INDIANAPOLIS – Trust the process.
That’s become the new catch phrase out of the Colts after another loss and more questions about the present and future of the quarterback position.
Those questions continue to flow with Joe Flacco starting ahead of Anthony Richardson for a third straight week, with the team at 4-6 and working through public comments and team meetings about preparation and effort and with a road game against the Jets on tap that is, by every account, a must-win if this team wants to have a real chance at the playoffs.
(To get in on these mailbags, follow me on X @NateAtkins_, where I put out the call; or email longer questions to [email protected].)
Let’s get to it:
Question: “What is the Process that Anthony Richardson is currently Processing through, haha?” — @StephenBurton86 via X
Answer: So, process is the buzzword of the week now. Shane Steichen said it 10 different times in his eight-minute press conference on Monday, turning it into the go-to explanation for how Richardson needs to develop now that he’s a backup.
The answers became interesting in the sense that we’re all still guessing as to the full reasons for the benching, the timeline he could be on and the work taking place behind the scenes. And it’s a different message than what started this out, when Steichen framed the move to Flacco as about trying to reach the playoffs.
Richardson seems to be the better quarterback right now, if for two reasons only: He creates some explosive plays and he helps the run game become lethal. He’s 3-3 as a starter, Flacco is 1-3.
But he was also developing some bad habits on and off the field, from the 44% accuracy to the hits he was taking on blitzes to the professionalism and leadership surrounding the decision to tap out and approach he brought on game days. Heading into a road primetime game against the best blitzing coordinator in the game in Brian Flores, the feeling was that playing Richardson could do more harm than good.
He was in need of a rewiring, on the field and off, that required a different plan than the “reps on reps on reps” one the Colts chose by naming him a starter after just one quarter of a preseason game. Perhaps he needed something more like what Jordan Love, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson received when they sat behind veteran quarterbacks to start their careers, when they absorbed lessons about on-field play, leadership in the locker-room and off-field demeanor.
The Colts have a name for the rewiring they are trying now:
It’s called The Process.
“It’s just staying really consistent within that weekly process, which becomes a daily process,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said.
“What does Tuesday look like? What does Wednesday look like? We have our meetings, our walk-thrus, our practices – those are scheduled out. What’s the process around that? How can we improve that? How can we become more consistent within that?”
“The Process” is new to everyone involved: Whether it was Steichen working with Philip Rivers, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts; Cooter working with Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford and Trevor Lawrence; or quarterbacks coach Cam Turner working with Cam Newton and Kyler Murray, none of these coaches have ever developed a quarterback from a backup into a starter before.
Doing it after 10 starts as a top-10 pick also hasn’t been accomplished by any regime in at least the past quarter century. There’s a first time for everything, but that means there’s some learning as they go along.
And that’s why there’s clunkiness to it, both in the messaging and in the actions. Richardson wasn’t clear on what “The Process” entailed until Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard sat him down for a 30- to 45-minute meeting in the days following the move. And Flacco, at age 39, hasn’t been able to perform at a level that eliminates the need for Richardson on the field, and he hasn’t produced the success to show Richardson how that process pays off.
But, they’re trudging on. They’re trusting “The Process.”
Question: “If they stick with Flacco, is creating a Chris Leak/Tim Tebow sort of strategy something they see being implemented?” — @TustAJhought via X
Question: “There are times in the game where a dual threat QB makes more sense than Flacco. Why not put AR in for situational downs?” — @ericsteele1970 via X
Question: “Does Jim Bob believe AR would make the offense better in short yardage situations? If so, why isn’t he schemed in?” — @Mason118610 via X
Answer: So, people are highly interested in knowing why the Colts aren’t at least using Richardson as a designed runner since we know they have the plays installed for it and the results have been so dreadful in these situations the past two weeks.
Think of the 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 in Minnesota and the 4th-and-2 against Buffalo. All three were pass plays and none of them converted, and that’s essentially where those games were lost.
Steichen was asked about this on Monday.
“Yeah, I won’t get into the scheme stuff of it,” he said. “But yeah, obviously (Richardson) would help there.”
I’ve seen some take that answer as an indication that Steichen wants to use Richardson but isn’t allowed to. And while I think it’s fair to read into everything and pose theories when the explanations have not been clear, I get a different sense from that.
Steichen famously does not like to answer any question about what he might do schematically in the upcoming game. It’s become a bit of his and an inside joke some of us share with him in the lighter moments, such on Fridays, where he gives a smirk with a tongue in his cheek and just says, “Yeah,” with a pause. I think he knew he had to say something more here, but given that mindset, it wasn’t going to amount in a concrete answer.
