What if I told you the most athletic quarterback in NFL history was benched after just two seasons in the league? Anthony Richardson was supposed to be impossible to stop. At 6’4, 244 lbs, he moved like a wide receiver and had a cannon for an arm. But after just three seasons in the league, no team wanted him.
So, how did a player with unlimited physical talent become one of the biggest question marks in football? Was he rushed too early? Was he failed by the people around him? Or were the warning signs always there from the beginning? Windmill dunks in 8th grade. That’s how Anthony Richardson got discovered. A guy named Vernal Brown was running a seven on seven football practice and East Side’s high school football coach, Cedric Daniels, stopped by to check it out.
Daniels looked across the way and saw this kid on a basketball court doing things eighth graders shouldn’t be able to do. He walked over and started recruiting him to play football to start his high school football career. Anthony Richardson wasn’t even a quarterback. East side put him at wide receiver. But halfway through the season, the team’s starting QB broke his finger.
And that’s when the legend began. His first game at quarterback, he had over a 100red yards passing and over a 100red yards rushing. People at East Side still talk about a pass he threw that split open a receivers’s hands. That’s not a metaphor. He threw the ball so hard he accidentally injured his own teammate. By the time he graduated, he had accumulated over 4,600 passing yards, 37 passing touchdowns, 1,600 rushing yards, and 41 rushing scores.
He was a four-star recruit and the ninth ranked dual threat QB in the class of 2020. He had offers from Georgia, Michigan, and more. But he decided to stay home and committed to the Florida Gator. But here’s where the doubt started. Because for all those highlights and all that athleticism, Anthony Richardson barely ever practiced quarterback.
the quote unquote right way. While other elite QB prospects were going to private quarterback coaches and traveling to seven-7 tournaments all over the country, Richardson was just playing with his friends. He learned how to play the position from his school coaches and that was it. You’ll see why that matters in a few minutes.
Anony’s freshman year in Gainesville, he red shirted his sophomore year back up to Emory Jones. Then 2022 came and Richardson was finally named the starter. September 3rd, 2022, game one of the season. Seventh ring Utah came into the swamp and Anthony Richardson put on a show. 17 of 24 passing for 168 yards, 106 rushing yards, and three rushing touchdowns.
Florida wins 2926. Upset of the year so far. By Monday morning, Anthony Richardson’s Heisman odds went from plus 6,000 to 1,800, fourth highest in the country. Then the next week happened. Kentucky comes to Gainesville. There were 22 NFL scouts in the stadium that night. Richardson completed 14 of 35 passes. That’s 40%.
He threw two interceptions, including a pick six, ran six times for only four yards, and Florida lost 26-6. That was week two. Heisman Buzz gone just like that. The rest of the season was that exact pattern over and over again. Against weaker opponents, Richardson would look like a top three NFL pick.
He’d throw 50-yard rockets, run for touchdowns, pump fake guys out of their cleats. But against any defense with a real pulse, the wheels would come off. Interceptions, balls sailing over receivers heads, decision-m that locked up under pressure. Florida finished the year 6 and seven. Richardson completed just 53% of his passes for 2500 yards, 17 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
After playing just 13 games as a starter, Anthony Richardson declared for the NFL draft. So, you’d think his draft stock would be low, right? Wrong. NFL scouts couldn’t get enough of him. Here’s the thing you have to understand about how the NFL talks about quarterback prospects. There’s raw and then there’s raw with potential.
Those are two pretty different things. Raw with potential means everyone knows he’s not ready. But the tools are so good, somebody’s going to take the risk. Anthony Richardson was the rawest quarterback prospect anyone had seen in years. But he also had the highest ceiling anyone had seen in years. Every single scouting report said the same thing. Two columns.
The pros column was insane. The cons column was terrifying. Nobody could agree where to put him on the board. Some thought he could go number one. Others thought he should have gone back to college. The pros start with the arm because this is what scouts couldn’t stop talking about. His arm wasn’t just strong. It was a cannon.
Richardson didn’t even need to engage his lower body to make power throws downfield. He could uncork a 60-yard bomb off his back foot off platform. Getting hit didn’t matter. The ball just got there. Then had the size 6’4 244 lbs. built like a linebacker. One analyst said he was Dererick Henry with a cannon for an arm.
But the cons, they were brutal. 53.8 completion percentage, constant misfires on short and intermediate throws. He could hit a deep pass with perfect placement, but couldn’t consistently complete a sevenyard out. His decision-m would lock up against pressure. But the biggest red flag of them all, he had one season as a starting college quarterback.
13 total starts. The film looked like two completely different quarterbacks depending on which game you watched. But then he showed up at the combine and the conversation stopped being is he worth a top 10 pick and started being is he worth the number one overall pick. I have to walk you through this combine because what Richardson did was absolutely ridiculous.
