Colts don't want to limit Anthony Richardson, but his body keeps giving them reasons to

INDIANAPOLIS — Anthony Richardson doesn’t want to talk about his injuries, but as the face of an NFL franchise, he has no choice.

Every time the Indianapolis Colts quarterback goes down and struggles to get back up, everyone in the organization holds their breath. Fans do the same. The more his injuries pile up, the longer they all wait to exhale.

That’s why, after the Colts improved to 2-2 on the season, Richardson was surrounded by dozens of reporters at his locker and asked question after question about his health rather than about how Indianapolis handed the Steelers their first loss of the season.

The 27-24 victory marked Richardson’s fourth win as an NFL starter, though he only played 13 snaps before a right hip injury forced him out of the game. Of the eight games he’s started in the NFL, Richardson has only finished four.

The other four? Injury, injury, injury and — injury.

“People gonna talk about injuries. People gonna say, ‘Oh, (he’s) injury prone, blah, blah, blah,’” Richardson said while seated one locker away from backup QB Joe Flacco, who took over for Richardson and threw two touchdowns in the Colts’ win. “But nobody wants to get injured. Everybody wants to stay on the field, so of course I was like, ‘Man, damn. Not again.’”

Indeed, again.

The first time was a bruised left knee in his NFL debut.

The second time was a concussion in his second NFL start.

The third time was an AC joint sprain that ended his rookie season in Week 5 of 2023.

The fourth time was a hip injury Sunday that also clouds his availability for Week 5.

#Colts QB Anthony Richardson is dealing with oblique and hip area injuries that are “connected,” a league source tells @TheAthleticNFL.

He does have a chance to play on the road against the #Jaguars in Week 5, a source says, but he’s considered day-to-day.@TomPelissero first.

— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) September 30, 2024

“I was looking forward to going back out there with my squad,” said Richardson, who came back for two plays before exiting the game for good. “I wanted to contribute to the W. I think I did a little bit, but I wanted to be out there the whole time.”

The one constant throughout Richardson’s four injuries in the NFL? All four have occurred on run plays, with three coming on designed runs.

Richardson didn’t slide on any of them.

“I don’t know,” Richardson said when asked if he thinks he needs to slide more. “It’s football. Some people may say I do. Some people may say I don’t. But, s—, I don’t know, man. It’s just football. I’m just trying to play.”

In fairness to Richardson, there were at least two runs he got injured on where sliding wasn’t a realistic option. The knee bruise occurred on first-and-goal from the 3-yard line with just over one minute left in the game. The concussion came at the end of a 15-yard touchdown run, in which Richardson naively slowed down and took an unnecessary big hit while crossing the goal line.

All four of #Colts QB Anthony Richardson’s NFL injuries were on runs. Three of them were designed.

• Bruised left knee in Week 1 2023 (scramble)
• Concussion in Week 2 2023
• AC joint sprain in Week 5 2023
• Oblique/hip injury in Week 4 2024

Gotta work on avoiding big hits. pic.twitter.com/pxtcl3HYGT

— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) October 1, 2024

With those plays in mind, plus the hit Richardson absorbed at the end of a 4-yard run against the Titans that ended his rookie season, Colts head coach Shane Steichen still dismissed the idea that the Colts should reconsider how often Richardson is used as a runner in his second season. The 22-year-old’s legs are part of what makes him special, Steichen insisted — or at least give him a chance to be.

“I kind of think like, ‘Shoot, are you gonna limit Steph Curry from shooting 3-pointers?’” Steichen asked rhetorically in July. “Well, (running) is one of Anthony’s strengths, right? So, we’re not gonna get away from that. That’s what he does well.”

The irony in Steichen’s analogy is that Curry, now a household name, was labeled as injury-prone early in his career as he dealt with repeated ankle injuries. Yet, the Colts coach doubled down on his use of Richardson’s legs Sunday when it probably would have been more advisable to dial it back.

After Richardson got injured on a zone read and limped off the field, Steichen called another zone read as soon as Richardson re-entered the game. The second time around, Richardson simply slid to the ground after he tried to run but felt pain shoot up through his hip.

Asked why he called a run play involving Richardson — the most important player in the franchise — after Richardson had just been writhing in pain while grabbing at his hip, Steichen said he trusted his player.

I did ask #Colts HC Shane Steichen why he chose a run play involving QB Anthony Richardson on the first play after Richardson injured his hip:

“They went base defense. He said he felt good to go, so that was the look we had for it, and (he) just felt (his hip) again, so …” pic.twitter.com/K0bh5k0x2Y

— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) September 30, 2024

“He said he felt good to go,” Steichen said after the game. “That was the look we had for (the defense), and he just felt (the pain) again, so …”

So, after watching the film and further assessing the situation, perhaps Steichen will be more cautious moving forward. Right?

“There is a balance there in running a quarterback, but it does add the element to our offense that he can make big-time plays with his feet. We don’t want to lose that,” Steichen said Monday when asked if he’ll be more selective in using Richardson as a runner. “We’ve gotta go into games obviously being smart, and when the opportunity’s there, obviously, he knows he can run. And … even if it’s a dropback pass and he scrambles, he’s going to take off and run, too. We keep working through those things as we go through this.”

It’s certainly a tough needle to thread because the vision of Richardson maximizing his legs, while also improving his accuracy, is ceiling-shattering. He weighed in at 244 pounds during the NFL Scouting Combine in 2023 and proceeded to run a 4.43-second 40-yard dash. That speed has translated to 277 rushing yards on just 46 carries (6.0 yards per carry) through Richardson’s first two years, with 18 of those carries (39.1 percent) resulting in first downs, and five ending in touchdowns.

But what the combine can’t test or predict is durability, which has been an issue throughout Richardson’s budding career, whether he admits it or not. An AC joint sprain ended his senior season in high school. He suffered a concussion, and repeated hamstring injuries and underwent knee surgery at Florida. And he’s exited 50 percent of his NFL starts due to various injuries.

“When you play football, you know it’s a risk. It’s a high risk of injury,” Richardson told The Athletic before the season. “It’s a scary game we play. It’s a dangerous game we play, but I’ve been playing it for so long, I don’t even have the thought of injuries or anything like that. If it happens, it happens. If it don’t, it don’t. I’m just out there trying to play.

“I know what I signed up for.”

The Colts know, too, hitching their future to a physically gifted QB whose latest injury raises concerns about just how physical he can be.