After an embarrassing effort on Sunday Night Football, the Indianapolis Colts are looking for answers to their quarterback situation. On October 29th, it was announced that their franchise quarterback, Anthony Richardson would be benched in favor of the veteran, Joe Flacco. While this decision, at the time, was certainly warranted, hindsight suggests that maybe the decision was made in haste.
On the road against the Minnesota Vikings, the Colts offense put up six offensive points. This is the lowest amount of points put up by the Colts under Shane Steichen. They also only mustered 227 yards of total offense, including two turnovers and seven penalties. Needless to say, the Colts played their worst game of the season and the worst game under Shane Steichen. The reason why this is so significant is because this performance comes days after the Colts benched their franchise quarterback. For many Colts fans, this current situation seems eerily familiar to a quarterback situation that took place in 2022. This season is not over yet for the Colts. However, to keep their season alive, they must avoid making this mistake again.
The Colts Need to Avoid Riding the Quarterback Carousel
Ever since the early retirement of Andrew Luck in 2019, the Colts have been searching for their franchise quarterback. Since 2019, 10 quarterbacks have started games for Indianapolis. Needless to say, the franchise is not going to go anywhere until it is able to maintain stability at the quarterback position.
Stability is Key at the Quarterback Position
This goes without saying, but stability at the quarterback position is key to a team’s success. The Colts have struggled with success since 2019 and this is due to their quarterback situation. In the years before 2019, Indy was a credible franchise that was always in the conversation as either a Super Bowl contender or a playoff contender. This outlook was because they had stability at quarterback. Each offseason, everyone in the building knew who was leading the team. The offense could therefore be built around the quarterback and therefore, yield success.
This is not to say that the Colts should not have benched Richardson. Rather, it is just to say that stability is key. Flacco has already started two games this season while Richardson was injured. However, Sunday’s game was his first start as the declared starter for the foreseeable future. Now, with a healthy Richardson on the sideline, anytime Flacco struggles, fans will be clamoring for Richardson. This does two things. It creates tension within a franchise and it can cause division amongst the quarterbacks.
Shane Steichen made a gutsy decision to bench his young franchise quarterback and now he has to live with that decision. The Colts laid an egg on Sunday and this was due to ineptitude at the quarterback position. With a rough stretch of games coming up against the Bills, Jets, and Lions, Steichen has to get his offense shaped up and rallied around Flacco.
Continuity is Key for the Offense
There has been history with the Colts that when they start down the quarterback carousel, the offense struggles. This was seen firsthand in 2022 when the Colts had an embarrassing year in which three different quarterbacks started games. By some miracle, they would end the year only winning four games. This is the fear for the Colts in 2024. Three quarterbacks are probably not going to start this year, but the carousel has slowly begun.
The offense under Joe Flacco is very different from Anthony Richardson. Under Flacco, the Colts offense is more pass-heavy with little to no run-pass-options. Under Richardson, the offense is very run-heavy with misdirections and read-options. Because both quarterbacks have completely different styles, continuity is almost impossible. For the Colts to succeed consistently this season, they must have continuity. Flacco is the starter right now, so the offense needs to be built around that and ideally stay that way for the remainder of the year. The Colts might end up returning to Richardson at some point this year, but that will only create more discontinuity.
Main Photo: Christine Tannous/IndyStar USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images-IndyStar USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images
