The Ringer NFL Show - Dissecting the Colts' Failed Anthony Richardson Experiment With Steven Ruiz

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s own Steven Ruiz to share their first reactions to the news of the Indianapolis Colts naming Daniel Jones their starting QB over Anthony Richardson heading into the 2025 season. They start by breaking down Richardson’s career timeline with the Colts organization and debating whether the player or the team are to blame in the debacle. After the break, they speculate on Jones’s 2025 season and talk about what the future holds for Richardson. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Steven RuizProducer: Chris SuttonSocial: Kiera Givens and Brian WatersProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capadia here, joined by Stephen Ruiz, and we had some breaking news in the NFL, the Colts naming Daniel Jones, their starting quarterback for the 2025 season. It is not Anthony Richardson. We're going to get into all aspects of this move. What it means for Anthony Richardson's future?

Are the Colts a poorly run franchise? Do they have any hope with Daniel Jones in 2025? we're going to get into all that, Ruiz. But first, just, were you surprised? We talked about this quarterback competition in the offseason. When you heard the news, were you surprised at the announcement? I was definitely surprised by the timing. It was one of those situations where you get the text, the tweet alert,

and you have to double check and make sure you weren't getting, like, fooled by a fake account or anything. I had to check Schefter's account, Rapid Forts account, all the insider account. But yeah, the timing of it is what threw me off the most. Yeah, you know, they were hinting a little bit about it, but I wasn't sure until they announced it that they were actually going to go with Daniel Jones. So we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we are going to hit on every angle of this story. This episode is presented by American Eagle, whether you're hanging out at home or headed out for a training session, American Eagle has you covered with a ton of new stuff. We're talking super comfy heavyweight hoodies and joggers that look and feel great, sweat-wicking active shorts that are good to go anytime,

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It's Daniel Jones. It's not Anthony Richardson. Where does your mind go immediately in regards to this story? Wow, Richardson must suck. If you're losing the Daniel Jones in 2025, a quarterback competition, Daniel Jones, I feel like I wanted to see Richardson start, but I'm not sure it would have mattered if it was close enough where something like, according to reports, Stuyken ultimately decided

based on who could run the offense better, who could take care of stuff pre-snap. So if it was close enough in terms of physical on-field play for that to be the deciding factor, I think it says more about Richardson that it says about Stikens, ability to evaluate quarterbacks. Yeah, you kind of wonder, like, was this an actual competition? Well, you know, what did Richardson have to do to win it?

Was it just like, it's probably going to be Daniel Jones, unless Richardson is amazing? But I got to be honest, my first reaction, and this won't surprise you because I've ripped them before, but it was just that, like, the Colts are an unsurious organization, and I don't think they take enough heat for it. And we'll get to, I'm not saying Richardson is blameless or anything like that. I think what you said is true, and they have more information than I do. That's a caveat as well. But can we just recap how they got to this decision?

Like, they draft Anthony Richardson high. He has 13 career college starts. And what was the book on Anthony Richardson? He's 21 years old. You know what? He's got to go to the right place. You got to mold him. He's got physical tools, but he's not a finished product.

This was 90% of the Anthony Richardson conversation before the draft. Then they draft him. They have no plan. Chris Ballard has literally gone on the record with the athletic saying, well, you know, when you draft a guy, you feel pressure to start him right away. It's like, are you serious? Like, what do we? The pressure to start him right away? So they start him. He starts four games, gets injured. 20, 24, he comes back. He completes under 50% of his passes. He has the whole situation where he asks out of a game, gets benched after that, comes back. And then this offseason, the most hilarious offseason storyline, They're telling everybody, we want to light a fire under Anthony Richardson. We're going to bring in some competition. You know I was skeptical about that storyline at the time. And then the competition is Daniel Fricking Jones. And you're paying him $14 million for one year, Daniel Jones.

So I just look at all that. And again, I'm not saying Richardson is blameless. We'll get to that in a second year. But they had no plan when they drafted the guy. And they got to take heat for that. There's no evidence of them understanding that you need. a support system when you draft a quarterback like that. There's no evidence of them having a plan at any point throughout the entire process.

And I swear, I don't think it's happened yet as of this recording. But they're going to be talking about Andrew Locke. They say, well, you know, it still goes back to, it's going to be 2037. And they're going to be, well, you know, Andrew Locke, that surprised retirement. It's like, I'm tired of so many excuses with them. They've gone four straight seasons without making the playoffs. And I just want to start discussing them more as a poorly run franchise. Do you disagree with any of that?