Picture a quarterback 6’4 and 244 lbs. He was basically the size of a tight end or linebacker. Then he ran a 44340. To put that into perspective, that 443 would have ranked as the fifth fastest running back time at that combine. It would have been tied for the 11th fastest receiver time. He was a 244-lb man running like a slot receiver.
No other quarterback in combine history has run faster at his weight. Then he jumped a 40 and 1/2 in vertical, new all-time QB combine record. Then he broad jumped 10 feet and 9 in. New all-time QB combine record. He earned a perfect relative athletic score. The only other quarterback to ever do that, Cam Newton and Dante Cole Pepper.
That’s the company we’re talking about. The Colts had the fourth pick in the draft. And they were desperate for a quarterback. They hadn’t had a real one since Andrew Luck retired. So when Richardson was sitting there at four, they couldn’t help themselves. the most physically gifted quarterback prospect anyone had ever seen and a franchise dying for a savior. They took him.
Instead of letting the Raw Richardson sit and learn behind a veteran quarterback, the Colts decided to name him their week one starter. In his first NFL game against the Jaguars, he completed 24 of 37 passes for 223 passing yards, one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown, and an interception. The Colts lost, but you could see the potential was there.
But it was a few weeks later in a game versus the Rams when Richardson really turned heads. The Colts were down 23 nothing midway through the third quarter. Game looked over, but Richardson refused to give up. He led the Colts on a comeback for the ages, scoring three total touchdowns to force overtime.
Indianapolis lost in OT, but it didn’t matter. In just his third career NFL start, Anthony Richardson had made the entire NFL believe. Then came week five. Richardson scrambles out of the pocket and goes down hard on his throwing shoulder. Grade three AC joint sprain. It needed surgery. His season was over.
Four games into his career and the most physically gifted quarterback the league had ever drafted was watching from the sideline in a sling. He came back for the 2024 season. And in the very first quarter of the very first game, Anthony Richardson reminded everyone why the Colts took him fourth overall. He unccorked a 60yard touchdown bomb.
Shane Styen, his head coach, told reporters after the game, “It was the best throw he had ever seen in his entire football life. The arm was still there, the body was still there, but something was off.” Richardson finished that game completing only nine of 19 passes. Houston won. And as the weeks rolled on, that completion percentage didn’t get better. It got worse.
Through the first six games of 2024, Anthony Richardson was completing 44.4% of his passes, worst in the NFL. And it wasn’t even close. He was missing wide open receivers, throwing balls into the dirt, sailing routine slants 10 ft over guys heads. Week seven against the Miami Dolphins, the Colts somehow won the game.
But Richardson completed 10 of 24 passes. That’s 41%. The following week, he went 10 of 32. That’s 31%. 31. Quarterbacks who complete under one-third of their passes in 30 plus attempt games basically don’t exist in the modern NFL. Over the last decade, only two quarterbacks have done it. Richardson and Josh Allen. Also guys, I want to thank the sponsor of today’s video, Bear Mattress.
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One decision, one play, and the entire NFL would never look at him the same way again. It started innocently. The Colts were driving and Richardson had been scrambling a lot. Then on second down, he scrambled again and got tackled for no gain. The Colts are now in a tough spot. Third and 23 in a tight game. And then Anthony Richardson taps his helmet and literally taps out of the game.
He walks off the field, takes a knee on the sideline, and backup Joe Flaco comes in for the remainder of the drive. After the game, reporters asked him what happened. >> Man, tired. I ain’t going to lie. Uh that was a lot of running right there, but I did. And uh I don’t think I was going to be able to go that next play. So I just uh you know, this whole thing saying I just needed a break right there.
the most athletic quarterback in the history of the combine needed a break. >> You’re gonna sit there and gonna tap you and ask out of the game. You need to get your conditioning up. I don’t know what I I I don’t I can’t even wrap my mind around the fact that you’re asking out of a game. You must be grossly out of shape or something else must be going on.
But I don’t have the luxury as offensive lineman to tap my helmet to get out of the game. What the hell was that, Rex? I I I don’t understand. >> I mean, this actually happened. >> I’m sitting here busting my ass in to protect you and you going to take you going to remove yourself from the game voluntarily. >> WHAT WHAT ARE we doing? >> His own center, Ryan Kelly, basically called him out the next day.
Said it wasn’t the standard he holds himself to and the team holds him to. Said it was a tough look. Said they had a conversation about it. 2 days later, the Colts benched him. Now, here’s what they aren’t telling you about that moment. And this is where the whole story really turns. Because Richardson wasn’t just benched for taking himself out of the game.
The real story was the Colts coaching staff had quietly been losing patience for weeks. He had the worst completion percentage in football. He wasn’t watching enough film. The attention to detail wasn’t there. Head coach Shane Styikin said of his quarterback, quote, “From the classroom to the walkthroughs to practice to the weight room, all those little things have just got to be at a higher standard.
