draft. He won too. So yeah, so those are the type of teams where they could say, hey, look, we could burn a fourth on this shot here. We could burn a fifth on this chance here that this works out.

And if it doesn't work out, no harm, no foul. We can wipe our hands of that, you know. So I do think there will be suitors, though, for sure. So, Zach, the explanation you gave in the first block may have been the finest explanation I've heard for the rationale behind, you know, trading for. extra picks because on a football team picks are golden. You know, they relish the picks. That's why the draft is such a production. There's no production for when they trade for a person, but, you know, for the draft, it's all these picks. It's all the potential that lies with those picks. And you can hit on a fourth or fifth rounder a lot of times if that's the,

what you guys are saying is the equivalent value. I actually have a question more than an answer. Question is, this is on the GM. Does the GM also, in this case, consult an offensive or defensive coordinator or the head coach? Because if the need is defense and they're looking, you know, maybe for another edge, another quarterback, you got a guy like Aniruma who he prefers a player who's been seasoned and been in the league.

So could the trade potentially be for a player? Or could it be a pick and a player? There's just so many different combinations you could use. They may take a lower round pick if they can get a particular player that a team is looking to, get rid of and in anirumo thinks he could rehabilitate you know so it's it's wide open out there uh yeah but the the the the issue of control is huge it's huge to an NFL team it's huge to management to have that control they love that control yeah no and that's what makes it tough for like a

player to come back to the Colts in that potential trade too is because that's another contract or, you know, control over a player that you have to really manage there. Because if you're the Colts, again, like, would you rather have a fifth round pick of the four years of control and a higher pick guy or a seventh round pick plus now this guy that's coming in with only one year of control and he's making more money, you know? So I get what you're saying out about, like, Louina Rumo valuing veterans. And if you can get someone, they highlight that way. but this is why in the NFL we almost always see trades are just for picks. It's like typically is because you're getting a four to five years of control. You know, that's so much more valuable than you can give me a Pro Bowl level guy.

But if I only have one year of control and he's making $20 million, that's not valuable to me whatsoever. But if I can get four years of control on this mystery box, that mystery box of four years of control is just so much more appealing to me. Yeah, man, the ultimate mystery box is Anthony. Richardson, but I think something Jake that Zach said earlier, too, I really am interested to see now. Like, obviously quarterbacks have always, even when they've watched out, they've always kicked around, but they've mostly been backups. But now that we've seen this resurgence of Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones and, you know, Mack Jones goes to San Francisco and he's a great spot starter and things like that, like are the extended warranties, for lack of the better term, on some of these guys that bust out, even if they

bust out spectacularly like Richardson did here in Indianapolis. Teams going to have more trust in those guys in seeing what's there, given all these reclamation projects that are having success. Yeah, I think that buys several guys extra chances as long as they have a good personal reputation, I would say. Like a lot of the guys who are, I don't know, for lack of better term, budheads probably we don't get the second chances, second, third, four chances that a lot of guys do. But Anthony Richardson's a good kid.

Like, everyone likes him. So, like, he'll get another chance. But, yeah, for him, I'm really interested to see if it's to compete as a starter or he goes in to, like, be someone's backup. Like, I just keep having this image of him in Miami, like, running around and playing really, really well. I don't know what it is. Like when I picture Anthony Richards in playing next, it's for the dolphins and it's falling out. I don't know why. But that, I guess, would be insurance for Tua.

Miami needs that. But now it's, Anthony will get that chance. It's a lot of things have to go right. Like part of it is these guys do, like in some instances, the light clicks on. But like they have to have a really strong support system. I think probably personally and professional. in that building, if that makes sense. Like they have to get the right coaching.

There has to be almost no pressure on them to succeed. Like because with Donald, for example, like he had a whole redshirt season in San Francisco before he went on to Minnesota. And then like Baker went to Carolina and then the Rams before he went to Tampa. So these guys have to land in some really good circumstances first. So it may be a year or two before Anthony starts to ball out again somewhere if he gets that other big opportunity. I'm just interested to see like where he goes for that tutelage. Yeah.

