QB · IND · 23 yrs · exp 1 · Notre Dame
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Latest: Sep 7, 2026 · 1,411
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The Indianapolis Colts have named Anthony Richardson as their backup quarterback, with Daniel Jones as the starter. Richardson, a former first-round pick, had requested a trade but will instead serve as the No. 2 quarterback
Anthony Richardson beat Riley Leonard for the Colts' backup quarterback job behind Daniel Jones. Here's more about Shane Steichen's decision
Colts coach Shane Steichen announced Anthony Richardson will be the backup QB to Daniel Jones. Riley Leonard is third on the depth chart. Richardson, the Colts' 2023 fourth-overall pick, has struggled with injuries and inconsistency, leading the team to acquire Jones. Jones's health and performance will dictate Richardson's future opportunities
Back in February, Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson requested a trade. When nothing materialized, Richardson reported to the offseason program and has been competing to be the team’s backup behind Daniel Jones with Riley Leonard. Richardson’s feelings may or may not have changed. But at this point, the Colts do not intend to trade him. “He is going to be an Indianapolis Colt this year ,” General Manager Chris Ballard said in his Tuesday press conference. Richardson, 24, has continued to make strides in his development, Ballard said. “We forget how young he is sometimes. Really proud of his growth,” Ballard said. “ There were two times in camp where I thought, OK, he’s starting to really show some poise. So the two-minute against New England, we’re backed up, I think it was 38 seconds left on the clock. Gets us in field-goal range to give us a chance to get points. And then during the Atlanta scrimmage, he had a tremendous two-minute [drive] also. “So, it’s been fun to watch Anthony’s growth.” Ballard did not declare whether or not Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2023 draft. will serve as the backup, deferring to head coach Shane Steichen. But when it comes to Richardson’s status with the team at large, Steichen said the quarterback is “in a good spot.” “He’s a phenomenal teammate — and I don’t use that word lightly,” Ballard said. “Like, he is a great teammate. He likes to be around the team. He likes being part of the team. There’s never been a point — even going back into last year when he didn’t win the job — there’s not been one point where I’ve seen him hang his head and get salty. He’s a phenomenal teammate.”
The Colts have finalized their 53-player roster, with quarterback Easton Stick being among the notable cuts. Several other players were released, while D.J. Montgomery and Coleman Owen were placed on season-ending injured reserve
Colts backup race sees Richardson outplay Riley Leonard, positioning him as likely successor to Daniel Jones
Colts QB Anthony Richardson will start the final preseason game, with a chance to secure the No. 2 spot behind Daniel Jones
Adds: Riley Leonard
Drops: Riley Leonard
Riley Leonard showed positive signs in QB2 battle
Drops: Riley Leonard
Anthony Richardson's future with the Colts is still uncertain, but he's focused on contributing to the team
The Colts have not decided who will back up Daniel Jones this season with the competition between Riley Leonard and Anthony Richardson continuing through the rest of the preseason. “Yeah, I don’t have a timetable on that,” coach Shane Steichen said Thursday, via Nathan Brown of the Indy Star . “I’m going to let that thing play out. Like I said, we’ve got two more weeks. We’ve got this preseason game. We’ve got practice, all that stuff and then we’ll see where it goes.” The Colts have made it a fair competition between Richardson, a first-round pick in 2023, and Leonard, a sixth-round pick in 2025. On Saturday, Leonard will lead the second-team offense in the first half. Richardson, who started last week, will play with the third team in the second half. Daniel Jones is not expected to play in the preseason, so Leonard and Richardson will get another game to battle for the job. “I thought they both had a good camp,” Steichen said of Richardson and Leonard. “I mean, there were some ups and downs, but I think you saw flashes of both of them, which was really exciting.”
