A year after winning Comeback Player of the Year, Joe Flacco is now heading back to the bench. The Colts have announced that Anthony Richardson is returning to the starting lineup. I guess he's learned enough from sitting the past two weeks.
Flacco hasn't played well; people saw him light up the Jaguars in his first full game and probably overreacted. HIs passing numbers declined after that one, and now the last two weeks, Flacco has thrown 4 interceptions and taken 7 sacks. For those kind of negative numbers, the Colts may as well stick with the guy who's a couple of decades younger with an NFL future.
While Richardson certainly has some fantasy value -- he'll run a lot, and he can hit some big plays on occasion -- it's a negative for the passing game and the Colts wide receivers. Richardson has thrown for 175 yards or fewer in each of his last three full games, and with only 1 touchdown. In his 10 career starts (a couple he got knocked out of, to be fair) he's averaging just 154 passing yards. But very much a work in a progress (that's why he was benched just two weeks ago).
And it's a positive for the defenses coming up, starting with the Jets this week. Maybe not as much as you'd expect -- Flacco, after all, has been throwing a lot of interceptions and taking a lot of sacks -- but Richardson has been bleeding that kind of production all along.
Over the past two seasons, there are 41 quarterbacks who have started at least eight games. The only guy who's thrown interceptions on a higher percentage of his passes than Richardson is Mac Jones. (Flacco also shows up really high in this area.)
Search tools at pro-football-reference.com used in compiling this table, which is sorted by interception percentage.
QUARTERBACKS, INTERCEPTIONS (2023-2024) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | GS | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Int% |
Mac Jones | 12 | 244 | 376 | 2259 | 10 | 14 | 3.7 |
Anthony Richardson | 10 | 109 | 217 | 1535 | 7 | 8 | 3.7 |
Sam Darnold | 10 | 207 | 307 | 2438 | 19 | 11 | 3.6 |
Joe Flacco | 9 | 236 | 374 | 2783 | 22 | 13 | 3.5 |
Sam Howell | 17 | 388 | 612 | 3946 | 21 | 21 | 3.4 |
Ryan Tannehill | 8 | 149 | 230 | 1616 | 4 | 7 | 3.0 |
Desmond Ridder | 13 | 260 | 404 | 2910 | 13 | 12 | 3.0 |
Will Levis | 15 | 250 | 403 | 2682 | 15 | 11 | 2.7 |
Jalen Hurts | 26 | 516 | 773 | 5834 | 35 | 20 | 2.6 |
Daniel Jones | 16 | 324 | 501 | 2979 | 10 | 13 | 2.6 |
Jordan Love | 24 | 519 | 819 | 5979 | 47 | 21 | 2.6 |
Patrick Mahomes | 25 | 617 | 908 | 6391 | 39 | 23 | 2.5 |
Josh Allen | 27 | 575 | 878 | 6587 | 46 | 22 | 2.5 |
Tua Tagovailoa | 22 | 501 | 716 | 5779 | 35 | 18 | 2.5 |
Brock Purdy | 25 | 489 | 722 | 6734 | 43 | 18 | 2.5 |
Jared Goff | 26 | 580 | 846 | 6655 | 46 | 21 | 2.5 |
Joshua Dobbs | 12 | 262 | 417 | 2464 | 13 | 10 | 2.4 |
Trevor Lawrence | 25 | 538 | 838 | 6020 | 32 | 20 | 2.4 |
Gardner Minshew II | 20 | 453 | 711 | 4806 | 21 | 17 | 2.4 |
Bryce Young | 21 | 407 | 680 | 3697 | 15 | 16 | 2.4 |
Geno Smith | 24 | 556 | 841 | 6184 | 31 | 19 | 2.3 |
Matthew Stafford | 24 | 540 | 843 | 6227 | 33 | 18 | 2.1 |
Aidan O'Connell | 12 | 265 | 425 | 2673 | 14 | 9 | 2.1 |
Baker Mayfield | 27 | 607 | 910 | 6549 | 52 | 19 | 2.1 |
Kirk Cousins | 18 | 443 | 644 | 4965 | 35 | 13 | 2.0 |
Aaron Rodgers | 11 | 219 | 352 | 2258 | 15 | 7 | 2.0 |
Dak Prescott | 25 | 595 | 876 | 6494 | 47 | 17 | 1.9 |
Zach Wilson | 11 | 221 | 368 | 2271 | 8 | 7 | 1.9 |
Justin Fields | 19 | 333 | 530 | 3668 | 21 | 10 | 1.9 |
Bo Nix | 10 | 206 | 324 | 1968 | 10 | 6 | 1.9 |
Deshaun Watson | 13 | 242 | 387 | 2263 | 12 | 7 | 1.8 |
Caleb Williams | 9 | 178 | 294 | 1785 | 9 | 5 | 1.7 |
Russell Wilson | 18 | 347 | 532 | 3807 | 32 | 9 | 1.7 |
Derek Carr | 24 | 499 | 732 | 5372 | 36 | 12 | 1.6 |
Kyler Murray | 18 | 367 | 544 | 3857 | 22 | 8 | 1.5 |
Joe Burrow | 20 | 490 | 723 | 4981 | 39 | 10 | 1.4 |
C.J. Stroud | 25 | 526 | 828 | 6479 | 35 | 11 | 1.3 |
Kenny Pickett | 12 | 202 | 327 | 2075 | 6 | 4 | 1.2 |
Lamar Jackson | 26 | 506 | 745 | 6347 | 48 | 9 | 1.2 |
Justin Herbert | 22 | 456 | 697 | 5023 | 31 | 8 | 1.1 |
Jayden Daniels | 10 | 180 | 262 | 2147 | 9 | 2 | 0.8 |
The Jets, as discussed some yesterday, need to actually show up and be invested in the proceedings this week. But I like their odds of putting up some production against the NFL's A Richardson.
--A Richardson