And the final thing to kind of say here, just to close the door on Richardson, number one thing for him going forward in his career, just stay healthy. He just needs to stay healthy. Like it's been the biggest thing. Like I know a lot of people have talked about the accuracy and all that. but the first step forward to developing is being healthy. So wherever he goes, just please avoid the injury bug going forward. So we can actually see what he can be because we just have so little on tape of him going back to college even.

Like, you know, I know it's a not for long league for a lot of players, but like I just want to see this guy at least stay healthy for a calendar year first before it's all over for him. Availability. And I'll add one more thing. If in the NFL, if a dude can make plays, he can be the biggest butthead in the world. That's true. The year one grades for the Colts 2025 draft class are in and they're not super great. We're going to talk about that when we wrap up the Colts squad show next.

Don't go anywhere. And we're back on the locked on Colts squad show. Thanks for us for joining us. Alan Pinkett, Jake Arthur, Benny making another appearance. This is his fifth or sixth squad show. I'm Derek Schult. He's a picture on the squad show. He's asleep now, by the way.

I got him there. Okay, good. Got to give the people what they want there. They want their Benny appearances. So off the topic of Anthony Richardson, and we'll continue our questionable cult series on the next show on Tuesday. I want to preface by saying,

I understand that year one draft grades are a little, you know, come on man, it's year one, right? But there were year one draft grades. I saw them over on NFL.com. And it peaked my interest. So they got. me. Okay, I clicked on the link. And I went and I scrolled through and it's not like there are a lot of harsh grades here, right? There aren't Fs and things like that. It's only been one year. But I had to

scroll down pretty far before I got to the Colts. They had the Colts at 21st with a grade of B minus. But a lot of the write up here focuses on Tyler Warren's drop off after the Daniel Jones injury. And maybe that zapping some of the Colts grade. I think what also zapped it is the fact that we never really got to see Justin Wally, right? And then some of these Hunter Woler, the same thing. So two guys that we thought were going to factor into the Colts plans this year's act and end up factoring in. And then most of the other guys played for the most part sparingly with Tua Mulal and Jaylon Travis, even though he played more at the nearing the end of the year. And of course, we got to see Riley Leonard essentially give a dress rehearsal there

in week 18. But, you know, B minus is, is that fair overall? I think that probably aligns with my expectations, not even comparing them to the other 31 NFL draft classes. I would say, this is a horrendous bell curve. The 21st ranked team is getting a B minus. We're going to have everybody everybody gets passing. Yeah, what the participation trophy is in America right now is what we're getting with this grading scale. But I think the 21st thing makes sense. It's just, why are we spending time talking about Tyler Warren being any kind of negative in all that. He's like the only positive in the draft class. Like, look, Tyler Warren did fall off down the stretch.

But name me any pass catcher in the NFL who wouldn't fall off when you're down to a 44-year-old quarterback coming off the street, like to be your starter. Name me any. You know what, if you could name any pass catcher that would survive that, that drop off there, then yeah, let me know. But I thought he played pretty well after. it was like a two to three week stretch where he had a sickness and there was that wall that he hit and then I thought he really rebounded the last like two to three games to close out the

year. So I have zero negatives to say about Tyler Warren. Like I don't know why he would be included as a negative there. The more so negative is they just like outside of what a month of play from Jalen Travis and two games from Riley Leonard, they got nothing else from the draft class at all. You know, and part of that's because of injuries, right? Justin Wally got injured in training camp and he looked like he would be a mainstay on this team like a really good starting player who knows that they even trade for sauce gardener if justin wally stays healthy right that kind of had that that domino effect on the season uh so that was a big part of it hunter waler getting hurt was a big part of it as well uh but j t to him a low out looks like a really

bad miss as of right now like i'm it's not over for him but it's not looking great for him either currently. Like, he just didn't look up to snub. He couldn't get snaps in an edge room that was just putrid all season long. And even when he got out there, he didn't really look like he deserved many of those snaps. So, like, if I'm going to be negative on this draft class, it's more so to do with that second round pick, more so to do with the injuries.

