INDIANAPOLIS – The throws are there for the taking.
An in-bounds pass to Josh Downs on a rub route is a first down. A ball closer to the sidelines to Adonai Mitchell is an explosive play. A pass in Michael Pittman Jr. ’s vicinity isn’t an interception.
If Anthony Richardson can begin to hit the passes that eluded him in Sunday's 21-16 win over the Bears, he and the Colts will have a new world to unlock on offense – one where a team that ranks No. 2 in explosive plays but No. 32 in time of possession can find the equilibrium to thrive.
The question the Colts face right now is simple yet elusive:
How?
How do they get a quarterback who was a 54.7% passer in college and is a 54.8% passer in the NFL to hit the layups?
Why are some deep passes so perfect and others suddenly off?
And considering they boast one of the most explosive offenses already, what can they become if he starts to hit consistently?
Anthony Richardson news: Why it's too soon to know if Colts QB Anthony Richardson can fix his accuracy
Urgency and patience
The accuracy conversation isn't a new one for Richardson, but it's the one that's here now on this rollercoaster with the No. 4 pick in last year's draft.
Following Sunday's 10-of-20 performance with two interceptions in a win, this week has brought a different tone from Richardson.
He spoke at the end of the preseason about not being too hard on himself for missing throws. Now, he's describing the next practice as a step in a journey to correct the big misses on Sunday.
It's not enough that he leads the NFL with 16.2 yards per completion when he's completing just 49% of his passes.
“Throwing with intent,” Richardson said of his practice plans. “Not getting lackadaisical out there.”
This increasingly more urgent Richardson noticed something last week, when a few passes sailed away from wide-open receivers like Pittman, Downs and Jonathan Taylor:
“It's like, ‘Oh my god, it’s wide open. Let me give him the ball,’” Richardson said. “And I just get too excited and I just miss him.”
GO DEEPER: A postcard from outer space: The story behind Anthony Richardson's 60-yard pass to Alec Pierce
So excited that he’s leaving his feet when he goes to throw.
If you are looking for the essence of what makes Richardson the most athletic quarterback prospect in history, it’s a trait that's alive in his best and worst moments. It's in that backflip he'll do to celebrate his biggest wins.
It's the torque in his legs. He showed it off on this field at the NFL Scouting Combine with a 40-inch vertical jump and a broad jump of 10-foot-9, both marks the best for any quarterback in history.
When that torque becomes a safety valve, the lever that makes a throw suddenly possible, it can take him to historic heights.
But when he sees these throws come wide open in a game, his eyes get wide, his heart starts beating, and that torque gets a rev, too. Suddenly he’s skipping in a clean pocket, adding power to throws that his arm isn’t asking for, and they sail.
It’s his superpower working against him.
His league-high six interceptions have ended drives, leaving Richardson to sit down on the bench with an iPad and try to figure out with his coaches in real time what went wrong. He’s on the sideline a lot in these moments, as the Colts rank dead last in time of possession at just over 21 minutes per game.
He’s correcting by the snap. Sometimes, he's overthinking.
Take when he plants his feet in an open pocket and spots a wide-open deep post. He appears to take some distance off the throw, aiming to make sure it stays in bounds. But the launch angle remains the same:
“Just stop thinking and just let it spin,” Richardson said. “Of course, I'm hearing all the noise or whatever, but forget about it – just let the ball go as you go out there and play football.”
A search for answers
The accuracy question has chased Richardson around since he left Eastside High School. After Bengals defenders pointed it out this preseason , he acknowledged that pressure.
"People have been talking my whole life," Richardson said. "It just adds fuel to the fire. I'm going to do me and keep doing me."
This week, he acknowledged he’s hearing it.
He’s in the lab with Steichen, offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, quarterbacks coach Cam Turner and backup quarterback Joe Flacco trying to figure it out.
The intent and desire aren't in question.
“Because of the person he is. The way he works,” Steichen said. “He comes in every day, he's ready to roll, man. He puts a lot into it. I think with time – like a lot of people don't see the work, right? It's all done in the dark in here. And then at some point, it just keeps – you keep working, you keep working and that stuff comes to light for everyone to see.”
MORE: Chasing Tim Tebow, idolizing Tom Brady, fighting fires: Making of Colts QB Anthony Richardson
They’ll continue drilling on base fundamentals, making every step feel a tick more natural, which he’ll have to carry over to games. He’s still only played seven games in the NFL, so that training of the body has catching up to do.
Steichen watched this play out with Jalen Hurts, whose ascension ultimately won him this job. But it took time. Hurts completed 52% of his passes as a rookie without Steichen. With Steichen, he grew to 61% by the end of his second full starting season and then peaked in his third year in 2023, when he completed 66.5% of passes and became the MVP runner-up.
“We talk about developing players in this league, and it's keep playing -- getting more reps and reps and reps,” Steichen said.
Added Cooter, "Sometimes you do speed up a little bit, and that is something that can and will improve with reps, improve with time."
