Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Anthony Richardson is Set up for Success with Shane Steichen

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Quarterback Anthony Richardson landed in the perfect situation with the Indianapolis Colts and Shane Steichen. Mark Schofield joins the show to discuss his thoughts on the young QB and how Richardson ...can find immediate success in the NFL.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOColts?sid=YouTube📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFLFollow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOnFN!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Sko Show comes to Indy as we continue our conversation on Anthony Richardson. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Zach Hicks. You know and love me from obviously this episode right here
Starting point is 00:00:48 and all the other episodes here at Lockdown Colts. And you know me from my written work over at horseshoehuddle.com. You guys can read all of my film articles over there. Jake calls me the most notorious film guy in Colts media, and I wear that with pride. So Jake will be back tomorrow. Don't worry. We'll talk about that a little bit later.
Starting point is 00:01:05 But our special guest today is Mark Schofield of SB Nation. Mark is one of the leading experts in all the industry when it comes to quarterback play. And he's even branching into some others now with SB Nation. So pretty cool to watch. And all of you old heads like me, you definitely remember him from the Inside the Pylon days as well. I know I have to keep shouting that out every time Mark comes on the show. Today's episodes, Go and I, are going to dive into Colts new franchise quarterback, Anthony Richardson. Richardson is a polarizing player, but his tantalizing traits and his lovable personality make him a player to bet on in this draft class.
Starting point is 00:01:40 We're going to dive into some of the finer details of his game including how Richardson can fix some of his flaws and how he's a perfect fit with Shane Steichen but first Mark we're looking at this profile with Anthony Richardson it is one of the craziest profiles we've ever seen because we've seen raw quarterbacks go in the first round and even in the top 10 before like Josh Allen those type of guys but we've never seen a guy this inexperienced go as high as Anthony Richardson did. What about Richardson for you kind of made you comfortable saying, yeah, this is a guy I'd take in the first round or I'd be okay with a team like the Colts taking fourth overall?
Starting point is 00:02:16 Yeah, well, Zach, first, thank you very much for the kind introduction. It means a ton, my friend, and it's great to be here again. With Richardson, obviously, look, the athleticism certainly helps. And being in Lucas Oil Stadium the day of his combine session, you could feel the conversation around him shift to, hey, he's like maybe 15th overall in this class, mid-first round type of pick, to he could go first overall with what he just did in front of us because it was just different.
Starting point is 00:02:43 You know, the explosiveness, the was just it was just different you know the explosiveness the athleticism and then you know even when he was just warming up and throwing just the easy velocity with the way the ball that sort of pops out of his hands explodes out of his hands you know you could tell you were watching something that doesn't come around too often and you know historic athletic size combination of the position now you know, historic athletic size combination of the position. Now, you know, what makes it easier to bet on that is then when you start seeing him in games and we all know the plays, you know, the jump fake against Utah, the run against LSU, the pocket movement against Tennessee, like those were the three plays on every network that got showed when the pick was made. But then you look at some of the other stuff, the reading of defenses, the eyes and how he can manipulate defenders,
Starting point is 00:03:32 both on the boundary and the flats to the post safety in the middle of the field. You see some of the little nuanced things to play in the position. And, you know, did he do it to an extent with a consistent level of, say, a Bryce Young or CJ Stroud? No. That's probably why those guys went 1-2. But he certainly did it. There's certainly something to work with there.
Starting point is 00:03:53 It's not just he's an athletic freak and he's running around, doesn't know what he's doing, but it's working on Saturdays, so we think he can work on Sundays. Yes, he has that, but there's also a foundation of high level quarterback execution from the pocket. It might not be the consistency that you'd like, but it's there. So you can at least believe that you can get more of that at the next level. And so you put that combination together, it screamed to me like, yeah, he's coming off the board inside the top three or four picks. And that's what we saw. Yeah. Yeah, for sure for sure and i love that you mentioned that right there just his ability to go through his reads and
Starting point is 00:04:28 and the eye manipulation i mean again when you're watching this kid he's 20 years old uh he's the fourth youngest quarterback drafted in the first round in the last 70 years behind guys like michael vick and sam darnold and stuff like that i think they're the only younger guys take it ahead of him a super young quarterback and first year starting and you're seeing the eye manipulation. You're seeing him move. Like there was this play against Georgia where he had the hook over the middle and he moves off the middle linebacker just by looking up to the
Starting point is 00:04:57 flat for half a second and then switch it, flips his hips back and throws it right to the middle of the field to that hook. That's stuff that you just don't see from these super young, inexperienced quarterbacks. And the other thing I wanted to mention, I want to get your thoughts on this too, is just the poise. You know, like I think one of the most translatable traits from college quarterbacks to NFL quarterbacks is that poise in the pocket. It's what these guys are doing when pressure is closing in. It's what they're doing on third and fourth down.
