Colts HC Sends Bold Message to Anthony Richardson Amid QB Competition

After the conclusion of the season, Colts head coach Shane Steichen committed to a quarterback competition and later signed former New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones to fill that role. 

With OTAs and training camp steadily approaching, the organization has been more of an open book on the upcoming competition.

Steichen recently had an interview with the media where he stated that his third-year signal caller improving his completion percentage will play a huge part in whether or not he wins the job. 

When asked about it at the annual league meeting on Monday, the third-year coach said, “That definitely needs to improve, the completion percentage.”

It’s mystifying how inaccurate Richardson is in the short passing game when he’s proven to be at least an average deep-ball thrower. 

His completion percentage was close to 60% in his rookie year, which is far from great, but this past season it was below 50% which is unheard of in the modern NFL.

Jones has also had a rough go of things during his six seasons in the NFL, but he’s at least been marginally accurate and shown the ability to move the ball consistently. 

He’s completed over 60% of his passes in every year of his career, but he’s thrown more than 20 touchdowns just once.

While he has a much higher floor than Richardson, his ceiling is significantly lower, which should say one of two things to the young signal caller. 

Either the Colts didn’t bring in a better player because they’re really hoping Richardson takes the initiative and wins the job, or they have such little confidence in him that they’re just hoping for the most minuscule of upgrades.

Whichever one it is however, makes no difference for the third-year quarterback. 

If he doesn’t take a leap like the organization and fans are hoping, then he may be on the first flight out of Indianapolis.