No, I think that's fair. I think we're almost up to a decade of Chris Ballard running this team. And just to go back to your other point, like, where was this pressure that he's speaking of coming from? Like, fans? I've never heard a competent GM refer to pressure from fans and bozos like us who just talking to a mic for a way. And allow that to influence not only your decision-making in terms of drafting a quarterback in the first place, because he had that one quote where he was like, but you draft the wrong guy and they're going to get you up out of here, you're going to get fired.

Yes. Okay, you can't be making decisions based on losing your job. And then secondly, you can't craft a developmental plan for your quarterback, especially one, like a unique prospect like Anthony Richardson. You can't craft your developmental plan based around what fans are going to say and whether they want to see him right away or not. So I'm with you there. But the same time, I do feel like this does fall back on Richardson.

You know, we can get into the blame game later. Okay, let's get to that. Who do you kind of blame more? I do think that's a key question in all this. and I know you're writing about it for the ringer. So go ahead. You think it falls more on Richardson maybe. Yeah, I will say that because I think people are going to draw conclusions

based on how Richardson's career has gone and they're going to go, well, look at the data. Like, he didn't complete passes at a high rate in college. He didn't really play. The numbers didn't wow you. I know he had tools, but you can't be fooled by tools. It doesn't really apply to the NFL level and are going to go and draw the wrong conclusions from it.

Because you could have said that about Josh Allen, who just won MVP last year. You could have said that about Lamar Jackson, who completed under 60% of his passes in Bobby Petrino's offense but the year before he's drafted, and he's won two MEPs and could have won a third last year. So I think the main takeaway for me, at least, has been all the stuff that we've heard about Anthony Richardson off the field.

And you can blame the Colts for letting that stuff get out and it started trickling out right when he was benched last year when he tapped out of the Houston game in week eight. But that's the one thing that you can't really control for. When you're like us and you're evaluating from the outside looking in, you could say the Colts could have done their due diligence figured out what his work ethic was like, compared it to the other tools he quarterbacks

that have worked out, because by all it counts, Josh Allen is just a psychopaths when it comes to preparation and he's ultra-competitive and he pours his heart into football. We haven't seen that from Anthony Richardson. And by his own admission,

he didn't work hard enough over those first two years and he set out to change that this year, but you're not going to be able to overturn probably a decade worth of habits that he's built up during his football career going back to high school in a year. And even if you are, even if he is this hardworking studious quarterback now, it's not going to pay off in two months. You know, like it's going to take

a year. So I tend to put it on the lack of work ethic, but I guess you can pin that back on the Colts for not doing enough work evaluation-wise to figure that out. I feel like it's the key sort of big picture question in all of this, especially when you consider how old is he now, 22 years old. He's still younger than, he's three days younger than Cam Ward. The first overall pick this year. It's crazy. So it's a great question and it's not, it's the NFL, but it's also other sports as well. Like when you have a talented young prospect, player, whatever, how much accountability is on them to figure it out with, and it is still vague, I will say. You know, like, I'm with you. You read all these reports and they're kind of hinting at it.

well, lack of preparation, is it work ethic, those types of things? How much of that falls on a 21-year-old? You know, you can make the case, well, if you're accepting the paycheck, it falls on you, like, you know, you should know what you're doing, and how much of it falls onto the organization where they should know the person their drafting is not a finished product. Like, to me, and I feel like I'm making excuses for him, and I agree with a lot of what you said. Like, at some point, he's got to take accountability. He's got to be more. accurate, more durable, put the work in, all those things. At the same time, if there was a, if I knew that the Colts had a plan and it was like, no, the day this guy comes in the building,

this is going to be his mentor, this is going to be his quarterbacks coach. This is who we're going to have him go to if he needs anything. We're going to make it clear he has to be in the building at this time. He's got to watch film. He's got to meet with the receivers like Matthew Stafford and Cooper Cup and Pooka Nakua and the cafeteria at 6 a.m. or whatever they were. He's got to do all those things that come with being a professional. If I felt like, hey, they were doing all those things and Richardson was like, no, I'm good. Like, I don't want to do that. Then I would feel better placing the blame on him. But when I zoom out, like, if it was a different organization, one that I had more faith in or confidence in or had a track record, then I'd probably be more inclined to put the

blame on Richardson. But when I look at them and it feels like they're flying by the seat of their pants with all these quarterback decisions that they're making, I'm going to put some of the blame on them, that they didn't do those things right away. And they're admitting to mistakes now. And like you said, they play them right away because of what pressure in Indianapolis? Like, when you have some of the best job security of any GM in the NFL? I mean, what are we talking about here? I can't accept that. But I do think that's at the core of this question is when a young player in professional sports doesn't learn those habits right away. How much is that? is on the person and how much is on the organization?