Starting point is 00:05:23 Are they making the correct reads? You know, again, the mechanics aren't there, whatever. If the accuracy is not always there, but are they panicking in that pocket? And I think something we can say about Anthony Richardson throughout his 13 games of experience is we didn't really see him panic in the pocket. It was very, very poised and controlled, which is so rare to see of a guy with his little experience. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:05:44 And pocket poise is one of the toughest things to sort of figure out as a quarterback. Like I was just on a show a couple of minutes ago and basically said the idea is you either sometimes have it or you don't, you know, because it's an unnatural field. Like you're standing there, you're, you know, the idea that you're supposed to climb the pocket. It's like, you want me to get closer to those guys? Like those guys are trying to put me in the hospital. You want me to get closer to them?
Starting point is 00:06:08 But that's sort of what you have to do. And it's even tougher for an athletic quarterback to sort of have that ability, that confidence in yourself, that willingness to stay and fight, right? You know, fight or flight, human response, we all know it, whether it's in the pocket or whatever, you know, but when you've got the athleticism that you know you can pull the ball down and nine times out of 10, you can outrun somebody to the edge, you know, that's a good thing to have. But if you start to rely on it too much, it becomes a problem. You miss opportunities to
Starting point is 00:06:39 make throws from the pocket. And so for athletic quarterbacks like richardson like jalen hurts whose name will come up a lot in this conversation i think going forward finding the balance between okay on this one i gotta go i gotta get out of here that there's three points of pressure i've got nothing yet i gotta create to i'm feeling this pressure and it's the walls are sort of closing in but i gotta stay here and fight in the pocket you know that's a tough thing to balance, but he's shown the ability to do that. He's shown the ability to remain poised in those moments. The throws might be slightly off or whatever, and there's mechanical things we're going to talk about. But the fact that he has that willingness to stay and fight is a big thing for him.
Starting point is 00:07:20 Yeah, and the pocket strength as well. I mean, I know Bryce Young, for instance. I'm just comparing him to the number one overall pick in this class. Bryce Young is a magician and the pocket strength as well i mean i know bryce young for instance i'm just comparing him to the number one overall pick in this class bryce young is a magician in the pocket absolute magician pressure is closing in and he all of a sudden he's going to be out of the pocket making a big throw but if you're hitting him in the pocket at all he's probably going down you know and that's not a surprise but the thing with thing with Richardson is he can have those magical moments, those magician moments like a Bryce Young. But if you're hitting him, he's not going down. He's staying up.
Starting point is 00:07:51 You better get the clean shot on him because he's going to bounce off of you. And in NFL rooms, in NFL scouting rooms, they evaluate play strength. It's one of the things you look at. There's more than one way to stay upright in the pocket. Now, athleticism has become the in vogue way of doing it whether you're you know making people miss or just running away from pressure and things like that and yes Richardson has that but he also has that sort of Roethlisberger-esque ability of just I'm going to shrug somebody off like I can't escape you know this defender has a free shot on me but I'm not going to go down. You know,
Starting point is 00:08:25 you get a slot corner blitzing off the edge. He might be able to shrug that off. You get, you know, an inside interior defensive tackle that's getting sort of pushed into him. He's trying to get him down with his arms. Richards is going to be able to fight through that. And so, you know, that gives you another element of that pocket poise, that ability to avoid or escape from pressure. It's not just a, I got to run away from it. There are moments when he can just stay and sort of fight through it because of that play strength. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So coming up guys, we're going to dive into some of the flaws in Anthony Richardson's game and talk about how, yes, they are detriments
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Starting point is 00:10:12 Jake Arthur will be back tomorrow to talk all things Colts Draft that we're going to dive into. What we really liked about this Colts Draft and where we think the Colts can go from here. So make sure you're tuning in tomorrow for Jake Arthur's triumphant return to the show. Let's go. We're going back to this conversation about Anthony Richardson. And I'm sorry if you guys are watching on YouTube. You lost
Starting point is 00:10:32 me there for a second. I accidentally hit my mic cord. But don't worry. I'm back. I'm back in here. Anthony Richardson, we hear this whole draft process about his inaccuracies. We hear about oh gosh, you can't draft a quarterback who completes only 53 percent of his passes accuracy never gets better in the nfl but we're kind of seeing with draft prospects lately that that kind of old saying of accuracy never gets better in the nfl it's kind of going out the window like we are seeing guys get more accurate in the nfl we're seeing lamar jackson improve his accuracy we We're seeing Josh Allen obviously improve it.
