Colts’ QB Anthony Richardson is reportedly getting another opinion on his injured shoulder.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is going to miss this week’s minicamp practices with a shoulder injury.
As Shane Steichen described prior to Thursday’s final OTA practice, Richardson experienced shoulder pain the week prior. Upon further evaluation, the testing revealed that the pain was related to the same AC joint that Richardson injured during his rookie season.
Steichen did not provide a specific timeline for Richardson’s return, other than mentioning that he hoped to have him back at some point during training camp.
Since then, reports from NFL insiders have been more promising. This includes Tom Pelissero saying that Richardson would “1,000 percent” be ready for training camp, although he added the caveat that even if he is available on Day 1, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be a full go.
On the flip side of that, while making an appearance on the ‘Rich Eisen Show,’ Albert Breer’s insight into Richardson’s shoulder injury was far less promising, saying that the quarterback was going to get a second opinion.
“It was the second day of OTAs that they shut him down,” Breer said. “He’s going to visit with Dr. Neil ElAttrache, I believe that’s going to happen this week to go and get it checked out. ElAttrache was the one who did the surgery initially. It’s one of those Rich, when you’re talking about the soreness coming back in the shoulder, and no he hasn’t had surgery yet, but he’s going to have more opinions on it, it just gets you worried.
“I would say I take both of them very seriously because anything to do with a quarterback’s throwing shoulder, elbow, wrist, whatever is serious, but when it’s a repeat, that’s when it’s like oh boy. It seems at least right now like there’s a really good chance Daniel Jones is going to be the starting quarterback for the Colts in Week 1 and Anthony Richardson faces a lot of uncertainty going forward.”
The hope would be that this is the Colts and Richardson being cautious with his shoulder, but as Breer mentions, second opinions, particularly on a quarterback’s throwing arm, aren’t a good thing generally.
Even if Richardson is good to go for training camp, he’s going to be playing catch-up when it comes to competing with Daniel Jones. Richardson will have missed most of OTAs, all of minicamp, and whatever time is potentially needed to ramp up during training camp. This isn’t to say that Richardson can’t still win the job in this scenario, but he’ll have to make up ground quickly.