Yeah, I think that's totally fair. And maybe I'm being a little harsh, like just pinning it on him, but I do think there was some failure from the player. But you can also pin it on the plan that the Colts did have. I know we're saying they didn't have a plan, but clearly the plan was to throw him in the deep end and see if he sinks or swim and hope that he can learn how to swim eventually. But the way they used him early on, especially,

like as, and I get it from Stuykin's perspective, If you're going to play the kid and you're going to want him to get as many reps as possible quickly, you've got to design the offense around what he does well now. And for him, that was very obviously the run game and using him as an option threat, using him in the red zone as a runner, which ultimately led to his injuries. And the reason why he only has 377 dropbacks to his name. So I feel like Stiking was kind of looking for the best of both worlds here. He wanted to play the young guy early, but he also wanted to win games.

and that came at the expense of Anthony Richardson's health. I think we could safely say now, because both times he got hurt, he was running the football. So maybe if Siking would have approached it differently and been like, no, we're not going to spam quarterback runs just because that's what you do well and that will help us win games in the present. Let's build an offense that's going to help you develop.

And maybe you're going to go through some of these growing pains, but it's going to help in the end. And maybe two, three years down the line, your game is going to be totally different from what it looks like now. And I think that's the shortcut they kind of took with him. That's hard too, though, because I could see a scenario where they're doing that and they're losing games and we're coming on here going,

why aren't they using Anthony Richardson in the run game? He's a beast in the run game. Why aren't they using him in the red zone? So you're right. It's just sort of differing priorities in the NFL world where a coach might be trying to win games. A GM might be trying to save their job. Other people might be saying, hey, let's make sure his development as a passer is the priority here. And when those things aren't aligned, again, I think that's, that's when you see what happened here

with the Colts. If it's a different organization where there's more stability, people have been around, everyone's on the same page. I think they could have some of those conversations that you're alluding to, probably easier than maybe they did have here. All right, let's take a break. We come back. The Colts still do have a season to play, apparently, with Daniel Jones as their quarterback. What's that going to look like? We'll get into that. And then also just kind of what does the future look like now for Anthony Richardson. Football's almost here, which means it's time to start thinking about how the season will end. That's why Fanduil created a whole new holiday Futures Day happening on Tuesday, August 26th.

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888-78-9-777-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. So let's look at the 2025 season for the Indianapolis Colts with Daniel Jones. In naming Jones the starter, Shane Steikid made it pretty clear. Now, he said, like, this is our guy. He's not going to be on a short leash. Coaches say that all the time. So we'll see.

but he said Jones, the guys have taken to him. He's a great communicator with the guys. You can see that veteran presence out there. So I'm excited for that. So that was via ESPN and the Athletic. So Daniel Jones and Nicole Truese, how does this season go for Indianapolis? I mean, I don't think the outlook changes too drastically for them.

I thought they were like an eight, nine-win team if Anthony Richardson was serviceable. I think with Daniel Jones, the ceiling is has definitely been. been lowered. But I think the floor has been raised a little bit. But I get what they're, the gaps are trying to fill in by replacing Richardson. Like you want a guy, a quarterback that can make the layups. You want a quarterback that's not going to complete 55% of his passes. You want a quarterback who can complete 64, 65% of his passes. And Stuyken, when he was asked about Daniel Jones track record, he mentioned the fact that he had like set a Giants record for completion percentage in 2022. So I feel like that's a big deal for him, specifically. The problem is, you know,

is, one, you're losing something in the run game without Richardson out there. Two, you're losing that downfield ability based on Daniel Jones' track record as a downfield thrower, especially in recent years after the neck injury. So I think that this offense is going to be very easy to defend, and that's going to kind of hurt the foundation of it, which is the run game. That's what Shane Stuyken is known for, scheming up the run game. They have Jonathan Taylor, obviously. But if teams don't have to back off and there are no deterrence in terms of like

downfield threats, and there's no deterrent in terms of a. run threat. I know Daniel Jones can run a little bit, but he has lost some of that ability with the injuries over the last couple of years, and it's nothing compared to Anthony Richardson. I think you're just looking at a very vanilla offense that is, there are no obvious glaring weaknesses outside of Daniel Jones, of course, but there are no obvious strengths. So I don't see how you can expect this team to be any better than like the 20th ranked offense. And if that's the case, I'm looking at the defensive depth chart. I'm not excited about the defense either. It seems like the ceiling for this team is mediocre.

