And this from the back end of my Saturday two-a-day—my takeaways from an early-evening Colts practice …
1. Anthony Richardson is impressive, and it doesn’t take more than a couple of throws to really understand why the Colts were comfortable taking a kid with 13 college starts fourth overall. But that the rookie, who is up to 255 pounds (11 pounds bigger than he was at the combine) and is carrying it easily, is a physical freak is news to no one. What Indy’s liked since drafting him is how quickly he’s picking things up. Through spring and early in the summer, he’s been able to take in play calls and spit them out in the huddle, which is something rookie quarterbacks often struggle with. That’s a good sign on Richardson’s capacity to learn.
He’s got a long, long way to go, and Indy’s still working through how much to play him in the preseason—having joint practices with the Bears and Eagles should help, too, from a reps standpoint. There’ll be ups and downs, of course, and Richardson is still in the “doesn’t know what he doesn’t know” phase. But the more he sees, the faster he’ll learn, and there’s plenty of reason to be excited about that, based on how he’s picking stuff up.