Starting point is 00:11:06 Jalen Hurts improve his accuracy. You know, what is it about kind of the today's NFL game that's helping these raw quarterbacks go from 60% passers in college to 65%, 66%, 67% guys in the NFL? Yeah, and then again, there's that name, Jalen Hurts. We're going to keep coming back to that because that's the proof of concept that we're sort of working with here But I think a lot of it is Overall, the NFL game
Starting point is 00:11:30 Is starting to mirror a lot more Of what we see at the college game It's more spread, it's more wide open It's more trying to get people into space And it's one thing When there might be some throws Where yeah, there are tighter winter throws and things like that. If you're throwing a dig route or things like, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:48 routes over the middle, like we talked about with Levis, right? If you're attacking the middle of the field, there might be more bodies there. But if a lot of your throws are to the boundaries, you know, within five yards of the line of scrimmage, you know, 90% of the NFL throws today are within, you know, eight yards of the line of scrimmage for the most part. I haven't studied it in like a year or two, but the last time I looked, it was like 91% of all NFL throws are 10 yards or closer.
Starting point is 00:12:13 And so when you're playing the game at that level, it's just natural that, you know, you might get more, you might get a higher completion percentage. And, you know, if you're throwing the ball a lot more downfield in the college game for whatever reason, you know, suddenly most of your offenses within or at or near the line of scrimmage, you might see a bump that way. Richardson was dealt with some drops and things like that. I think that completion percentage could have been a little bit better anyway.
Starting point is 00:12:38 And so we're seeing quarterbacks have the ability to bump that completion percentage up, number one. Number two, just don't look at completion percentage as the be-all and end-all of it. There's context there. That's why when you start looking at PFF numbers and adjusted completion percentage, I always like to use that when you can because it strips out drops and spikes and things like throwaways, things like that. So I think that also helps. But the other thing is we're also seeing quarterbacks working so hard
Starting point is 00:13:07 at holding their craft. And I think with Hurts, with Allen, with Lamar, like the work that they're doing year-round at refining mechanics and ball placement and the work that some great – Quincy Avery and Tony Rossiopi and Jordan Palmer and all the great private quarterback coaches that are out there. So many of them that are doing such great work with quarterbacks from eighth grade on up, you know, they're working year round at it. And so I think that's another thing that we're seeing is that, you know, they're working on it February, March, April, May.
Starting point is 00:13:40 So when the summer comes around and training camp comes around, they've done some work to get themselves in a position to improve upon that as well. And so I think we've got a lot of factors that are coming to play here, which has led us to the point where, like you said, before Josh Allen, you can't draft him. 55% completion percentage. It's one of the Parcells rules, right? Like 60% completion percentage. I think that one, as with some of the other Parcells rules, because you're not going to have a kid that's staying for four years or something, you're chipping away at these because of the way the game has changed. Yeah, yeah, and I love everything you mentioned there,
Starting point is 00:14:13 and I agree with everything completely, especially these kids, the way they're just transforming their game by working with these QB trainers and all that stuff. But another aspect I wanted to add on to you saying that the NFL is kind of mirroring the college game is we're getting athletes again, like Lamar, like Jalen Hurts, like Josh Allen, and we're not asking them to be pocket passers anymore. Yes. Yes. We want them to be pocket passers. Like at the end of the day,
Starting point is 00:14:38 if it's third and nine, we want you to be able to drop back and deliver a strike, you know, a backside dig or something like that, to get that first down. But we're not just saying hey Anthony Richardson you're going to come back here you're going to do your three and five and seven step drops from under center and the only runs you're going to get are going to be from scrambling like we're not going to design any runs for you nowadays it's you know Jalen Hurts last year had 97 designed runs in that Philadelphia Eagles offense. Obviously, Lamar Jackson, when he won the MVP, was running the ball like an extra running back on that team, the plus one player in the run game. So do you think kind of using quarterbacks
Starting point is 00:15:16 in that run game kind of helps lessen the box a little bit or kind of lessen coverages to make completion percentage and accuracy even easier for these quarterbacks? Oh, 100%. 100%. I mean, and again, we're going to get into the sort of how Richardson fits in what we expect this offense to look like. But the years of, hey, loved what you did in college. That was great.