A couple other players didn't make the roster as well. So, yeah, I think that you can certainly rag on this draft class not looking amazing right now. I think there are some positives going forward. Like I, Jalen Travis will probably be their starting right tackle next season. And I thought he played really well down the stretch. Riley Leonard could be their backup quarterback. And then if Wally rebounds and becomes a starter or a significant role player this next season, then it looks pretty good going forward.

But as of right now, yeah, I think ranking outside the top 20 and, you know, if we're doing a real grading scale, like a C would probably be like a real grading scale for this. Not, again, a B minus. everybody on who gets great it gets a B at the very least. But yeah, I'm perfectly fine with critiquing it like that. Just going after Tyler Warren as a critique just is kind of interesting to me. Yeah, 21st is perfectly fair. For some reason, it became acceptable for Warren to be a bit of a target.

I think it's more nationally. He lived up to expectations, but he just happened to be part of like a historically productive rookie tight-end group and that never happens. Like Colston Loveland wound up being awesome. Aranda Gadsden was awesome. There was other guys across the league besides Warren that played at a high level. Usually it's maybe one rookie tight end. And he lived up to expectations of being that like 14th pick, whatever it was.

So he performed really well, like Zach said, about like that two-thirds mark of the way through the season, he hit that little slump, but he came back fine. I felt like Philip Rivers tried to get him killed four times a game. Like those two really did not have a great chemistry like Jones and him did. I don't recall Leonard throwing him the ball a whole heck of a lot. I might be wrong on that, but just the whole mojo of the passing offense and the offense in general just got completely thrown off with the Jones injury. So you can't really blame a pass catcher for completely falling off there.

It's not like he was not coming down with wide open plays. Like most of what was coming his way was highly contested, if I remember correctly. So Warren, I would give him like an A, like a solid A. I think he did really well. I'm more concerned, like with what Zach said, with JT2MLO being kind of a no-show in a season where everything, the table was completely set for anyone to step up opposite of Liatu-Atu-A-2. Quitty pay disappeared.

Tyquine Lewis and Samson, Eviecom spent a lot of time banged up. And just the opportunity was begging for a young guy like Tuamolo out to kind of snatch that. And he hardly flashed more than Dorel and Chami, to be completely honest with you. I thought DJ Giddens was a bit disappointing. That's someone who, including for me, had a lot of hype coming into the year. The team loved him. They thought he was going to be really productive. But the fact that he had some mental errors out there, like, during the summer and didn't really play special teams,

relegated him to being a healthy scratch just about the entire year. And then they did have some midlight guys that kind of hit, you know, Riley Leonard being a six-round rookie quarterback, and at least getting two basically full games of playing time was a positive development. Jalen Travis, what was he like fifth round, becoming your new starting right to tackle most likely fourth round. And then you get the incomplete on Wally and Woller. Those two, I'm telling you, they make the, they rise the group grade quite a bit. Wally was going to be a starter and probably see 800 plus snaps.

Woller was probably going to play 400 plus snaps as the dime linebacker plus whatever else Lou Anerumo cooked up. So those two guys being out was two massive roles missing from the defense. So overall, I think the rookie class did underwhelm a bit. 21st, I think is fair. But there's a couple guys missing from there that make it a little bit of an incomplete grade. Yeah, and real quick on Tyler Warren, you mentioned other tight ends producing from this rookie class, Jake. Warren basically outproduced every single one of them.