But this week will offer a real test for these theories, because the evidence has become clear that the Colts aren’t built to win in short yardage throwing the ball without Michael Pittman Jr. or tight ends who can create any separation. Beating the press-man coverage that comes on gotta-have-it downs is not the style of Alec Pierce’s or Josh Downs’ games. And it’s hard to trust Adonai Mitchell with it until he develops some more.
But the zone-read between Richardson and Jonathan Taylor can create the effect of an extra blocker for when the defense presses the line. And the Colts can manipulate the leverage of those aligned defenders with a quarterback sweep or power, or flip it with an inverted veer, like they did to beat the Steelers.
They have to find a way to beat the Jets, so I think we should see it this week. If we don’t, and the Colts drop more situations like this, all questions will be fair to throw at Steichen then.
Question: “Pertaining to AR-5’s benching, mention is made of him having to sit and learn from Flacco, a multi-year vet. Has anyone asked Steichen or other coaches if that was not done shortly after AR-5’s season-ending surgery last year? While he worked on rehab I assumed he was also using the time to sit and learn (via meetings and film work).” — Kevin Glennon via email
Answer: A similar question was posed to Steichen after he made the decision:
“Looking back at last year, just with him coming in, Gardner (Minshew) obviously stepped in, did some good things,” Steichen said. “Obviously, (Richardson) got hurt last year and then this year going through some stuff.”
I think what Steichen was getting at is that while Richardson was listening in meetings and watching from the sidelines during games, it was different because he had his arm in a sling and knew his season was over. He didn’t have a process — there’s that word again — that he could take on a daily basis to try some of the footwork and arm slot mechanics that would produce practice film for them to watch together. And he wasn’t able to operate in those settings with the competitive drive to earn his way back onto the field.
Again, we’ll see if that process is enough for his development, as well as how long it lasts. Though Richardson is going through individual throwing and footwork drills, he’s spending practice as a scout team quarterback, living another passer’s life rather than discovering what his is supposed to look like on the field. There’s risk in doing that while trying to drill down on consistency and muscle memory.
But then again, there’s risk in anything they can try at this point.
Question: “Why make the assumption that if Anthony Richardson plays more, he will develop when, based trends and his past and games he has played, it is very likely he is a bust. Should Giants keep playing Daniel Jones? Should JaMarcus Russell have had more time? Akili Smith? Tim Tebow? It is clear, as a coach, he can’t.” — @molcka via X
Answer: It’s true that it is more likely than not that Richardson will not work out, but that was true the moment the Colts drafted him. It’s true for all quarterbacks taken in the top 10 as they arrive as college-aged kids to bad teams with the expectation that they’ll turn the franchise around.
That rarely works. But when it does come together, it can be a beautiful thing. That’s happening for about one quarterback per class, with C.J. Stroud of last year’s and Jayden Daniels of this year’s, so far.
Richardson was a boom-or-bust pick because of the trends you mentioned: He was an anomaly with 13 college starts and with a completion rate below 55%. He also had extreme positive traits as the most athletic quarterback prospect in the history of the game.
So, the bet was the same one the Bills placed on Josh Allen, who had more experience but had the same accuracy concerns, if not more pronounced ones at the time given the larger sample size.
Here’s how Allen’s first 10 games went: 52% completions, 6.7 yards per attempt, 7 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 64.2 rating.
Here’s how Richardson’s went: 50.2% completions, 7.1 yards per attempt, 7 touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 68.8 rating.
MORE: The Colts can either try to build a Josh Allen or look up at him forever
So, how did Allen take off after the first 10 games?
“It was just the rep count,” Allen said on the Pat McAfee Show. “… As I’ve gotten older, in the offseason, I’ve thrown more and figured out how to drive it, how to layer it and how to launch it. It’s still something I’m working on each and every offseason, but the more reps you get in the NFL especially, the more things are going to slow down.”
To be fair, many more quarterbacks have had 10-game starts like this who never turned it around. That’s why it’s still a boom-or-bust proposition.
But the point is, you want to know whether it booms or busts. You don’t want to be left guessing.
We saw the flashes of Allen-like traits from when Richardson became the first quarterback in NFL history with four rushing touchdowns in his first three games to when he hit the longest non-Hail Mary completion by air yards in the history of NextGen Stats.
That visual upside makes it a different situation than with Daniel Jones, who has had 69 starts to prove he’s a good NFL quarterback and hasn’t; or Tim Tebow or Josh Rosen, who showed early on they never had the physical traits to offer a ceiling. Ja’Marcus Russell was a bust on a lot of levels, including off the field, but even he got 25 starts to prove that, or 2.5 times what Richardson did.
I don’t think anyone drafted Richardson believing he was going to be a good quarterback through his first 10 starts. The idea was to ride a rollercoaster either to the thrill or to failure but to get to see how the ride ends up.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Why not use Anthony Richardson as a designed runner?
