Why the Colts are starting Anthony Richardson
In 2022, when I first saw Anthony Richardson play quarterback at the University of Florida, my reaction was WOW. My second reaction was, “I bet this guy to win the Heisman next year.” That season, Richardson was alternating with Emory Jones, making me question then Florida’s head coach Dan Mullen’s judgment. Why didn’t Mullen see the obvious? Then Mullen was fired and in came Billy Napier, who has experience coaching quarterbacks to a high level. And for all of the coaching skill that Napier possessed in terms of offensive strategy, he wasn’t able to get Richardson to play quick-minded, or with consistent accuracy. Richardson’s run at the Heisman would have to wait until 2023.
Yet, for Richardson, the Heisman wasn’t in his plans. He left school early, believed in his incredibly talented skill set, counted on NFL teams to look past his overall production and fall in love with his tremendous potential. And they did. The Colts went all-in with the fourth pick overall in the draft, and Richardson was no longer looking for a Heisman trophy. He was looking for a starting position in the NFL. And after Week 1 of the preseason, Richardson is now number one on the depth chart—which should come as a surprise to anyone who watches the NFL. But it even surprised Richardson, when he said: You work for it, [but] you didn’t know when the timeline was going to be. I was just looking forward to Week 1 and just being ready for the opportunity and getting thrown in the fire hopefully. But then he told me, and I’m like, ‘Wow, it really happened.'”
When the Colts hired Shane Steichen as their new head coach and kept Gus Bradley as their defensive coordinator, it wasn’t an accident. The Colts knew they needed to fix their quarterback position the right way, instead of using their “Band-Aid method” with a downtrodden veteran that hadn’t worked in the last three years. From Phillip Rivers to Carson Wentz to Matt Ryan, all attempts to fix the position failed. Now was the time to start from scratch with someone who developed a unique pro-offense in Philadelphia and a player with the skill set that fits the offense.
For most NFL fans, the Philadelphia offense is unique. For historians of the game, it’s not, and the roots of the offense can be traced back to Glenn Scobey Warner, or “Pop Warner” as he was known. Warner developed the single-wing while he was a head coach at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the early 1900s. (David Maraniss, writes a fascinating book about the life of Jim Thorpe called which also explores Warner’s life in coaching.) During that era, the game of football was centered on the ground attack, and the single wing provided a divergent way of using the runners since there wasn’t a designated quarterback position. Warner developed the offense, and as the quarterback became a vital part of the run game, the single wing dominated college and professional football.