Indianapolis, IN
A year with the playbook, Anthony Richardson’s mind is just as important as his arm, legs
“If I know the offense inside and out, like Shane does, I think we’re going to be unstoppable.”
Colts’ Richardson getting more comfortable with offense
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson discusses getting more comfortable with the team’s offense.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Anthony Richardson question everybody keeps asking this offseason is the one he cannot control.
No matter how thoroughly he prepares, Richardson knows he has little say in his ability to stay healthy, and his Colts coaching staff can only help so much.
Richardson has a lot more control over the rest of his development, the part that has gone somewhat overlooked this offseason because of all the questions about his health.
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Armed with a surgically repaired right shoulder that appears to be fully healthy, Richardson’s attention this offseason has been focused on his command of the Colts offense, his ability to diagnose defenses and attack their weaknesses.
“I’m more comfortable with the offense now that I have a year under my belt,” Richardson said. “Not a year of playing time, but being in the meetings every day and just studying all the time, coming here early in the morning, meeting with (Colts coach Shane Steichen). That’s something I take pride in, because if I know the offense inside and out, like Shane does, I think we’re going to be unstoppable.”
Richardson has acknowledged he had to learn some hard lessons last season about how to protect himself, the toughest lesson coming in the form of a shot he took crossing the goal line in Houston, leading to a concussion. He knows he has to pick and choose his spots, make the right decisions on when to get down and when to try to pick up extra yardage.
The reality is injury would be a possibility even if the Colts put shackles on Richardson’s legs and made him a pocket passer. Cincinnati star Joe Burrow has suffered season-ending injuries in two of his four NFL seasons despite mostly playing from the pocket, and he’s far from the only NFL pocket passer who has been hit hard by injury over the years.
Indianapolis will try to protect Richardson as much as possible.
But the Colts coaching staff is more focused right now on how Richardson plays.
“Accelerated vision,” Steichen said. “Mechanics are obviously a part of it, but I think just accelerated vision, knowing where to go with the football and when to go with the football. Going through your reads, different coverages can dictate where that ball gets thrown.”
Indianapolis has been encouraged by Richardson’s growth in the offense.
Growth that mostly had to happen while he was sidelined.
“Anthony has really done a nice job diving into learning the offense, once again at a deep level,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “He’s able to operate the offense in his mind, with his notes, with every part of what we’re doing around here at a higher level than he was a year ago. That’s what all second-year quarterbacks should do over rookies.”
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The Colts are most excited about Richardson’s instinctive abilities.
What often gets hyped as improvisational, backyard-style football by NFL quarterbacks is actually born of a deep, in-depth understanding of the offense, a sense for where everybody is going to be and how the defense is moving.
Richardson had a few of those plays as a rookie, most notably the strike he fired to Alec Pierce with Aaron Donald bearing down on him against the Rams.
“Some of that stuff, we’re not quite able to coach,” Cooter said. “The guy can either sort of recognize the defense moving and take advantage of that, or not.”
Richardson already feels better prepared this offseason.
He worked hard to learn the playbook last spring — veteran wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. joked at the time he had to snap his fingers sometimes to get Richardson’s attention away from the playbook for a simple conversation — but there is a learning curve that is tricky to navigate.
Richardson entered the NFL with an idea of the routine he wanted to pursue every day.
But the initial plan changes with the reality of the daily NFL schedule, players realizing what works best for them.
“Being a rookie, (there was) so much that I had to take on, so much that I put on myself mentally,” Richardson said. “I wanted to be the best version of myself for the team. Now, the team knows I’m a worker, and I don’t plan on stopping that. … I get to relax and focus on certain things, more details, try to perfect the things I do know.”
And add things to the playbook as the Colts learn more about their second-year quarterback.
Steichen, Cooter and the rest of the Indianapolis offensive staff are constantly tweaking the offense, trying to stay on the cutting edge, and now they have a quarterback capable of offering his own input.
“It’s nonstop,” Richardson said. “It’s every day. Sometimes (Steichen will) text me, ‘’Hey, I’m thinking about throwing this in there, how do you feel about this? I love it. I feel like it’s going to work.’ We just toss ideas around. He asks me how I feel about certain things, and then if I see certain things on the Internet, like a sweep or option play or something like that, I’ll say ‘hey, that’s kind of nice,’ and I’ll show it to him, and he’ll be like ‘OK, we might be able to throw that in.’”
Richardson does plenty of work on his body.
He’d adopted an arm care routine before the injury that mimics what doctors have told him to do since he had surgery, and he has worked hard on his mechanics, trying to be more compact in his drop, take advantage of his quick feet.
But there is only so much Richardson can control physically.
If he can stay healthy, it’s the mental growth that could take the Colts offense to the next level.
Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Joel A. Erickson on X at @JoelAErickson.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 17 gave AES the nod to raise electricity rates enough to earn an additional $71 million each year, a decision that drew reproof from Indiana lawmakers who called it another blow to cost-burdened consumers.
The approved rate represents less than half of the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It’s also less than the $91 million increase proposed in an October settlement agreement between AES, the city of Indianapolis and major electricity consumers like Kroger and Walmart.
But the new rate is still significantly more than what the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the state agency representing ratepayers in the case, recommended in September. The OUCC’s proposal would have capped AES’s annual operating revenue at $21 million less than the current level.
The rate increase authorizes AES to earn a total of nearly $2 billion each year, or an estimated $384 million in profit.
The higher base rate comes as a double whammy for Indianapolis-area households, who are already paying more for electricity this summer after AES temporarily raised rates to account for higher-than-anticipated fuel costs during last winter’s storms. The increase also arrives against the backdrop of inflation, which rose to a three-year high last month, and surging gas prices due to the war in Iran.
Gov. Mike Braun wrote in a Wednesday post to X that he was “deeply disappointed” by the IURC’s approval of the rate increase.
“Hoosiers have spent years tightening their belts and making tough financial decisions,” Braun wrote. “It’s time for utility companies to do the same.”
The IURC’s decision also drew fire from the other side of the aisle. In a June 17 news release, five Democrats representing Indianapolis in the state Senate – J.D. Ford, Andrea Hunley, La Keisha Jackson, Fady Qaddoura, and Greg Taylor – chastised Indiana’s Republican supermajority for failing to rein in rising utility costs.
“Hoosiers pay more. Monopoly utilities collect more. And the leaders in the super-majority who promise affordability over and over again show those are just empty words,” the news release said. “Instead, they continue to defend a system that takes more and more out of our paychecks.”
The consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition also slammed the rate increase. Ben Inskeep, CAC’s program director, said the decision left him “less optimistic that this commission is willing to do things differently and to actually hold utilities accountable.”
He said the IURC should have penalized AES for issues that plagued customers after the utility updated its billing system in 2023, including duplicated withdrawals for the same monthly bill.
The rate increase will take effect in two phases, with rates going up in July 2026 and January 2027. AES officials anticipate the hikes “will be less than $5 per month per phase” for a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, according to a Wednesday news release from the utility.
“The IURC’s decision reflects a thorough, transparent process and balances the need for continued investment in the electric system with a focus on customer affordability,” the news release stated.
Under a state law that Braun signed in February, AES cannot ask for another increase to its base rate until January 2030 — though electricity bills could still go up for other reasons, like the fuel adjustment charge hitting consumers this month.
Three members of the five-member IURC signed off on the rate increase: Andy Zay, David Veleta, and David Ziegner. Commissioner Bob Deig dissented. Commissioner Anthony Swinger recused himself from the decision because he worked on the AES rate case for the OUCC before he was appointed to the IURC by Braun in January.
“None of this was taken lightly,” Zay, the IURC’s chair, said at the Wednesday hearing, adding that the commission and its staff had carefully weighed concerns about affordability. The commissioners did not go into further detail at the hearing.
But the commission’s order shows some of the debates that played out during the rate case. One point of contention was AES’s authorized return on equity — that is, how much the utility can earn each year in profits. Other disputes hinged on how AES forecasts its operating expenses.
The OUCC accused AES of including more than 100 “phantom hires,” vacant positions it did not necessarily intend to fill in its calculations. Last year, AES said that the rising costs of vegetation management, or trimming trees around power lines, also drove the need to raise rates. The OUCC recommended keeping vegetation management costs flat.
One factor that’s not driving higher prices? Data centers.
AES does not currently provide service to any data centers and did not include them in its calculations, AES president Brandi Davis-Handy said in testimony before the IURC.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
Interactive radar | Weather alerts by county
WATCH LIVE COVERAGE
(WRTV) — A tornado watch has been issued through 1 a.m. EDT Thursday for much of Indiana, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
The watch area covers 47 of Indiana’s 92 counties, and includes Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.
Counties in the watch area are Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, Decatur, Delaware, Fountain, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jay, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Vigo, Wabash, Warren, and White.
WRTV Meteorologist Ryan Morse says Wednesday afternoon’s rain was the first of two rounds coming to the Hoosier state. A line of supercells were expected to form in Illinois and travel into central Indiana.
In neighboring Illinois, dozens of counties are under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CDT/11 p.m. EST.
All threats of severe weather were on the table: damaging wind, strong tornadoes, large hail, and flooding.
Severe storms should exit Indiana in the early morning hours.
WISH-TV Meteorologist Keith Gibson says people should have multiple ways of getting alerts and have electronic devices fully charged in case they lose power.
The next chance for rain after these storms could be on Saturday.
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