Colts QB Richardson: Won’t change playing style

INDIANAPOLIS — Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson has had several months to reflect on his injury-plagued season.

He’s thought about what could have been for a team that missed the playoffs by one game. And he’s dealt with the range of emotions produced by being sidelined during some of the critical games the team played.

But Richardson has also given some thought to how he sustained his injuries, including the season-ending shoulder sprain that required surgical repair. And the dual-threat quarterback has decided that he doesn’t need to overhaul his playing style in light of it.

“I don’t think so,” Richardson said Thursday. “It’s just a matter of me just being out there and just learning when to get down, when not to get down. Some of the injuries were unfortunate. My ankle got stepped on, hitting my knee on the turf really hard. Just stuff like that. Stuff that I can’t control.”

Running less aggressively, Richardson said, isn’t the answer. Playing smarter, he said, should be the goal. He pointed to a touchdown run in Week 2 against the Houston Texans when, with a wide-open path to the end zone, he slowed down near the goal line only to take a late blind-side shot from a defender that left him concussed. Richardson missed the following game.

“The [injuries] that I can control, I’ve got to prevent those,” he said. “Like me slowing up near the end zone, getting a concussion, that was completely on me. Getting tackled [against the Tennessee Titans], I can’t really prevent that. I was trying to brace myself for it and just unfortunately my shoulder just did what it did. But I don’t think I have to change the way I play. Just being a little smarter.”

Richardson, the fourth overall pick, appeared in just four games but was on the field for just 12 quarters, the equivalent of three games. Still, he scored seven touchdowns (three passing, four rushing).

The Colts, who lost what was effectively a postseason play-in game to the Texans, feel significantly more hopeful about their next steps coming out of the 2023 season compared with 2022. The Colts improved to 9-8 after going 4-12-1 the previous season.

“We should legitimately be competing for the division and playoffs,” general manager Chris Ballard said Thursday. “That’s our expectation.”

Indianapolis hasn’t made the playoffs since 2020 and hasn’t won the AFC South since 2014. But the Colts are cautiously optimistic Richardson can be their long-term franchise quarterback and might approach their team building accordingly, according to Ballard.

“We’re not paying the quarterback big money anymore,” he said. “And, so, we’re going to have some more flexibility and we’ll always be prudent, but we’ll be as aggressive as we need to be in free agency with players that we think can help us.”

In other news, Ballard confirmed that defensive coordinator Gus Bradley remains under contract and will return next season. There were questions about Bradley’s status given some recent struggles in pass coverage — the Colts ranked 21st in explosive passes allowed — but Ballard attributed much of that to the team’s unusually young secondary.

“There were some rough moments, at times, in the secondary and I don’t completely put that on them,” Ballard said. “I put that more on me.”