Starting point is 00:15:40 All the athleticism you showed and the running and the touchdowns. That was awesome. Don't expect to do it here because this is the offense that I want to run. It is three, five, seven-step drops, and we're not going to use you in the run game. We're not going to move you around. Those days are gone. Coaches have realized that, like, you have to get them,
Starting point is 00:15:58 just generally speaking, if you want to get the most out of a young quarterback, go back to their high school coach, their college coach, their Pop Warner coach, their 7-on-7 coach. What concepts did you like to run? How did you use them? Get that stuff into your playbook. So if it was a lot of spread stuff, if it was boots and sprint outs and things like that, get it in there.
Starting point is 00:16:16 Use them in the run game. And then in the run game as well, the sort of plus one in the box, you might get plus one anyway. Now you're plus two if the quarterback's involved, right? Because if you've got two deep safeties and you've got a five, six-man box, you might get plus one anyway. Now you're plus two if the quarterback's involved, right? Because if you've got two deep safeties and you've got, you know, a five, six-man box, you might be plus one to begin with, but then you can leave a defender unblocked because of that quarterback run threat and the, you know, the zone read type looks that teams are using,
Starting point is 00:16:37 like we expect them to use with Richardson. Like we certainly saw Shane Syken use with Jalen Hurts. Now you're kind of, like I say, plus two in the box. And so, you know, you're, again, it all gets back to the idea of winning with numbers, right? Winning with overwhelming numbers, whether it's in the run game or flood of the zone. And so you suddenly got a high low on a defender or, you know, you've got an inside outside on a defender in the flat. And it's like, you've got space to work with because of the way you've constructed dancing because of the numbers advantages that you've created.
Starting point is 00:17:09 And so Richards is athleticism and the athleticism we're seeing younger quarterbacks, a come out with and be their NFL coaches, trust them to use in the NFL. I think that's also why we're seeing a lot of this advancement, you know, and these younger quarterbacks are coming out with athleticism having success it's because the coaches have stopped the square peg round hole thing that we used to see it's like oh this is what you did in the in the college game that's what you're going to be doing in the nfl at least to start yeah absolutely and you know not to toot my own horn or pat myself on the back here yeah two two two that's what i'm doing right here where
Starting point is 00:17:42 i wrote an article back in i think november december about how we need to reanalyze what the high floor quarterback is it was a great piece it was a great piece i loved it yeah because traditionally we think of the josh rosens as the high floor guys josh rose the davis mills ah this guy's high floor the ceiling might never be there mac jones another one right there i know you know that one a little bit a little bit more with the patriot stuff there you know these are the one a little bit more with the patriot stuff there you know these are the guys that we traditionally thought as high floor guys because you know what they might not be able to throw the ball 60 yards but they're going to be able to operate that west coast offense they're going to do those three five seven step drops they're going to read the high
Starting point is 00:18:18 lows for us but now the high floors in my opinion are these mobile quarterbacks because look again if i have a quarterback like mac jones say the goal is to get to 3 000 yards their first year right 3 000 total yards however it is running or passing i need those to all be through the air with mac jones anthony richardson i could get a quarter of the way there with this his running ability i don't even need to throw one pass for him to get me those yards and all yards are created equal so to me i really think these mobile quarterbacks like a quarterback like richard look i'm not I don't even need him to throw one pass for him to get me those yards. And all yards are created equal. So to me, I really think these mobile quarterbacks, like a quarterback like Richland, look,
Starting point is 00:18:51 I'm not saying he's a high floor, super safe player, but it's a higher floor now than what it was back in 1990. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a great point because, again, coaches are more willing to say, yeah, we'll get out of those 3 000 yards we're fine if 800 of them are on the ground like we're fine with that you know we look at daniel jones last year you know he got himself a big payday 120 designed runs like again the idea of we need 3 500 3 000 yards whatever it is from our quarterback it doesn't have to be all through the air. You know, it can be, you know, half through the air, half on the ground,
