Most essential Colts No. 1: Can Anthony Richardson show his potential?
In a salary-cap league like the NFL, finding building blocks is essential. As teams churn and burn the roster through the draft and bargain signings in free agency, it helps to find the players who are either a cut above the rest or can perform a task few others can. They relieve the pressure on everyone.
Over the next two weeks, we'll be ranking the 10 most essential players to the Colts' success in 2023. It's a subjective process, weighing factors such as ability, positional value within a scheme, age, leadership and durability.
To make it simpler, we're asking the following two questions about these players:
1. How difficult would he be to replace for more than a month?
2. What does the Colts' 2023 ceiling become if this player hits his?
The elephant in the room for 2023, of course, is the presence of a rookie quarterback. The growth of Anthony Richardson will matter more than the win-loss record, so this year's list will focus more on future value than it has in other years.
Today, we finish out the list with No. 1, Anthony Richardson.
Here's the final list:
Just missed: Kwity Paye, Julian Blackmon, Samson Ebukam
8. Bernhard Raimann, left tackle
6. Shaquille Leonard, linebacker
4. DeForest Buckner, defensive tackle
3. Michael Pittman Jr., wide receiver
2. Jonathan Taylor, running back
1. Anthony Richardson, quarterback
Position: Quarterback
Age: 21
Experience: 1st NFL season
Why he's here: From the intro to this project, it hasn't been a secret who would hold the No. 1 spot.
However this year goes for the Colts, what will matter more than anything is how Anthony Richardson develops as a passer, runner, teammate, leader and face of the franchise. He's the first quarterback they've drafted to become a starter since Andrew Luck, and he represents the greatest of upside swings. He's so young and raw but also so talented that everything is about to be forward-looking in a league run by superstar quarterbacks.
The present will matter most in how it blazes a path for the future. In that sense, wins and losses aren't as important as how we feel about Richardson's progress from Week 1 through Week 18.
He is a test case for hope and for managing expectations, because the two will likely be at odds early on. It's fair to expect a slow start, like he has shown so far in organized training activities and minicamp practices, where the accuracy concerns that kept him below 54% completions at Florida have been on display. So much of this is so new to him, from mundane processes like a five-step drop from the shotgun to the advanced levels of option routes to the more philosophical stages of representing a billion-dollar sports franchise and instilling hope in everyone in it.
That's why it's important for Richardson to play early on, as coach Shane Steichen and owner Jim Irsay have both hinted at. Sure, he has lots of football he needs to learn, but with just 13 starts above high school, he also needs reps to stay engaged in that learning process and to become self-aware in who he is and isn't as a quarterback. So far, Richardson has shown a passion for learning and a hunger for criticism, and maintaining those when the results aren't ideal will be crucial to unlocking them down the line.
Though it's hard to put too many limitations on a generational athlete at a position of so much control, it's fair to expect modest results either from Richardson or the Colts or both in the first year because that's what happens when a team bad enough to pick in the top 10 then turns to a rookie quarterback. Indianapolis' offense offers some reasons for hope, from Steichen's system to the toolsy pass catchers to a superstar running back in Jonathan Taylor.
But it's also a rebuild of the worst offense in football last year that is now young at all the positions that touch the ball. The same starting line that finished last season's 4-12-1 campaign is back for this one. The Colts will need the best versions of the other offensive players on this list -- Taylor, Michael Pittman Jr., Braden Smith, Quenton Nelson, Bernhard Raimann and Jelani Woods -- in order to make noise this year, because that's just how life with a rookie quarterback usually goes.
Richardson does need to flash some of the upside that made him the most athletic quarterback prospect in NFL history at 6-foot-4 and 244 pounds with 4.43 speed and broad and vertical jump numbers that no passer has topped. Those are most likely to come in his scrambles and designed runs, but they should also flash from time to time as a passer on play-action and against single-high safety looks.
The challenge will be catering to his dual-threat abilities without getting him hurt, which has happened at the high school and college levels. He won't be able to grow as a passer if he can't practice. That's where coaching and the other offensive players on this list are so essential.
If Richardson can mix the consistency of the person off the field with the random sparks of upside on it, he'll become the kind of quarterback an entire team can rally behind for this year and going forward. That hope has been hard to find on West 56th Street since the 2019 preseason, but reclaiming it will give life to every player on this list and everything the Colts hope to accomplish in the coming years.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Why Anthony Richardson is No. 1 among most essential players
