How Will the Colts Evaluate Richardson?

[Smonroe]

Availability has to be the first criteria.  
 

I love the guy as a person and how he represents the team.  I think his accuracy can improve with experience and reps. 
 

But if he can’t stay on the field, none of that talent matters.  
 

So, how many games does he need to play this season?   I think if it’s under 8, they have to seriously think about finding someone in the draft. 
 

(Or are they playing the long game in the March for Arch?   I think I’m going to trademark that!)

[Solid84]

The injuries are a concern, but he’s missed 3 games. There are 17 games in a season. Still plenty of games left for him to get experience. 

[cjwhiskers]

Only way to evaluate him appropriately IMO is to see him string together games and show growth. His injury history makes that incredibly difficult. Dude can show whatever he wants in practice but I wouldn’t commit to him without seeing 8-12 games and growth. 
 

If he can’t play for another significant stretch at some point this year or if he doesn’t show growth within that stretch, I’m ready to move on. 
 

Really hard for him to get any level of consistency when he doesn’t finish 90% of the games he starts. 

People can say all that want about his injuries but at this point it’s a very concerning trend, dating back to his college days and now into his first two years in the NFL. 
 

I’d love to see him succeed, I think he has the skills and can be super dynamic, but I just don’t see it happening based on what we know. 
 

The best part about getting new information though is that it should have the ability to alter your opinions

and I’m looking forward to seeing if he can change mine. 

[Crunked]

How will Colts evaluate Richardson? : They are/will let him make his mistakes, (evaluation) teach him where it went sideways (teaching) see how he evolves and rinse and repeat on mistakes and teaching...... all wrapped up in how durable he is/isn't .......and put together a bigger picture trajectory,(what he can be)  bigger picture "floor" (what a bad day may look like) to his abilities......based on all of that rolled up into a ball....they will be thankful they took him with the #4 pick or they wont....but this year so far has not been a roller coaster (or if it has the hills have been tiny and few) its been more of a subway bullet train....so hopefully we can climb more hills more frequently soon

[chad72]

Day by day, week by week, that is all they can do. 

[Defjamz26]

Remember that a rookie contract for 1st round picks is 4 years with a 5th year option. Still plenty of time. But the question about availability you posed, is exactly why I think he needs to sit. He’s missed half of the games at this point in the season, and all of the times he’s gotten injured or taken a hit, it’s been on him not protecting himself. 
 

Week 1 in his rookie debut (shouldn’t have started) against the Jags he was trying to run the ball too much and got his ankle dinged up at the end of the game. Then against Houston he slowed down on the 2nd TD run and got concussed. Then against the Titans last year, he got tackled to the ground and was out for the season trying to turn the corner instead of getting down or out of bounds. A year later and he runs for a 1st down against Pittsburgh and doesn’t get down once he has the yardage. 
 

As quick as we are to say “he’ll learn from his mistakes”, that is one area he clearly hasn’t learned from those mistakes. The evaluation will depend heavily on whether or not he can actually just learn how to protect himself. Thats where the convo starts. After that they are going to have to grade the mundane. They can’t just grade him on the highs. He has to learn how to make the routine plays consistently. 
 

But even then, it’s going to be a delayed evaluation even if he stays healthy. Richardson was always a 3-4 year project to me. He was that raw coming out. His strengths were basically great pocket presence, track speed, and a cannon arm. Everything else was a work in progress . I don’t think a lot of his areas for growth are things that get better week to week or after 1-2 training camps. It takes years to learn. We just saw this same thing with Fields. For QBs like that it takes a while to evaluate them.

[Mighty Blue]

AR5 is still learning how to play the game the NFL Way and more importantly, the Colts Way.

We as fans, have our own expectations...just win.

 

I don't know AR5 off the field, but I hope he is open to criticism about what he is doing wrong...it is not college ball anymore.

He already knows about we feel about his great potential.

 

Most of us have had good mentors and not so good mentors in our jobs to help us grow. With his time off to heal, I hope that he has studied how the great QBs play the game AND how those QBs that had great potential but was cut short because of injuries.

 

Cut short because of injuries...playing time will tell. 

Hmm, could RG3 give AR5 some advice about running the ball?

 

After my post about "Shouldn't the RB have more carries and yardage than the QB?" plays a big part in AR5's longevity.

 

The play callers have a big job on their hands, but it is up to execution of plays from our QB. I hope broken plays become less AND less potential for injuries to our injury prone QB.

 

Hey, no emojis!

 

Go, Colts Concession Stand Workers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LJpalmbeacher2]

For one thing, don't call QB running plays in the middle of the field where its harder to get out of harms way. 

[lollygagger8]

Can't evaluate a player if he's constantly on the sidelines

[ADnum1]

"You can't make the club from the tub"

 

-Bill Parcells

[#12.]

If he keeps getting injured, if he misses a large portion of this season, you have to make other plans.  It's as simple as that, and that's why this is a complicated situation.  Who is making the other future plans?  Ballard?  What happens with Richardson is tied to numerous people in this front office and scouting department trying to keep their jobs.  

 

And no, if you have any hopes of actually winning football games, you can’t turn him into a pocket passer to prevent injury.  Turning Richardson into a pocket passer is fantasyland stuff.  

 

 

[OLD FAN MAN]

hire levis or brady to teach him how to slide and draw a penalty so he can stay on the field. he could bull his way in high school and college where players were smaller. but in the nfl defenders are as big as he is and hit harder

[stitches]

As much as I like Richardson, if you cannot rely on him being healthy then the evaluation starts and ends there. At some point he just needs to play and play extended series of games with no injury concerns so we can see him get in a groove and can see if there is any improvement in his actual game happening. 

 

He needs to play, both for developmental and for evaluation purposes. And if he can't play or if he doesn't show improvements then we switch back to seeking our future franchise QB mode. And no... Flacco or similar vet is NOT the answer. 

 

Right now I personally am more worried about his health than about his development but they are kind of linked. 

[twfish]

I can tell you one thing, we saw Flacco miss some throws some would be grilling Richardson for. Don't get me wrong Richardson has cleaning up to do but I feel at times the masses are a little more critical of him then they should be. Flacco threw 22/38 for 189 yards, a completion percentage of 57.9% and 2 td's and 1 int and people are talking "QB controversy". The Colts are a more dangerous team with Richardson at the rains but a more consistent team with Flacco. 

[Smonroe]

49 minutes ago, lollygagger8 said:

Can't evaluate a player if he's constantly on the sidelines

I disagree.  Availability is a major factor for his evaluation.  He could be the second coming of Peyton, but if he can’t play it doesn’t matter.  
 

 

[stitches]

5 minutes ago, twfish said:

I can tell you one thing, we saw Flacco miss some throws some would be grilling Richardson for. Don't get me wrong Richardson has cleaning up to do but I feel at times the masses are a little more critical of him then they should be. Flacco threw 22/38 for 189 yards, a completion percentage of 57.9% and 2 td's and 1 int and people are talking "QB controversy". The Colts are a more dangerous team with Richardson at the rains but a more consistent team with Flacco. 

Agreed. I don't think Flacco played well yesterday. And he did miss some throw that people kill Richardson for. And he did throw an interception about as bad as any of AR's interceptions. I don't think a lot of people evaluate critically what's actually happening and consistently misattribute blames and merits.  We won that game yesterday mainly because the QB on the other side was Will Levis and because we got lucky with some calls. 

[tfunky14]

It will start this Sunday. 

[Flash7]

15 minutes ago, twfish said:

I can tell you one thing, we saw Flacco miss some throws some would be grilling Richardson for. Don't get me wrong Richardson has cleaning up to do but I feel at times the masses are a little more critical of him then they should be. Flacco threw 22/38 for 189 yards, a completion percentage of 57.9% and 2 td's and 1 int and people are talking "QB controversy". The Colts are a more dangerous team with Richardson at the rains but a more consistent team with Flacco. 

True. Flacco did not have a good game yesterday. But we understand that he's our back up QB. He's not our solution to the position now and into the future, the way we want AR to be.

 

Therefor, AR is held to a higher standard and with that comes more scrutiny -- some warranted and others unwarranted.

[Smonroe]

1 minute ago, tfunky14 said:

It will start this Sunday. 

Nope. It started last September.  He has to at least start and finish games. 
 

If he can go the rest of the season, they can put the injury concerns away IMHO. 

[#12.]

23 minutes ago, twfish said:

I can tell you one thing, we saw Flacco miss some throws some would be grilling Richardson for. 

 

I don't know about that - overthrowing someone by a few feet on 30-50 yard throws vs. throwing balls 10 yards over a receivers' heads on quick outs.  Richardson has been wildly inaccurate.

 

 

[twfish]

1 minute ago, #12. said:

 

I don't know about that - overthrowing someone by a few feet on 30-50 yard throws vs. throwing balls 10 yards over a receivers' heads on quick outs.  Richardson has been wildly inaccurate.

 

 

He missed guy's short as well yesterday. Heck the int was a short throw he had a terribly thrown ball on.

[#12.]

Just now, twfish said:

He missed guy's short as well yesterday. Heck the int was a short throw he had a terribly thrown ball on.

 

He wasn't great, but overall I don't see the comparison.

[Never_Quit]

2 hours ago, Solid84 said:

The injuries are a concern, but he’s missed 3 games. There are 17 games in a season. Still plenty of games left for him to get experience. 

He missed all of last season, too.

[IinD]

Thankfully the franchise doesn't seem to be meddling on messing up his progress. They've been nothing but fair and accommodating to him.

 

I think you give him this year and next year. If he stays injured most of these 2 seasons you are taking a QB at the top of the 26' draft. He's essentially now on a 28 game audition (11 games left +17 next year).

[Solid84]

12 minutes ago, Never_Quit said:

He missed all of last season, too.

Absolutely he did, but this is a new season. How many games he plays this season is not influenced by last season. If he plays the rest of the season I'd say he's on the right track, but he needs to stay healthy now. No more several week absences.

[Patrick Miller]

Honestly I’ll be surprised if AR makes it through the rest of the season without getting injured again.

[Moosejawcolt]

12 minutes ago, Patrick Miller said:

Honestly I’ll be surprised if AR makes it through the rest of the season without getting injured again.

History says u r correct.