Drops: Riley Leonard
The Colts haven’t found a trade partner for fourth-year quarterback Anthony Richardson Sr. They possibly won’t be looking for one. Via Stephen Holder of ESPN, Colts assistant G.M. Ed Dodds suggested on Sunday that the team will keep Richardson for the 2026 season, the last of his guaranteed rookie deal. “I think you take care of your own team first,” Dodds said. “We want to have three [quarterbacks] that can play. So, if [Richardson] is one of them, he’s going to be here. . . . Look at last year. You never know.” Last year, starter Daniel Jones suffered a torn Achilles tendon. Richardson wasn’t available, due to an orbital bone fracture suffered in a freak locker-room accident with an exercise band. In lieu of letting rookie Riley Leonard finish the year, the Colts cajoled Philip Rivers into returning after more than four seasons of retirement. Richardson, the fourth overall pick in 2023, has already earned a training-camp roster bonus of $4.24 million. He has a guaranteed base salary of $1.145 million for 2026. That’s very cheap, as quarterbacks go. Why not keep him around? The Colts ultimately may need him. And if he gets a chance to play, he’ll have every reason to deliver — he’s due to be a free agent in March
As Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson prepares for his fourth season, he’s fighting to avoid falling to third on the Indy depth chart behind Daniel Jones and Riley Leonard. Richardson generated solid numbers in the first half of Thursday’s preseason opener against the Patriots. It didn’t start smoothly. On the fifth play of the Colts’ opening drive of the night, Richardson threw an interception . In fairness to Richardson, it wasn’t really his fault. The ball came out of the hands of receiver Coleman Owen before being caught by Patriots cornerback Kindle Vildor. Richardson also lost a fumble , which was his fault. For the first half, Richardson completed 11 of 14 passes for 145 yards. He rushed six times for 53 yards and a touchdown. A trade remains possible. It all comes down to whether he shows enough in the preseason to get someone to bite. He could do enough to earn the No. 2 job in what would be his fourth season in Indianapolis
Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson completed 11 of 14 passes in the first half of the preseason opener, as he enters his fourth season and battles for a starting spot
There comes a point with every struggling young quarterback when patience starts to look a lot like stubbornness. For J.J. McCarthy , the Vikings have finally reached that point. A season ago, Minnesota was still trying to figure out exactly what it had in the former No. 10 overall pick , and even after a rough start to the 2025 campaign there were enough flashes to make the conversation more about development than the search for the next franchise QB. Now McCarthy is heading into Year 3 with just 10 NFL starts, and the Vikings have named Kyler Murray their starter . Meanwhile, Anthony Richardson has reached an even more precarious point in the conversation in Indianapolis. Three years after the Colts selected him fourth overall, Daniel Jones is entrenched as the starter, and Richardson has spent this summer battling Riley Leonard for the backup job. Richardson is still only 24 years old and remains one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks in football, but the organization that drafted him is no longer willing to wait for those gifts to turn into consistent quarterback play. Which raises a much more interesting question than whether McCarthy or Richardson can still be "fixed": What does history say happens after an NFL team decides a first-round quarterback's talent is no longer worth waiting on? The answer, after going through more than a decade of quarterback data, is not encouraging. The NFL frequently gives former first-round QBs another opportunity; it almost never gives them another franchise. And while McCarthy and Richardson have arrived at essentially the same career crossroads, the data suggests the problems they need to solve from here are very different. To get some idea of what McCarthy and Richardson are up against, I went back through recent first-round quarterbacks and looked for players whose original teams had effectively stopped treating them like the franchise saviors by the end of their third NFL season. This wasn't about missing games because of injury or getting benched for a week. The organizational decision had to be obvious: replace him, trade him, release him or otherwise enter the following season with somebody else as the intended starter. Seven recent quarterbacks fit the mold: Josh Rosen , Dwayne Haskins, Sam Darnold , Zach Wilson , Mac Jones , Justin Fields and Kenny Pickett . Trey Lance and Paxton Lynch are useful supporting examples, but neither established themselves as their team's starter long enough to really answer the same question. So what happened next for those seven QBs is a good reminder that effectively being declared a bust by the team that drafted you in the first round (and often in the first 10 picks) doesn't necessarily mean your NFL career is over. Started another NFL game 5 of 7 (71%) Made 10+ additional starts 3 of 7 (43%) Later had a top 16 EPA/dropback season 2 of 7 (29%) Clearly reestablished as a franchise QB 1 of 7 (14%) Five QBs eventually started another game. Darnold, Jones and Fields each accumulated at least 10 more starts, and Fields got two different organizations to give him meaningful opportunities after Chicago decided to move on. NFL teams don't suddenly forget why these guys were first-round picks; the arm talent, athleticism or college production -- many of the reasons the player was a high selection to begin with -- coupled with the belief that you are the GM or coach to fix this mess often lead to second, third and sometimes fourth chances when common sense and the eye test might dictate otherwise. Actually becoming a franchise quarterback again is another matter. Only Darnold and Mac Jones subsequently produced a top 16 season in EPA per dropback with at least 200 dropbacks, and Jones' case requires some context. He was legitimately good filling in for Brock Purdy in San Francisco in 2025, posting a +0.07 EPA per dropback -- 12th among qualifying quarterbacks -- along with a 76.0 PFF passing grade. That's a real statistical rebou [... truncated ...]
Quarterback Anthony Richardson may not know what’s going on with his trade request, but he may be able to entice a team to acquire his services soon. Via James Boyd of TheAthletic.com, Colts head coach Shane Steichen said after Tuesday’s joint practice with the Patriots that Richardson will start Thursday’s preseason matchup with the Patriots. The plan is for Richardson to play the first half of the contest and for Leonard to play the second half. The two quarterbacks will then flip that plan for Indianapolis’ second preseason game against Atlanta, with Leonard starting and playing the first half while Richardson plays the second. Coming off a torn Achilles tendon, Daniel Jones will not play in the preseason. Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2023 draft, requested a trade earlier this offseason after the Colts signed Daniel Jones to a new deal. To this point, it has not appeared there is much of a market for his services. In his 17 career games with 15 starts, Richardson has completed 50.6 percent of his passes for 2,400 yards with 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He’s rushed for 634 yards with 10 TDs
by Ari Koslow | Colts Correspondent | Tue, Aug 11th 2026, 1:40pm EDT The Colts announced Anthony Richardson will start Thursday’s preseason game against the Patriots. ( Joel A. Erickson on Twitter ) Fantasy Impact: Richardson will play the first half with Riley Leonard playing the second half. They'll continue to compete for the backup job behind Daniel Jones. Anthony Richardson will start against New England and play the first half; Riley Leonard will get the second half. Leonard gets the first half against Atlanta, Richardson gets the second. More Anthony Richardson Sr. : News , Rankings , Projections , Stats Add FantasyPros on Google
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