Yeah, I honestly think you presented sort of the bullish case for Daniel Jones and the offense. Honestly, when you said 20th, I'm like, I'm pretty sure Shane Stuyken might sign up for that right now. I just feel like you look at Daniel Jones. Early in his career, I saw the flashes, even when things weren't going right. You said, this guy can throw the football. He has athleticism. He's not afraid to throw into tight windows. He's not afraid to push the ball downfield.

And so even when the numbers were bad, I could kind of buy the argument that, no, there's something there. And in 2022, he has the career year. Such a big part of that, though, is what you're talking about was the run game. And I feel like Shane Steichen referring to 2022, it's like I feel like anybody who watches him in 2022 and watched him last year, those are two totally different quarterbacks. And it's not his fault. He had a neck injury. He had other injuries.

And we see this in the NFL all the time, that the injuries take their toll. and you're a different player, I really think, unless he just feels healthier than he ever has right now, maybe that's possible, but I just feel like he's not that guy anymore. I mean, the last two years,

he ranks 34th out of 34 quarterbacks in EPA per pass play. If we look at just last year, Richardson was 36th out of 36, Daniel Jones was 34th, which brings me back to the plan, Colts. What are we doing here with these two guys? But I just don't know that he's going to bring the things

to the table that the Colts might think he's going to bring. You mentioned it. The run game takes a hit here. Now, maybe he's more reliable in terms of, like you said, the toughness, the pre-snap stuff. I mean, I don't... Even that, I don't know. I feel like there's this idea of Daniel Jones, and it goes back to him

as a prospect, playing for David Cutcliffe, like having the manning shine on him, and you're like, oh, he's that type of quarterback. But when you watched him, even at Duke, it was like, no, this guy's like a scrambler who reads stuff out, needs an extra beat or two to read stuff out, and throws it late, and he'll take some

chances down the field and he's kind of reckless. Like he'll throw into coverage and he's still largely that same quarterback. I know Dayball, especially in 2022, was kind of able to rein him in a little bit, but it was at the expense of what I felt like was a strength which was that willingness to push the ball down field and he had

some ability to do it. I don't know if he still has it. But like, in terms of like being an adult at quarterback, being an adult under center, like you go back to even the Packers game, this past game, this past weekend where apparently Jones did enough to lock down the job. On the first drive, he completes a pass to the flat and it moves the change. Any quarterback in the NFL would make that pass. But after that, he's late on a quick game

concept. The pass rush gets to him and bats the ball and he's not able to get into a wide open receiver in the flat. On the next play, he comes out a little too early when he's dropping back and he fumbles the snap. And the next play, on third down, he misses a wide open Tyler Warren down the field. Like, if you're going to sign up for that, why not sign up for Anthony Richardson? and at least you'll get some cool throws along the way. I'm with you. I think the idea that he sets a high floor or that he's that, like he's not, you know,

Kurt Cousins or whoever you want to compare to, like at this stage, I don't think he's been that guy. I mean, he took sacks. The one big difference, I think, could be the sack numbers that he takes compared to Richardson. I know we've discussed that before, that Richardson in terms of strengths,

one of maybe his biggest strength was avoiding sacks, which is hard for young quarterbacks. And he did that at a very high level. I mean, two years ago with the bad offensive line, Daniel Jones was sacked on over 15% of his dropbacks. It was crazy early in his career. He was fumbling all over the place. And so I think some of the strengths, again, that he had earlier aren't there anymore. And I think some of the weaknesses could be pronounced here. I mean, the Giants had no answer at quarterback and they were just like, see ya, you know? He got bench for Tommy DeVito and Tyrod Taylor. He got bench for Tommy DeVito.

That's crazy. I mean, that says it all. He got benched for. for Tommy Cutlets and then he got 14 mil from the Colts and now he's going to be starting week one. That's crazy. I think it's going to go horribly for the Colts. If I'm being honest, I think that the other thing is durability with Jones. And again, that's not always his fault, but like, what are the odds that Daniel Jones is really the Colts quarterback for 17 games? I think it's very low. So whether it's injury, whether it's, hey, they lose some games and I can just see the headline at Indianapolis, you know, week six. Anthony's really, you know, these six weeks have been big for him. He's really on the sideline picked up a lot. We're just going to make a change.

