Hooves Up! Anthony Richardson Is An Indianapolis Colt
I've said it 1,000 times since the NFL Combine. If you have a chance to draft the highest jumping quarterback in the history of the league, you don't pass it up.
I think this is a good pick for the Colts. I have no clue how Anthony Richardson is going to end up. His college career was meh, at least as far as top 5 picks go. His college stats aren't blowing anybody away. But he's an athletic freak, and clearly has all of the little intangibles that NFL scouts look for when scouting quarterbacks. Sometimes the scouts are right.
As a Colts fan, here are my general thoughts on the pick:
One of my favorite things about Anthony Richardson is that he's not Will Levis. I'm not sure if the Colts were ever that close to drafting Levis, but I was worried it was on the table. Richardson & Levis are similar to me in the sense that they had underwhelming college careers, but Will Levis' career was insultingly bad. When I'd hear somebody call Will Levis the best quarterback in college football, I felt like they were pissing on my shoes and telling me it was raining. Like I don't have a pair of working eyes.
After the En Eff El Draft Show last night I took the train home with Matt Fitzgerald, a Barstool blogger who actually knows what he's talking about. I don't remember what he told me, but he used a lot of fancy football jargon, and cited a lot of complicated metrics that point to Anthony Richardson being an NFL star.
I said on the En Eff El Draft Show that I thought the Colts could run a Ravens-style offense with a lot of running and read options. But apparently Richardson is a better passer than that? Based on his insane measurables, I was assuming he would be doing a lot of running, and maybe he will be. I'll be interested to see how much the Colts try to lean on his running ability. At certainly more mobile than our last 100 quarterbacks.
Off the football field he seems like a great guy. At least he does based on this heart-warming interview with his little brother.
One thing that I loved to see. As soon as Anthony Richardson was drafted, he did a full update of his social media.
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QUARTERBACK. HUMBLE. BUSINESS INQUIRIES.
He seems to be fully embracing Colts nation. That sounds stupid when I type that out. Like what, he's not going to be excited that he's in the NFL or something? Of course he's going to embrace the Colts. But I suppose he could have gone the Eli Manning route and refused to play for the team that drafted him. Richardson is on the opposite end of that spectrum. I'm already working on getting him to tweet out the word #neigh.
I think the Colts are in good hands. Keep in mind, Richardson already knows he's going to be a Hall of Famer. If he can at least do that, the Colts should be ok.
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Bottom line is, I think Anthony Richardson will be fun. He's a quarterback with a ton of upside, and probably a ton of downside as well. He's definitely not a slam dunk. I doubt he starts until at least halfway through the season. But it feels good to have hope at the quarterback position again. I don't begrudge the Colts whatsoever for signing a few older quarterback in a row to try and win now. I appreciate the strategy. It just didn't work out. I respect Philip Rivers and what he did for the Colts. But thank god the Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Nick Foles days are behind us.
#HoovesUp
Also, if you're a Colts fan looking to read up more on Anthony Richardson, Matt Fitzgerald has wrote about 100 blogs in the last month about him. He's a very good writer, and can actually break down sports very well.