Good news, Indianapolis Colts fans: Anthony Richardson is ready for the 2024 NFL regular season, as he proved Thursday evening.

Richardson, the Colts bright, young quarterback of tomorrow, showed in five possessions of this preseason finale that he is raw. 

And good. 

And terrible.

He showed he is still as inconsistent as he was in college at the University of Florida because he hasn’t played enough football in college or the NFL to be anything else.

In short, he showed everyone a preview of what is to come this season.

Richardson’s Rollercoaster Will Continue

A few weeks ago, in an interview available on the team’s YouTube page, Richardson described his rookie season as a “rollercoaster.”

He ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

He ain’t seen enough blitzes, cloud coverages, or defenses ready for Indy’s RPOs, and pass rushes intended to contain him in the pocket. Richardson is about to face all those. He’s about to face a lot of problems.  

And if he can’t find solutions quickly, there’s no way he can be consistent.

The good news? Consistency is a two-edged sword because Richardson is too gifted to be consistently bad.

So what we’re going to see is something akin to what we saw this game. A stomach-churning rollercoaster ride.

Great Opening Drive For Richardson

This preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t count. But it did matter.

Richardson, playing with the Colts’ starting offensive unit, led an impressive opening drive. He completed 7 of 8 passes on that one, including a 9-yard TD to Adonai Mitchell. 

On that drive, we witnessed what Colts fans are hoping to see from their quarterback going forward.

He looked every bit the part of a young Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck.

So, optimism time in Indianapolis.

Then reality set in.

Richardson threw an interception on his next possession. And the interception wasn’t the worst part of the play. 

The Reality Of Anthony Richardson

The interception, you see, was plucked out of the air by Bengals safety Jordan Battle and returned for a touchdown. And a Pick Six is worse the worst kind of interception.

As the terrible play was unfolding, an obviously distressed Richardson threw his hands up in the air and cringed and complained in frustration because he and tight end Kylen Granson were clearly not on the same page.

“The interception, that was a tough one,” Richardson said afterward. “Communication right there. Granson saw something and I saw something else. We’ve just got to be on the same page right there.”

The point isn’t that the two players who work together in practice every day weren’t synced up. That happens. The point is the sight of a clearly vexed Richardson was caught by the Amazon streaming service cameras in full focus.

And terrible body language by the quarterback during a pick six is more than bad optics. The last thing any coach wants to see from his quarterback is bad body language amid adversity. 

It didn’t get much better afterward.

A Preview Of 2024 Season

Richardson and the Colts’ starting offense got three more drives in this game, leaking into the second quarter. And they went scoreless in all of those.

Richardson and his receivers were not on the same page. Richardson struggled with both his accuracy and touch, at one point sailing a pass perhaps two feet over the head of a clearly open receiver on a third-down play. His footwork was weird (technical term), too.

And did we mention all this happened against a Bengals defense that rested all of its starters? 

Richardson completed 8 of 14 passes with one touchdown, one interception, and one fumble against guys headed for the bench or waiver wire when the NFL regular season begins.

So what to make of this?

It’s simple. This is what awaits the Colts in 2024 with their young starting quarterback.

As he begins his second professional season, Richardson has thrown all of 84 passes in the league. He played only four games as a rookie because of a concussion and then a season-ending A/C joint in his right (throwing) shoulder.

This year is, for all intents and purposes, Richardson’s first in the NFL. So this is the planting season. The growing season.

But it’s unlikely to be the harvest season.

What To Do With Struggles?

Amazon Prime game analyst Kirk Herbstreit asked rhetorically during the broadcast what happens if Richardson struggles all season long? 

If?

When.

Indy’s hope for this season must be that Richardson’s inconsistency is balanced out later in the season with improvement. That hope is tied to coach Shane Steichen’s reputation as a builder of quarterbacks.

Steichen has a lot to work with in Richardson. But it’s a considerable project that isn’t going to be completed for a long while. 

Anyone knowing Richardson’s history and watching him play against a defense of backups Thursday could see that.