Starting point is 00:19:29 two-thirds through the air, a third on the ground, whatever it is. But that's what we're going to get. As you also said, all yards are created equal. We'll get them and it'll create opportunities. And so, you know, it's reset that idea of what a quarterback's floor is. Like, you know, a guy richardson his floor may not be the same as a pocket passer type but it's not this wild difference it's a lot closer i think than we've thought in years past yeah yeah for sure so coming up guys we're going to bring all
Starting point is 00:19:56 this together and talk about anthony richardson plus shane steichen which is in my opinion the most perfect fit in this entire draft class we're going to talk about that here in just a second all right mark so getting to anthony richardson and his fit in the nfl i can't imagine a better coach in all of football than shane steichen with him because we saw with shane steichen the last two years especially what he did with jalen hurts you know because when he went to philly jalen hurts was a 52% passer his rookie year. You know, in that Doug Peterson offense, he did not look good. Like, he looked like a guy where it's like, do we ever start him again? Because that was not pretty, given every quarterback in that offense didn't look pretty that year.
Starting point is 00:20:37 But they put Jalen Hurts into the Shane Steichen scheme. And yeah, it was a little slow at times times but you saw the steady progression from you know backup caliber quarterback to solid starter to MVP front runner for most of last season so do you think that there is a better fit for Anthony Richardson to become what he's going to be in the NFL than being with a guy like Shane Steigen no no I mean better he was the best available fit like if he had right if he had gotten to Kansas City, like Andy Reid's going to make him pretty good, I think. And I think there are some other offensive lines around the league where like, yeah, you know, this could have certainly worked out. But in terms of like the spots where we thought a quarterback was going to go, couldn't have picked a better one.
Starting point is 00:21:20 I mean, because there's proof of concept. There's Jalen Hurts. I mean, throughout the Richardson process, right, it was, oh, he could be Josh Allen, and you understand why those comparisons were made. I know I made this sort of torque and explosiveness comparison between Richardson and Allen when we talked a couple weeks ago. But you look at how Shane Steichen crafted an offense, you know, Jalen Hurts' first full-time year as the starter, right,
Starting point is 00:21:44 where, you know, they get to the playoffs, but it was run heavy, run first, use them in the run game. Again, get into that idea of we just need the 3,500 yards somehow. If they're half of them in the run game, we're okay with it. Whatever the number is, we're okay with that. To what we saw last year, where it was suddenly in the acquisition of A.J. Brown, having Devonta Smith all that stuff
Starting point is 00:22:05 certainly helps but it was he's suddenly a high caliber player from the pocket as well and the biggest difference I think from Hurts in the first year to what we saw last year was that pocket poise like I distinctly Zach remember you know two years, he had a game at Denver where it's a third down and you could see him start to pull the ball down. And I'm like, he's going to run, he's going to run. And he doesn't, he resets and then like throws a backside dig to Goddard. And it's like, all right, the lights come on. Like it's come on in his mind. Now he knows I can stay and fight because the offense had finally finally like the way it was constructed around him instilled that belief in himself the path is there I think whatever
Starting point is 00:22:51 Richardson sees the field and you know I heard some rumblings maybe it is week one maybe they just decide look we're gonna do it he's we talked you know he's he's got to play year one if they decide they're gonna do it year one week week one, okay, that's great. Love it. You'll probably be 55% run game on first downs, 60, 65% run game on first downs. It might be a 60-40 run pass split to start out. That's how it was with Philly. You know, the idea is you'll get to flip those numbers at some point,
Starting point is 00:23:21 but you don't have to do it overnight. You don't have to do it right away. If you're continually plus one, plus two in the box, you're going to have success on the ground. You know, if this run game gets back to the way it has been historically in Indianapolis over the past couple of years, where it's a dangerous run game and now you add Richardson to that, like, look, zone read looks a lot different when, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:42 you're looking at the ball in the belly of Jonathan Taylor and it's Anthony Richardson there and not, you know, Carson Wentz or Matt Ryan. Like it's a lot different. And so that run game becomes a little bit more explosive even. Then you start filling in the stuff that Richardson needs to fix. Like, again, this is a fantastic parent. I had, you know, I get a lot of people that ask me fantasy questions, and somebody reached out to me today, and it was like,