Yeah. Oh, Fanon. I forgot about Fanon, too. Yeah, he outproduced Fanon as well. in terms. So Warren finished this season tied for sixth in receptions among all tight ends. Fifth in receiving yards. He was, let me see, sixth in target share at the position and second in yards after catch. This is among all tight ends, not just for all tight ends. So yeah, anyone putting him as some disappointment is absolutely insane to me. He was a focal point of the

offense for the entirety of the season. He was a very, very good football player. No issues with Tyler Warren. or with after Tyler Warren in this draft class. Yes. I'm in agreement with you all. I think the reason they have a B minus is from the lift that Tyler Warren gave them. Because I was really disappointed in JTT. I think it was a good pick, someone that could contribute right away, just based on his play in college.

He looked like a man amongst boys when he played. in college, but then he looked like a boy when he got to the NFL, you know, and I know there were some injuries there. I know DJ Giddens did have a lot of hype, ran a 4-4-3 at the Combine. That's always impressive, by the way, I ran a 4-48 at the combine. But only 26 carries, and 12 of those 26 came in his very first game. But, you know, to me, it was a pick. They were trying to find another Jonathan Taylor.

And there's only one Jonathan Taylor. And, you know, it's not like he was overloaded, although he carried the ball a bunch. The way they spaced out his carries, you know, and he was clearly the best in the backfield in terms of not just running, but receiving the ball and also pass blocking. You know, it's like they couldn't take them off of the field. So, you know, you could make a case for Amir Abdullah and Ulysses Bentley being better prospects than DJ Giddens. Now, you know, for a lot of these rookies, they go through their first year. I think about myself. I think I stole my first year in the league.

I think I had no reason being there. I was so sorry. You know, but sometimes, you know, teams will have patience and eventually you become a pro. I feel like I became a pro my third year. And I'm glad that I did flash a little bit in my second year. But I felt like I became a pro, something like a pro in my third year. So hopefully, you know, these other rookies are on the same trajectory. And hopefully the Colts have patience.

You know, because on paper, it looks like a great draft class. It does. But injuries are going to happen. That's one of the things you can't count on. But talent-wise, it looked like a good group of guys. And to not get any protection out of JTT and get the injury to Justin Wally, not get any production out of DJ Giddens, you feel like you just wasted those picks.

But I think better things are on the horizon for them. It is just a matter of maturity in understanding what being a professional football player really is. Final minute here, Zach, but we had a couple of, and Jake, you can get it on this too. We had a couple of commenters ask what you envision for the role for Justin Wally to be next year. If there is something that, you know, I mean, he was. going to play extensively this year, right? Until the story happened. So he was going to be the other starter opposite of Mooney Ward on the outside.

I think when they drafted him, they've talked about his versatility inside and out. So his ACL injury and the fact that Sauce Gardner is here now, it kind of muddies the water of like, what is that role moving forward? I guess you kind of wait and see what happens with Kenny. Like, does he eventually replace Kenny in the slot? Does Mooney Ward retire? I don't know. There's a couple spots in the starting three of the corner group that is on really shaky ground that I just, I don't know. Like, I think they'd be comfortable playing him inside or out, but he played just about

exclusively outside all summer last year. Yeah, I mean, given the uncertainty with Mooney Ward, I think he would slot in as the other outside corner for sure going into next season. But even if Mooney Ward were to come back and we'll see how long that would be if you were to come back, I think he'd be a high value role player. I mean, we saw how many corners played this past season. Just because you're not a starter going into training camp doesn't mean you won't be a starter by the fourth week of training camp or by the first week of the season. And so he's going to have a big role for sure. But, yeah, it will be a starter next season as long as Mooney Ward isn't here. Thanks so much for joining us on this latest edition of the Colts Squad Show.

We'll be back with you Tuesday night at 9 o'clock as our offseason schedule continues every Tuesday, every Thursday, 9 o'clock right here on Locked on Colts. As always, the Colts news cycle never really goes quiet. So keep it locked on Jake and Zach, your first list at every day on Locked on Colts. and be sure to follow at Locked on Colts on socials. Check out our other great content on YouTube and TikTok. And we'll see you next time right here on the squad show.