Colts Have Bad Position Situation

The Indianapolis Colts are done with the 2025 NFL draft, which means attention turns back to their QB situation, a battle for the starting role between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones.

While it's not an ideal spot to be in, Indy had no choice but to add competition to press their fourth-overall investment Richardson into being better than his landslide 2024 campaign, which saw immense regression from his rookie season.

CBS Sports slams the Colts for their quarterback conundrum with Richardson and Jones. Garrett Podell broke it down in his critique.

"Anthony Richardson, the fourth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, became just the fourth quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to lead the NFL in yards per completion (14.4) while ranking dead last in completion percentage (47.7%) in 2024," Poddell wrote. "He's the ultimate boom or bust quarterback in the NFL today: he has a cannon, but he desperately needs to become more accurate."

Poddell ranks the Colts as the second-worst quarterback room (now including Notre Dame's Riley Leonard) behind only the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, Poddell isn't wrong about Richardson. The former Florida Gators field general had a completion percentage of 47.7 and threw 12 picks to only eight scores.

While Richardson is more than capable on the ground as a running asset, that's not what makes a quarterback successful in the pros. For Richardson in 2025, it's all about getting that completion percentage closer to 60 percent (or higher) while taking better care of the football.

Jones isn't far behind Richardson as far as performance. The former New York Giants signal-caller may be more accurate, but he won a measly three games over 2023 and 2024 while losing 13, for a win percentage of 18.6.

Jones didn't have the most support in the Meadowlands, but also played awful football at times while under center despite a lack of offensive line help and competent weapons for most of his tenure in the NFC.

Yes, the Colts brought in Jones with confidence he can push Richardson to be his best, but the brass are holding out hope that their draft investment from 2023 pans out. Otherwise, it's a complete lost cause that continues what has been a quarterback purgatory-type situation for Chris Ballard since Andrew Luck's abrupt retirement in 2019.

This is Richardson's last chance to claim the starting position before the Colts may hang it up on this experiment with the athletic quarterback. As for Jones, he might also be on his last leg. If the former Giant can't attain the starting role then he could be in store for a career-backup role.

Everything rides on Richardson's success, otherwise, things become incredibly murky for the entire Colts franchise moving forward. Can Richardson bounce back from a brutal second season in year three? That is the paramount question with zenith-level importance that holds much weight for the organization.

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