By drilling in those fundamentals, and dialing back the NFL’s most aggressive passing game to simpler levels, Richardson can slow his mind down just enough, where he’s less focused on trying to lock a safety with his eyes and more quickly moving them to the receiver who is wide open.
And, ideally, so he’s less surprised.
Can Anthony Richardson run more?
To truly follow the Hurts playbook, the Colts will need to draw Richardson up some designed runs.
When Hurts ascended from a 52% passer to a 61% passer under Steichen in 2021, he attempted 9.3 runs per game. He totaled 784 yards and 10 touchdowns along the way, letting him find success as his accuracy developed. He ran for 56 first downs his arm didn't have to earn.
Through three games, Richardson is attempting just 6.0 runs per contest.
The lack of running plays is a function of a few factors:
His offense has the ball for less time than any other team in the league. Its running game is built around Jonathan Taylor first.
And when the Colts do want Richardson to scramble is against man coverage, which they are rarely facing, even on third downs.
The Colts could lean more into the zone-read run look, like they did against the Bears. If Taylor continues to hit 100 yards per game, the defense will eventually converge and leave some explosive ways for Richardson to run. The space for those chunk runs will be there for as long as defenses sit in their two-high shells.
The Colts are averaging an explosive play (a 10+ yard run or a 20+ yard pass) on 13.3% of their drives, the second-most of any team in the NFL. It’s how they rank No. 3 in yards per play.
The issue is staying on the field for more chances at an explosive play.
But the Colts rank 26th in the league with a 32% third-down conversion rate.
That's when they expect man coverage.
What they primarily see is zone.
It's the NFL's way of testing a young Richardson and his chemistry with new receivers.
“Execution and detail has to be at a premium. Route running has to be great. Catching and passing the ball has to be great as well,” Richardson said. “So, the zones are there. We’ve just got to take advantage of them and just connect.”
That space is there in the middle of the field when teams sit back with two high safeties. That range is more open when teams assign a spy to keep Richardson in the pocket:
Some routes are built to beat the zone, such as the screen pass. The Colts ran four last week, completing three, including a 25-yard gain to Taylor.
To make plays past the line of scrimmage, namely on third downs, Richardson must look to Pittman and Downs more.
In the absence of a reliable tight end, those two carried this team in the middle of the field and overall last season, when they combined for 1,911 yards. They’re trying to adjust their games from playing with an RPO-centric Gardner Minshew to Richardson, who extends plays and whose legs invite zone coverage.
If they can stay on the field and stay fresh, both players could have yards-after-catch opportunities in these open zones. That's what Richardson saw for Pittman when he got excited and sailed an interception.
But these connections have only just begun. Downs is in his second week of practice after a high ankle sprain. Pittman is just getting over some calf, back and quad issues that have limited him on routes since the first drive of the season.
"We've just got to keep doing it," Pittman said.
When natural scramble lanes dry up against zone, Richardson has the size at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds and the 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed to create some of his own, especially against smaller cornerbacks. Right now, his legs are his best tool at moving the chains, as 8 of his 18 rushes have gone for first downs, compared to 18 of his 73 passes.
But he is just three games out of shoulder surgery, and those around him feel something on those hits, too.
“We don’t want him getting touched,” Taylor said, “but that is one of his specialties.”
A unique test arrives
This week, the Steelers could provide the Kryptonite or the antidote to the Colts’ current issues, depending on how Indianapolis can handle the heat.
Pittsburgh’s defense enters ranked No. 1 in the NFL allowing 8.7 points per game and No. 1 in the NFL allowing 229.7 yards per game. Combined with a conservative run-centric offense, the Steelers also rank No. 2 in the NFL with an average time of possession of 33:55 – or more than 12 minutes more of possession per game than the last-ranked Colts.
But the Steelers also rank that way because they have challenged three offenses to overcome a stacked box and players in the quarterback’s face with deep shots available and have seen those offenses self-implode. That’s a danger the Colts face when Richardson isn’t just missing passes but also leads the NFL with six interceptions.
But that aggressive style brings a potential to the Colts that hasn’t been there since the season opener.
The Steelers deploy Cover-3 even more often than the Colts do. At 48% usage, they’re above every team except the Panthers in Cover 3 alignment, according to data collected by Fantasy Points. The Steelers’ second-favorite coverage is Cover-1 at 20% usage, meaning that they spend 2/3 of the game with a single-high safety, leaving the two deep sides of the field vacant at the snap of the ball.
If the Colts can block Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt, they’ll have opportunities to hit some explosive plays this week. They’ll need to stay on the field for enough plays to get into those looks.
The possibilities are enough to get the NFL’s youngest starting quarterback excited, which is why he's trying to dial that in.
In fact, he's promising to.
“Hey, I’m going to perform better for you boys,” he told his teammates in the locker room after Sunday's win.
“I’ve got y’all.”
Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on X @NateAtkins_.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: The Colts are on a mission to make Anthony Richardson more accurate
Local News