” Joe Flaco, a 39-year-old who was supposed to be holding a clipboard, went one and one in his replacement starts. Then they put Richardson back in. He had some good moments, an 80-yard game-winning touchdown drive against the Patriots, a comeback win over the Jets where he ran in the gamewinner. But then there were games like the 24-6 loss versus the Lions where he completed only 39% of his passes.
The season ended with Richardson on IR with a back injury. He missed the last two games. The Colts missed the playoffs again. His final 2024 statline, a 47% completion rate, 1,814 passing yards, eight touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. 2025 is when the Colts blinked. In March, they signed Daniel Jones, who had been released by the Giants.
They gave him a one-year, $14 million deal and announced it would be an open quarterback competition. Translation: We don’t believe in our fourth overall pick anymore. Richardson showed up to OTAAS and immediately hurt his throwing shoulder again. He missed all of veteran mini camp. Training camp opened in July and both quarterbacks split reps.
Then came the preseason opener against the Ravens. Anthony Richardson got the start. This was his shot, his chance to put Jones in the rearview mirror to remind the Colts why they took him fourth overall to end the conversation. He played seven snaps. On the second drive, he dropped back and never saw Ravens linebacker, David Ojabo, come unblocked off the right edge. Ojabo crushed him.
Richardson dislocated his pinky on his throwing hand. Day over. But forget the pinky for a second. The real problem was his decision-making during the play. Hall of Famer Curt Warner saw the play and tweeted an early preseason example of having a quote pressure plan. O line sliding left. QB responsible for the linebacker on the right. He comes.
O tackle correctly squeezes to make furthest guy away the hot guy. AR has to see this and dish to the running back or tight end to the right. Warner’s point. This is a day one quarterback concept. Something they teach you the very first week of training camp. Recognize the pressure side and get the ball out to the open guy.
Every NFL quarterback has to be able to do this. It’s the most basic version of pre- snap awareness. And Richardson didn’t see any of it. Daniel Jones came in to replace him. He played 31 snaps. The statline wasn’t flashy. 10 of 21 for 144 yards, no touchdowns, no picks, but he was steady. He didn’t turn the ball over. He looked like a quarterback who had played in the NFL for 69 starts because he had.
In August, Styen made it official. Daniel Jones was the starter. Richardson was the backup. Then everything got weirder. Daniel Jones, the guy nobody believed in, the guy the Giants had given up on, went out and didn’t just play well. He played better than Anthony Richardson had ever played in his entire NFL career by a wide margin.
By the end of his time as a starter, Jones was fourth in the NFL in completion percentage at 68% and sixth in passer rating at 100.2. 2. For comparison, Anthony Richardson had never finished a single season with a completion percentage above 51, and he never had a passer rating above 70. The guy the Colts brought in as a backup plan, the guy the entire NFL had written off, was statistically having a top five quarterback season in the same building with the same coaches, with the same offensive scheme, with the same receivers, the exact thing Anthony
Richardson was supposed to do, in the exact same situation. Daniel Jones just walked in and did it. Then the story took a turn nobody saw coming. October 11th pregame warm-ups. Anthony Richardson was going through stretches with the resistance band like every player does every week. But this time the band snapped back and hit him directly in the eye.
He fractured his orbital bone, had to get surgery, and was out indefinitely. I want you to sit with this for a second. The most physically gifted quarterback to ever walk into an NFL building didn’t get taken out by a 275lb defender. No, he got taken out by a piece of gym equipment. During warm-ups, before the game even started, you just can’t make this stuff up. He goes on IR.
The Colts roll with Daniel Jones. Then in December, Jones tears his Achilles. So, what do the Colts do? Do they call up Anthony Richardson, their fourth overall pick? they’ve invested a ton in. No, they call Philip Rivers, the 44year-old who hadn’t played in the NFL in years, who had retired and gone home to coach his son’s high school team.
They signed him out of retirement and started him within days. And when reporters asked Styen if Richardson would start when healthy, his answer was, “Right now, Philillip’s our starter.” Richardson was finally clear to practice in mid December. But there was a problem. He still had vision limitations in that eye.
And the Colts decided not to activate him for the remainder of the season. So Anthony Richardson watched a 44year-old quarterback take his job to close out the year while sitting on injured reserve with an eye injury from a stretching band. Following the 2025 season, the Colts gave the 23-year-old Richardson permission to seek a trade.
But the problem was no team was interested in making a move for him. the most athletic quarterback the NFL has ever seen, out of options at 23. But here’s the thing, the body is still there, the arm is still there. He just needs one team willing to take a chance. The question is, will anyone? If you enjoyed this video, you will definitely enjoy one of these two videos up
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
