Oh, No, Not Again: Anthony Richardson Hurt During Colts' First Preseason Game
Richardson has missed more than half of his team's games since being taken fourth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft
There are injury-prone NFL players and then there's Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson. Richardson, who has missed more than half of the team's games since being taken fourth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, took a vicious sack during the first quarter of Thursday's preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens and left the game.
Additional replays showed the problem immediately: Richardson's right pinkie finger was pointing in a direction that was… not natural. Of course, we can't speculate about injuries, but it seems pretty clear that the third-year quarterback suffered a pretty significant injury to a finger on his throwing hand. The team announced he was out for the rest of the game.
If it is a broken finger, it isn't the worst-case scenario. He's suffered a litany of different ailments throughout his career, in both the NFL and in college, including: a hamstring strain, knee meniscus tear, a shoulder sprain, a hip sprain, lower back muscle pull and two documented concussions.
In fact, Richardson has only appeared in 35 regular-season football games – at Florida and with the Colts – since 2020. Essentially, he's averaging seven football games per year. That's not going to cut it in a league with 17 regular-season games.
Oft-injured Indianapolis Colts QB Anthony Richardson left the team's preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens after taking a vicious sack in the first quarter.
(Mitch Stringer/Imagn Images)
While Richardson figures to recover from his latest setback, the bigger problem is that backup QB Daniel Jones now has the chance to take the starting job and run away with it. Head coach Shane Steichen said both quarterbacks would play in Thursday's preseason game, but Richardson started. That indicates that he might have had the lead on the starting gig.
But depending on how much practice time Richardson misses, Jones now has the opportunity to take all the first-team reps. That's the bad news for Richardson. The good news is that his competition is Daniel Jones, so he might also be able to sit on the sideline, nurse his injury, and watch Jones' choke the job away. We'll just have to wait and see.