Does Anthony Richardson Have Colts Future?
- Colts evaluating Richardson's future as backup QB with $10.8M cap hit
- Richardson's vision issues from locker room injury raise concerns about his recovery
- Colts may move on from Richardson if he fails to develop as expected
INDIANAPOLIS – As much as Daniel Jones and the Colts have a marriage that appears to be continuing, the same cannot be said for Anthony Richardson Sr.
It is fair to ask if the divorce papers are on the horizon for the two parties?
Such a thought is never ideal when you are talking about a former top-5 pick having yet to reach the end of his rookie contract.
But that’s the harsh reality for Richardson and the Colts.
Injuries, inconsistent play and preparation questions have added up to Richardson starting just 15 games through 3 NFL seasons.
Even before the Colts have a decision (which now seems rather obvious) on the 5th year team option for Richardson/and the 2027 season, there’s serious questions about whether or not he’ll still be in Indy for his 4th year, this fall.
That’s especially the case when you factor in a $10.8 million cap hit for Richardson this upcoming season, one in which he’s expected to be nothing more than the backup to Daniel Jones, if that.
“That is something we will evaluate,” Chris Ballard said about the backup quarterback position during his season-ending press conference. “We got to make the decision. ‘Okay, if Anthony (Richardson Sr.) doesn’t get to where we think he can be, can Riley (Leonard) be the (No. 2 quarterback)?’”
Part of Ballard’s comments from January are rooted around Richardson’s current state.
A freak resistance band accident back in October fractured Richardson’s orbital around his right eye, with trauma contributing to lingering vision loss.
Such vision issues continued for Richardson throughout the rest of the 2025 season.
Hope is there that Richardson fully recovers this offseason, but that remains an unknown.
With the Week 5 injury impacting things, Richardson ended up playing 14 snaps in his third NFL season, completing just 1 pass, ironically, to himself.
As Jones cemented himself as the new long-term QB option in Indy, and Leonard showing a couple of flashes, there’s plenty of belief that Richardson will be elsewhere next season.
“That’s a very fair question,” Ballard acknowledges when asked about Richardson and the Colts going their separate ways. “I was really happy with Anthony, even after we named Daniel Jones the starter. Unfortunately for Anthony, he’s had some really bad luck. Year one, he hurts his shoulder, has to spend the whole next year rehabbing. Comes back, kind of an up and down (season), but saw positives, but also some negatives. And then, goes into our training camp, and I thought he had made tremendous strides. At the end of the day, we went with Daniel. Just felt he was the right person at the time for the job, but saying that Anthony was making really good strides.
“I’ll tell you this about Anthony, he’s a great teammate. He’s a great teammate. And never sulked, never complained. (He) was doing a great job as a backup quarterback, and then he has a freak accident in the locker room. I think time will tell in terms…it was great to get him back out to practice for that three weeks, or at least get him back involved in the team and moving again. But he’s got to still work through the vision he has, and we’ll see what the future holds there. But, a little bit of bad luck. We’ll kind of see going forward how that ends up playing out. A lot of it’s going to deal with his health too.”
Even Richardson, himself, admitted he had peripheral vision issues when he returned to practice late in the season.
And while that is a factor, there’s plenty on top of that moving this to the point where a breakup seems likely.
When an NFL franchise spends the No. 4 overall pick on a player, a worst-case scenario looks like what might be occurring to the Colts—that player contributes so little in his first few years that a trade return for him would be fortunate to net a middle-round draft pick.
Currently though, such a trade looks a whole lot closer to happening.