Starting point is 00:24:08 all right, well, who's your QB1 in fantasy? And I'm like, just for year one, maybe still it's Bryce Young because of everything they have around him. But if it's a dynasty league and you're asking me who my QB1 is in fantasy going forward, it's Richardson. This is such an ideal fit. Now, again, that's fantasy. That's not what we're going to see on the NFL Sundays,
Starting point is 00:24:28 but I think it shows you that the potential is there for this offense to be just fantastic. It might not happen overnight. It probably won't happen overnight, but the land and spot, the parent, and this is what I wrote when the pick went out, a lot of it influenced by our conversation a couple weeks ago, like the parent of Steichen and what he wants to do and what he's done with Jalen Hurts and Richardson is just ideal yeah yeah now I'm going to do a quick anecdote here about Shane Steichen and why I love Shane Steichen so much is Shane Steichen's an
Starting point is 00:24:58 Eric Correale guy he Norv Turner Eric Correale wants to air it out you could see that with Justin Herbert that rookie season. You could even see it in 2021. I mean, Jalen Hurts was not in a super efficient deep passer in 2021, but he threw the ball down there a lot. Now flash forward to this past season, and Shane Steichen wanted to make Jalen Hurts a lot more comfortable and wanted to help that quick game grow. So Shane Steichen the whole offseason studies Bill O'Brien's empty theory.
Starting point is 00:25:27 Studied empty theory, really got into empty theory. This is what I was told from somebody close to Shane Steichen who worked with Shane Steichen before, is he studied empty theory and really wanted to get Jalen Hurts in a comfortable short passing game set. And they came out with, I think, the second most percentage in uh empty theory in empty personnel last year they were like second most they built QB runs out of empty they built quick hitters out of empty they had their quick win rod receiver and Devonta Smith out of it and
Starting point is 00:25:55 Shane Steichen built this offense around Jalen Hurts and that quick game went from something that Jalen Hurts struggled with in years past to an area of immense strength for him. Now, flash forward to Anthony Richardson and Richardson in college, his two areas that he, you know, the things that he did really well to identify defenses is they use a lot of pre-snap motion and then obviously play action game he was really strong on. And those aren't really things that Shane Steichen's done in the past. You know, he's never really used pre-snap motion. Play action was part of it, but it was a different type of play action than what Florida was doing so when I look at this fit here and I look at Shane Steichen's past and how he's been able to adapt
Starting point is 00:26:32 again empty theory is not something he's done in the past before Jalen Hurts but he brought that in I'm looking at what Anthony Richen does well right now and again the pre-snap motion all that stuff Shane Steichen's gonna be one of those coaches who will bring that in. It's not going to be, I'm an arrogant play caller. That's, you have to be my air core yell quarterback. It's, oh, you like pre-snap motion? Cool. We're going to do that 80% of the time or something.
Starting point is 00:26:55 You know, I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but Shane Steichen's so adaptable that I think if you give him this kind of clay mold that we have with Anthony Richardson, he's going to give him every single tool to succeed. Yeah, and I think the days before the draft, Stephen Holder wrote a piece about the Colts like all the four quarterbacks. And in that piece, there was a big section on part of the reason they like all four.
Starting point is 00:27:23 Is it because of the four quarterbacks themselves? It was because of Shane Steinke. It was because they knew that you know you could draft bryce young he's going to put together an offense that's going to work for bryce young he could turn around and draft will levis he's going to put an offense around will levis that works for will levis it's the same thing with richardson you know steinke has shown as you just sort of walked us through there brilliantly, he's going to put this offense into the mold of Anthony Richardson. So if Richardson comes in, you know, they get done, they do the introduction, they catch their breath, the cameras turn off, everybody goes away.
