Colts Jim Bob Cooter on QBs Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson
Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter on QBs Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson
Anthony Richardson’s availability for the beginning of training camp has not been determined
INDIANAPOLIS — Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson has resumed throwing, a league source confirmed to IndyStar, after being shut down due to soreness in his throwing shoulder late in the team’s offseason workouts.
Richardson’s availability for the beginning of training camp will be determined when he reports to Grand Park for the start of training camp.
Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen indicated initially that the Colts would ease Richardson back into a full workload, but it is unclear how the work the quarterback has done away from the facility this summer will impact the team’s plans.
“There’s no timetable on the return,” Steichen said at the end of the team’s minicamp in June. “We’re just going to do his rehab, and once the doctors clear him to throw, we’ll ease him back into it.”
If Richardson is fully healthy for the start of training camp, it would be an important development for a third-year player facing an open competition against another former top-10 pick, Daniel Jones, who started for the Giants for six seasons.
Jones took all the starting snaps in the weeks after Richardson was shut down, and although the veteran has never shown Richardson’s ability to produce the jaw-dropping play, he brings the kind of consistency that was missing from the Indianapolis offense last season.
“He’s been doing a hell of a job,” Steichen said of Jones. “Really smart football player. Learned the offense very quickly, making really good decisions out there through OTAs. Obviously, want to carry that over to training camp, but he’s done a really good job. Great command in the huddle. Ultimate pro.”
Richardson must prove he can be more consistent to keep his job.
The Colts still believe in the third-year quarterback’s potential, but Indianapolis has also been firm this offseason that the offense needs more consistency from the position, both in terms of Richardson’s availability and his ability to move the chains when he’s on the field.
Richardson has produced in flashes — a dominant presence as a runner, the big-play throws against Houston last year, two fourth-quarter comebacks late last season — but he also completed just 47.7% of his passes a year ago, the worst mark for any quarterback with more than 200 attempts in a single NFL season since Tim Tebow in 2011.
The soreness he’d experienced in his shoulder this summer was a reminder that injury has been an inescapable issue for Richardson in his NFL career. Richardson has missed 17 of a possible 34 games due to injury, a fact that convinced the Colts to get another starting-caliber quarterback this offseason and open the competition at quarterback.
“The day-to-day process is part of it; being a quarterback is the day-to-day grind that you go through is preparing every single day,” Steichen said at the outset of the competition in April. “That’s part of consistency, and then obviously on the field, you’ve got to be consistent, take care of the football, make good decisions with the football and really move your offense down the field. The guy that’s the most consistent doing that will win the job.”
Richardson’s shoulder threatened to put him behind the sticks in that competition to start training camp.
If his renewed ability to throw allows Richardson to start training camp at something close to full strength, the competition with Jones will be back on the footing Indianapolis intended all along, an open training-camp battle with enormous stakes for the Colts’ future.
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