INDIANAPOLIS -- Anthony Richardson is throwing a football again, four months after the shoulder surgery that ended his rookie season just after it had gotten going.

He is on schedule but not ahead of schedule anymore. And that distinction matters to the franchise that's going through this with him.

“Really happy about where he’s at," Colts general manager Chris Ballard said at the NFL Scouting Combine. "He started throwing. He’s on a rehab program.

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"We’re not going to – like, I lived through the last one and I learned a lot of lessons living through the last one. Forgive me for being a little cautious. I know Anthony has made some statements that it’s important to be ahead of schedule. We’re here to pull the reins to make sure we don’t get too far ahead of schedule and we’re staying with whatever the doctors are telling us."

Ballard, of course, is referring to what the franchise went through with Andrew Luck following the 2016 and 2018 seasons. Ballard and the Colts expressed optimism that Luck was through the hurdles of his own injuries, only to find out that they would up killing his desire to keep on playing.

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Luck retired in the 2019 preseason, setting off a quarterback carousel that would stretch until last year at this time, when the Colts spent the No. 4 overall pick on Richardson. Richardson set combine records for a quarterback in the broad and vertical jumps, showcasing the upside he later packaged into some explosive runs and passes in his four games as a rookie before he sprained his AC joint against the Titans and saw his season end.

"I didn’t want to get the surgery at first," Richardson said after the season ended. "I didn’t want to be out for the season because rookie season, first year, I wanted to play. I wanted to be out there with the team. This injury kind of set me back a little bit, but after talking to the training staff and getting different opinions from different doctors and talking to my agent and my family, they said long-term this was the best thing for me to do because if I did try to go out there and play again, I probably wouldn’t be able to throw it, only just run.

"I don’t want to just run the ball. I want to throw it, too."

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Anthony Richardson's injury history

This was Richardson's first major injury since high school. He's still just 21 years old. He and the Colts have faith that he can move past the injury and have a great career, but they know they'll have to handle the recovery process correctly in order to make that happen.

That has meant holding Richardson back from throwing too early, which he hinted at trying when he spoke at a charity event in December. For a player whose primary criticism other than his accuracy was his lack of reps in college, he found it difficult to find solutions in sitting around.

“I’m not going to lie: I have been thinking about this day for a long, long time," Richardson said the day after the Colts season ended. "Just how the offseason was going to be for me – I had other plans. I wanted to actually just take some time and relax, but now the way that things are playing out, I’m 100% all-steam right now. The gas is all the way to the floor."

But Richardson has followed the doctors' orders so far. They set a date for him to throw again in February, and he stuck to that, later posting a video from those workouts back on the field in Jacksonville.

He isn't entirely back yet, but he's on schedule to be, which was the plan all along.

"He’s in good shape," Ballard said. "He’s throwing. He’s got a good throwing program. We’ve got good people working with him. I’m encouraged about where he’s at and where he’s going."

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts give Anthony Richardson injury update, learned from Andrew Luck