Starting point is 00:27:59 Steichen turns to Richardson and says, what do you want this offense to look like? The next 20 words out of Richardson's mouth are what we're going to see in the fall. That's what they're going to do. And if Richardson comes out and says, you know what? I want to grip it or rip it. I don't want to run. Spread it out. Let me throw it.
Starting point is 00:28:13 That's what we'll see. If Richardson says, you know what? I kind of love what you did with Jalen Hurts, run game and stuff like that. That's what we'll see because he's going to adapt this offense because he knows he's lived it. He's lived taking a day two quarterback from strange, somewhat shocking draft pick behind Carson Wentz to highest paid player in the NFL is for 10 days, but highest paid player in NFL history. He's lived that before he can live it again. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I love the fit so much. I love Shane Steichen. And one thing I will say about Shane Steichen, this is why I love him so much, is every, I think him and I see football extremely similarly. I'm not saying I'm the same football mind as him, but I can always predict what Shane Steichen is going to do and want because it's what I would do and want. It's like my favorite thing. So I know if Anthony Richardson comes in and says something that Shane Steichen hasn't heard before, all the coaching clinics are going to be downloaded on that subject. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:29:08 Shane Steichen's iPad will be all those coaching clinics. He's going to be in the Google Drive that gets floated around. He's going to be downloading all the stuff that we download, too. I mean, and that's great. But again, that's your job as a coach, right? Just like forget Shane Steichen or who. Your job as a coach at any sport, at any any level is to put your players in the best position. So he or she so they can succeed. Right. It doesn't matter if it's, you know, Shane Steichen with Anthony Richardson or me in a couple of hours coaching middle school baseball.
Starting point is 00:29:35 Like whatever your kids do best, you put them in that position to be successful. And he's shown that willingness to adapt his philosophy to what works best for his players, that's a huge part of being a coach. And it's why he's gone from a quarterback coach in the span of a couple of years to an NFL head coach. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So, guys, that's all we have for today. Mark Schofield is always brilliant in everything he has to say. Make sure you guys are following him on social medias, at Mark Schofield.
Starting point is 00:30:02 You can find his work over on SBNation.com where he covers the NFL, but also F1 and more sports, right? Isn't it hockey as well, right? That's what you were saying. Yeah, I mean, look, they've let me cover everything. I've done baseball. I've done hockey, Kentucky Derby. But the main two are NFL and F1.
Starting point is 00:30:19 I get to chat. Look, last Tuesday, it's a couple of days before the draft. I've got all these radio shows talking draft, and I have to hit pause for a second because I had to sit down with Lando Norris from McLaren right ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. There I am. It's me. It's Lando.
Starting point is 00:30:33 He's over in their factory in England, and we're talking about cornering, and we're talking about overtakes and stuff like that. So I get to sit down with Lando Norris. I'm going to get some other drivers over the summer here that I'm going to get to talk to. So, yeah, I mean, I've I've basically the draft ended Saturday. Right. And all the men and women that cover the NFL draft, myself included, were looking forward to a long night of sleep. But I was up at 6 a.m. the next morning because we had Azerbaijan lights out at 7 a.m.
Starting point is 00:31:01 And so I go right from NFL into like basically full-time f1 we got miami this weekend we get a mola and uh we get monaco at the end of the month as well we get three races this month so it's going to be a ton of fun and i love it i absolutely love it oh yeah i know a lot of you guys listening are big f1 fans especially because again we're on indie we love racing yeah i've got some i've got I already got some advice to come to Indy some year. I've never been to the Indy 500. It's a bucket list item for me. Uh, so not this year, but maybe next year you might see me walking around there. There we go. There we go. So again, make sure you guys are following him on social media is there at Mark Schofield and follow all
Starting point is 00:31:38 his work over at SB nation and every day is don't worry. We'll be back with you guys tomorrow. Jake Arthur makes his triumphant return as we continue the conversation about this Colts draft class and maybe take a slight break from Anthony Richardson hype, but you guys know me. I'll dive back into it for sure. If you guys aren't already following us, make sure you follow us at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthurNFL, and at ZachHicks2 on
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