The Indianapolis Colts offense is going to look vastly different with new head coach Shane Steichen and rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson leading the way.
While the bottom-line concept of Steichen’s scheme is simply to be explosive, he truly has the ability to attain his goal in various ways by using a variety of attacks.
While yards-after-catch ability is one of the staples in Steichen’s offense, so is the deep ball. Richardson noted this offseason that it’s hard not to get excited when seeing those concepts in the playbook.
“As a QB, whenever you see deep shots in the playbook you get excited because you like to throw the ball deep and beat the coverage whenever it does happens,” Richardson told reporters at minicamp.
The major appeal that Steichen brings is his ability to adapt his scheme to whatever quarterback is under center. There will be heavy RPO influence, and the vertical shots will be foundational in his concepts, but he really is a chameleon of sorts in his ability to adapt.
With that said, he may have found his ideal scheme with the Philadelphia Eagles over the last two season with Jalen Hurts running heavy RPO concepts with vertical shots mixed in.
The 21-year-old Richardson also noted he’s just excited to get deeper into the playbook because it means he’s learning something new.
“I just get excited when I’m looking at it in general because it’s all new to me and I’m like, ‘Okay, what’s this? What’s this?’ You’ve got to ask questions. ‘Coach, how does this relate to this? What happens if they do this?’ Just getting information and taking it in, I just love it,” Richardson said.
The elite athleticism, mobility and arm strength give Richardson a chance to be special under Steichen’s command if the organization can develop his unicorn traits.
And once Richardson begins feeling comfortable as a passer, we should expect plenty of vertical concepts from the Colts offense.
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