Accountability For All, Or Just For Anthony Richardson?

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As the Indianapolis Colts work their way through what is seemingly a mediocre season, a question keeps coming to mind. 

Is anyone other than Anthony Richardson going to be held accountable? 

Richardson, the 22-year-old quarterback in his 2nd season, rode the bench for two weeks while the Colts insisted that 39-year-old backup Joe Flacco gave them the best chance to win. Whether you actually believe that, or whether you’re one of many who believe that it had more to do with Richardson’s maturity and preparation, the fact remained that Richardson was being punished for not living up to expectations. 

Of course, the move to Flacco promptly blew up in the Colts faces, and they quickly pivoted back to Richardson after two losses. Richardson, for his part, seems to have taken the right lesson from the move, having the best game of his career in his return against the Jets, and following that up with a performance against the Lions that was a lot better than the box score indicated. That being said, the Colts lost to the Lions in incredibly undisciplined fashion, reigniting fan frustration about the overall state of the team. They are 5-7, and while the remainder of their schedule is filled with what on paper appear to be winnable games, I’m not sure anyone truly expects them to run the table and make the postseason. This team is just too good at shooting themselves in the foot. 

So where is accountability? Are we going to see changes on the offensive line, which while admittedly dealing with several injuries, is not playing well? What about in the coaching staff, and the sometimes-questionable play calling by Shane Steichen, or the front office and Chris Ballard, who decided to do nothing about the Colts putrid tight end room in the offseason? Or is accountability only for the 22-year-old? 

During the Tuesday edition of The Ride With JMV, Nate Atkins of the IndyStar joined the show, and spoke about Richardson being held to a standard that other players aren’t. 

“There hasn’t been a good standard here since at least the 2020 season, and so I don’t know what standard he [Richardson] can rise to that you can lay out…[Against the Lions] there were some good passes, some good footwork and couple of explosive passes, but also he was able to get the run game going, and it was just everything else around him, from the penalties, to the pass protection, to the lack of a run game with Jonathan Taylor, to a couple of drops. Everything kind of went wrong around him and just showcased that these other players have never been threatened with benching’s or replacements in the offseason the way that their quarterback was. He responded to it in the way that they hoped for, and the rest of the team right now is not evolving, and they’re not ready for him to raise his level when they didn’t ever have a level for him to get to.” 

Nate also spoke about the job done by the coaching staff and the front office, and how that could impact the locker room. 

“It’s not what we saw last year when Shane Steichen it felt like had come up with a lot of answers to whether they lost Jonathan Taylor, or they lost Anthony Richardson, or some of the different issues that they had pop up along the way, we’re not seeing quite that same quality of coaching adjustments this year, and I think the roster has declined also in the process of that, because they had player’s coming off career years who were naturally going to regress some…As far as how the locker room looks at it, it does lead to some occasional issues. When you lose, that’s what’s going to happen and that’s what I think you heard about the lack of focus and preparation. I think some of that comes too when players weren’t really forced to earn and keep their jobs the same way. The only benching that any player has suffered from Week 17 last year to now is Anthony Richardson. I think that’s one of the issues that’s sitting with them right now, is it’s just gotten a little too comfortable around here.” 

Listen to JMV’s full conversation with Nate Atkins and more down below, and tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan!