The two previous Indianapolis Colts first-round quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck, had nearly antithetical starts to their careers. Manning famously set the rookie record for interceptions (28) as the Colts went 3-13 in 1998. Luck made a Pro Bowl in his first year as Indy went 11-5 in 2012 and reached the playoffs, where they fell in the Wild Card Round.
After cycling through veterans since Luck abruptly retired in 2019, Indy finally returned to the draft well this season, selecting Anthony Richardson at No. 4 overall. The pick brings hope that the Florida product will end the string of subpar QB play that has plagued the franchise, and they'd return to the mountain Manning once took them.
"Everybody wants me to come here and win a Super Bowl my first year," Richardson told Mike Chappell of FOX59 on Monday. "I wish I could, and I hope I can.
"But sometimes, you've got to understand it's not all about me. (I'm) making sure everybody on this team is involved and everybody is doing their job because I'm not the only one here."
Richardson has said all the right things since being drafted and ultimately named the Colts' Week 1 starter.
"I know they invested a lot in me, but I'm not the only person on this team," he noted. "They invested a lot into the other players. They invested a lot into this staff.
"I know they're going to ride with me, and I'm going to ride with them. I don't really see it as I'm the main guy because, without the other pieces on the team, team not going to work."
Rookie quarterbacks have a lot to juggle: from understanding the speed of the NFL to learning a new offense to dissecting defenses to navigating their own tendencies to leading a group of men -- many of whom are much older and weathered -- to living up to outsized expectations.
"People always talk about how I'm the franchise," Richardson said. "I see it that way, but (teammates) are here before I was here. They're part of the franchise as well."
Last season, the Colts built a roster intended to win with a veteran quarterback. That experiment failed spectacularly. Now they've got a fresh-faced, dynamic signal-caller at the helm. How far they go in 2023 will likely depend on how high the highs are from Richardson and how well he is at smoothing out the rough patches. Here's betting he lands somewhere between Manning's record-setting INTs and Luck's playoff push.
