Source: Mitchell Leff / Getty
The Indianapolis Colts are heading into Week 1 of the NFL season, where they will take on their divisional rival the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Heading into the matchup, all eyes will be on Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson. Richardson, who is a gifted athlete the likes of which the quarterback position has never seen, showed flashes of his running ability during the preseason, but by and large the Colts never really unleashed him on the ground. That should change against the Jaguars.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen, when discussing the teams running back situation, spoke about how they would overcome the absence of All-Pro running back Jonathan Taylor.
“I think it’s running back by committee; I do. With anything, whoever’s got the hot hand – let them ride a little bit and go with that.”
It’s safe to assume that Richardson will probably be a part of that committee approach. Even if Taylor was on the field, Richardson would still be one of the Colts most dangerous runners. Expect to see multiple RPO’s and read options, along with him scrambling on broken plays.
During Tuesday’s edition of The Ride With JMV, John spoke to Greg Rakestraw, who hosts the Colts postgame show. Greg brought up an interesting statistic from Shane Steichen’s time in Philadelphia which might be a clue into just how often they’ll have Richardson run the ball.
“If you look back at last year, Jalen Hurts played 15 games in Shane Steichen’s offense, basically averaged 11 carries per game. I’m not sure they’re wanting to expose Richardson all that much in his first game, so let’s set the over-under at 9 [carries].”
John also spoke to Mike DiRocco, who covers the Jaguars for ESPN. Mike gave his thoughts on how the Jaguars might try and contain Richardson.
“They’ll blitz him a little bit, but I think you want to play a lot of zone, and let this kid try and figure it out.”
Mike would also talk about how if the Jaguars try and play man-to-man coverage, it could backfire.
“The last thing you want to do is play a lot of man, and send a couple extra guys, and he gets free and your defensive backs and safeties are running down the field with their backs to Anthony Richardson and they have no idea he’s already 15-20 yards down the field.”
Listen to JMV’s conversations with Mike, Greg, and more below, and tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan!
