After two weeks of being the back-up, Anthony Richardson came back as the Indianapolis Colts’ starter this week against the New York Jets. How did he look?
By pretty much every metric, this was Anthony Richardson’s best game of the season. It was his highest completion percentage (66.7%) and highest adjusted completion percentage (88.5), per PFF. It was his first game this season with a positive CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected). His highest number of 1st downs generated in a game this season (13). His best QB Rating in a game this season (106.5).
For the season, Richardson has not been great under pressure, completing 44.2% of his passes for a QB rating of 69.2. In this game, he was under pressure on 43.8% of his dropbacks and he was absolutely nails. He completed 75% of his passes (90% adjusted completion percentage) for a QB Rating of 114.9.
From a numbers perspective, he had a good game. How about from a film perspective?
Some of the same issues are still there, which is to be expected. It’s not like he’s going to magically fix all of his issues in two weeks. One area where he looked better was his timing within the offense. Through the first part of the season, he seemed to be sprinting through his footwork on passing concepts, so he’d arrive at his spot way too early. If you’re trying to operate within the rhythm of the offense, timing is crucial, and Richardson simply didn’t have that timing. He’d routinely rush through his steps, then have to wait at the top of his drop for the routes to be where they needed to be. Instead of “step-step-set-fire”, it was “step-step-set-wait-wait-fire.” That led to messy timing and an inconsistent base, which led to inconsistent throws and weird reads and all kinds of things.
Again, I don’t think that’s entirely fixed, but he was noticeably slower on his dropbacks in this game, which helped him to operate the offense at a higher level. I don’t know if that’s going to hold through the rest of the season, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on.
With that in mind, we’re looking at two plays today. The first one is the touchdown to Josh Downs in the red zone, then we’ll back up and look at a play from the Texans game.
The Colts are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) with Richardson in a shotgun, split-back look. They start with Josh Downs [1] on Richardson’s right and Jonathan Taylor [28] on the left, but they swap places before the snap. That brings the safety over to the right with Taylor.
They’re running a Smash look from a condensed split on the right. On the left, Alec Pierce [14] is running a vertical route, with Downs running an angle route from the backfield.
The two linebackers in the middle are pulled up to the line, one looking to pick up Taylor out of the backfield and the other appearing to be working as a spy on Richardson. That leaves a nice empty spot behind them. Downs pushes vertically, gives his man a shake, then breaks to the inside. Richardson delivers a ball on the money and the Colts pick up 6 and make the score 24-22 early in the 4th quarter.
Nice play and a good throw by Richardson to hit Downs in-stride.
Alright now let’s back up for a second to Week 8. Different situation and slightly different concept overall, but the right side of this play is going to look extremely similar. Colts are in 11 personnel with Richardson in a split-gun look. They start with Downs on the left and Taylor on right, but they swap places before the snap.
From the right side, Pierce is running a vertical route from the outside while Downs is running an angle route from the backfield. Downs pushes vertically, gives his man a shake, then breaks to the inside. Richardson sails the ball and it falls incomplete.
As I mentioned earlier, part of the issue here is Richardson arriving at his spot too early, then looking uncertain as to when to deliver it. He hits the top of his drop, bounces, waits a beat, then double-clutches on the throw.
Let’s just throw both of those end zone angle videos here again, with the snap-to-delivery portion slowed down.
First the TD from this week:
Then then miss from Week 8:
It’s not much, but getting to his spot with a little more patience makes this operation much smoother.
Like I said, I don’t believe all of his issues have been fixed over the course of two weeks. I certainly anticipate seeing a fair bit of inconsistency over the rest of the season. But seeing an improvement in his timing gives me an optimism for the rest of the season that I didn’t have prior to his benching.
Albums listened to: Mitski – The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We