Like, they're just going to be scrambling to keep their jobs. I think they're going to be a bad team. I mean, media, I thought mediocrity was achievable. And now I just think they're going to be a bad team. I think they're going to be a bottom five or six offense. And this is not going to go well for them. So maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe they're right about Daniel Jones, but that's how I see. I think you hit it on the head with the like the sack thing. And I think like Stuyken being fixed on completion percentage is a red flag to me because yes, Daniel Jones has. a higher completion percentage compared to Anthony Richardson, but what did that come at

the expense? It's because he took more sacks. He didn't throw the ball. When you don't throw the ball, you can't throw an incompletion. When you're Anthony Richardson, not only did Anthony Richardson not take a bunch of sacks, he was like one of the league leaders and throwaways. And then the Colts were one of the league leaders and drops. So that's like a perfect storm for like

the worst completion percentage possible, whereas Daniel Jones would take the sacks. He ran like an RPO style offense. He didn't test downfield windows. So yeah, he completely at 64% of his passes, but at what cost? And then you look at them just in the preseason. Do you know who led the Colts so far through two games and completion percentage?

Wasn't Daniel Jones. It was Anthony Richardson. Daniel Jones is in the mid-50s after two games. Wow. I didn't know that. As you know, I struggle to keep up with preseason. But I did not know that. I mean, that's interesting.

Yeah, 50% of his passes. I'm with you on Daniel Jones. All right, let's finish with this. The future for Anthony Richard. Ruiz. You know, looking back, actually, the athletic had a story by Zach Kiefer, who does a great job. And he talked to Chris Ballard. This was earlier in the summer. And now I look back thinking, like, was Ballard sort of laying the groundwork for this? Because sort of the premise of the story was, even if it doesn't work out for Anthony Richardson in 2025, he's still our guy. Like that was the

premise of the story. This was weeks ago before the competition had played out. So was he telling the Truth, what does the future look like you think for Anthony Richardson? Although I think that is like some getting out of head ahead of the story, GM, job preservation style of deal. But I do think there is some truth to that. Like obviously he had issues that he has to address off the field. Before it become a starter, a long-term starter, I think he has to address those issues. So he'll be able to do that work even if he isn't starting. He only has 377 drop back.

So I'm not willing to write them off yet. but Trey Lance has like 177 and the league has decided it's already done with him. So I could very easily see him doing the Trey Lans thing where he's bouncing around preseason. You get excited. You're like, oh, Anthony Richardson starting for the, I don't, some bad team for the dolphins in two years. And you get excited about that. But then you watch him and then you're like, oh, he still can't complete a pass. I feel like that's the most likely future here.

But it's so early. I want to compare his stats through two years to Bryce Young's stats through two years. I feel like those guys are on two different trajectories. We think about them in totally different ways. Yards per dropback. 4.8 for Bryce Young, 6.3 for Anthony Richardson. EPA per dropback. Negative 0.13 for Bryce Young, negative 0.08 for Anthony Richardson.

Success rate, 37.5 for Bryce Young, 38.5% for Anthony Richardson. He has better stats across the board in a third of the dropbacks. And we're giving up on one of these quarterbacks, who is, by the, the way, a couple years younger than the other one. And we're anointing this other one as like the franchise guy in Carolina. It doesn't make sense to me at all. Poor Bryce Young listening. He's like, you know, I've had a summer of good press and, you know, it's just, I can't get, you know, this isn't even about me. And Ruiz is just crushing me on this Anthony Richardson pod. It is a good example,

though, of how fragile these things can be. I mean, you know, when Young got benched last year, this conversation we're having about Richardson. Some of it certainly applied to him where was like his career's over in Carolina. You know, this is if they're benching him now for Andy Dalton with a new coaching staff, it's not going to happen for him there. And now months later, he is there week one starter and there's at least some optimism with Bryce Young. Listen, I haven't been like an Anthony Richardson truther.

Like there's a chance he just is not good enough and he's not going to have an NFL career. Absolutely. The accuracy issues, the, you know, whether it's preparation, whatever those intangibles are that the Colts don't like, which again are a little vague, which always makes me a little uncomfortable, but there's obviously something there that they don't like in terms of his preparation. Those things, can they get fixed? I'm not a quarterback mechanic's guru, so I don't know if the accuracy stuff, can that get fixed. But I do,

I'm kind of defending the guy here. I will say the difference with Trey Lance is I feel like if you showed me Anthony Richardson's 10 to 15 best plays in the NFL, I would be like there aren't a lot of guys who can do that. And I think other prospects who fail, you don't even see those eyes. Like Zach Wilson, you cannot put a reel together where you're like, hey, if he just does this. Anthony Richardson, you can do that. And he's 22. He doesn't take sacks. He can run. Is there another team that can get through to him? Like, I feel like his career with the Colts is over. I mean, I don't care what Chris. But I would be shocked if at this time next year we're like, oh, they're taking another shot on Anthony Richardson.

I think the only way that happens is if Daniel Jones gets injured or gets benched and Richardson does what Bryce Young did last year. That could happen. But if that doesn't happen, I think he's going to be gone at this time next year. And I think there will be organizations willing to take a shot on him. Like, you're telling me the Eagles wouldn't give up a day three pick and be like, we're going to make him our backup and see and build his value up and then trade him. The Chiefs, the Rams, who next offseason could face a tumultuous quarterback situation.

You mentioned the dolphins. I mean, I wrote down a bunch of names, the Browns, the Steelers. You know, I was call it. The Vikings. Yeah, sure. Raiders, you know, Gino's older. There were, though, that there was that buzz around the draft that the Seahawks kind of liked Anthony Richardson.

So is it the Seahawks? Was that Pete Carroll, the Giants? What are they doing? Like, there's just so, there's too many teams where you would just say, all right, let's take a flyer on him. It might not work out. It's going to take, what, a day three pick to get him? He's still on a rookie deal.

And let's see what happens there. But I mean, let's keep in mind. We're going into a week one of the NFL season where Justin Fields, Daniel Jones, and Joe Flacco are starting quarterbacks for NFL teams. I think Richardson will get a shot somewhere else. It might be the best thing for his career next off season. But unless that one scenario plays out,

I don't think that shot's going to be in Indiana. I think just given Daniel Jones track record of injuries, poor play, there's a very, very, very good chance that Anthony Richardson is going to start a football game for the Colts this year. And that's why I brought up the Bryce Young thing. It wasn't a slander Bryce Young, although it was a little bit of that, I will admit. It just goes to show

that all the stats that you can point to all these red flags in his production, go away if you can just improve the vibes. Just give us five good games in a row. They don't even have to be that good based on Bryce Young. You throw for 180 yards and don't turn over the football. You're the franchise quarterback all over again. So, I

think there's a very, like, I kind of disagree with you. I think, like, if Anthony Richardson doesn't play a down this year, I agree. He's never playing for the Colts again. But I do think he's going to play this year. And I think when given the opportunity, I think he has a chance of capitalizing on it. Because I'm with you. Like, he has shown flashes, like meaningful flashes. He has proven to be a very, very productive runner in this league, which is a big deal for quarterbacks. He has proven that he can avoid sacks at a high rate. He's proven that he can complete passes down the field at a high rate. The question with him is under 10 yards.

If he could just do that, which he's been doing at a higher clip in preseason, then I do think he's going to hold on to the job if he gets an opportunity to play. I think you said it well. Three scenarios. One, if he doesn't play it all this year, I think his career with the Colt is over. If he comes in for Daniel Jones and we see the same issues, I think his career with the Colt is over. If we have a Bryce Young situation where he comes in for Daniel Jones,

and now you're seeing him show some improvement, then, yes, that scenario out of the three, then maybe he could be the Colts starter in 2026 and beyond. So we will see what happens. Again, Anthony Richardson isn't blameless, but the Colts got to take their medicine too with how they handle this. We'll see how it all plays out this year.

I would just be bummed if I were a Colts fan. And it's like even if you're a Colts fan and you don't like Anthony Richardson, at least there's like that 3% of hope that he can be something. to go into a season, if I'm like a season ticket holder or whatever, and it's like I'm paying to go watch Daniel Jones

and a team whose best case scenario is like eight and nine. That would just bum me out. And maybe Colts fans feel differently, but that's how I would feel. I feel sorry for that. What about me? I got to watch this guy every weekend. I'm not even a Colts fan.

I don't even have a ruling instance. I can just got to do it for the love of the game. You're the real victim here. I think that's right. That's right. Quarterback rankings. He's going to be grinding the Daniel Jones film. All right.

Stephen Ruiz, check out his column on the ringer.com. Thanks to Ruiz for joining me today. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thanks to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal for additional production supervision. I'm Sheila Capadio. We will be back tomorrow on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-789.com. 7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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