Fifteen starts. Eleven touchdowns. Thirteen interceptions. That’s the entire NFL career of a fourth-overall pick, and the Indianapolis Colts just admitted it by granting him permission to seek a trade on February 26, 2026. Not a release. A mutual agreement to find somewhere better. That’s the franchise quietly raising its hand and admitting it failed him.
Richardson’s career record tells you everything about the environment before it tells you anything about the quarterback. Two wins and two losses in 2023. Six wins and five losses in 2024. An orbital bone fracture in pregame warmups ended his season. Eight wins and seven losses across 17 total games. No playoff snaps. Not one. The Colts never won enough with him under center to find out what he was in January.
The numbers scream environment failure. Not quarterback failure. Environment failure.
Indianapolis Never Built Anything Worth Playing Behind
The Colts drafted Richardson fourth overall in 2023 expecting a dual-threat savior. What he got was a leaky line, receivers dropping passes at league-worst rates during his tenure, and a scheme that demanded quick processing and clean protection. He saw neither. He took 14 sacks in 11 starts in 2024 despite elite mobility. Pressure came on 45% of dropbacks in his starts. He averaged just 5.8 yards per rush on 86 carries when his legs should have been a cheat code.
| Year | Starts | Record | TD-INT | Sacks Taken | YPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 | 2-2 | 3-1 | 7 | 6.9 |
| 2024 | 11 | 6-5 | 8-12 | 14 | 6.9 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 4.5 |
| Career | 15 | 8-7 | 11-13 | 21 | 6.9 |
Colts fans point to the turnovers. I point to the tape. Hurried throws into double coverage because the pocket collapsed before Richardson could cycle through a second read. That’s not a quarterback problem. That’s a construction problem. And Indianapolis never fixed it.
Then 2025 arrived and Richardson lost a preseason battle to Daniel Jones, the Giants castoff who outperformed him in camp and is now slated for re-signing as the franchise starter. An orbital fracture in Week 6 warmups finished what the competition started. The Colts went 8-9. The playoff drought continued. And the fourth-overall pick sat on the bench while a reclamation project ran the offense.
That’s the full picture of what Indianapolis built around Anthony Richardson.
The Baker Mayfield Parallel Only Goes So Far
HeyTC has said this for years. Teams fail quarterbacks far more often than quarterbacks fail teams. Baker Mayfield looked finished in Cleveland. High pick, no line, no stability, 0-1 in the playoffs with the team that drafted him. Cut and traded out. He lands in Tampa with a real defense, a scheme that suits his quick release, and a coaching staff that didn’t change every eighteen months. He’s a top-10 quarterback now in the HeyTC Daily QB Rankings. Two playoff wins since leaving Cleveland. The player didn’t change. The situation did.
Richardson mirrors that path until it doesn’t. Mayfield was further along at 24. Richardson turns 24 in May 2026 with one year left on his rookie deal, which means no massive cap transfer complicates a trade. Clean slate. But where Mayfield needed volume passing in a rhythm-based system, Richardson needs pass protection and vertical patience. Tampa worked for Baker’s quick release. Richardson needs a line that holds blocks and a coaching staff that understood what Florida deployed him to do. The analogy breaks at the legs, too. Richardson’s 10 rushing touchdowns dwarf anything Mayfield has ever produced on the ground. That’s not a Mayfield comp. That’s something closer to a protected version of what the league hasn’t seen yet.
The comparison is honest about where it breaks down. Mayfield’s revival was about fit. Richardson’s revival is about construction. Whoever trades for him needs to build around him, not just deploy him.
The Development Timeline Says Don’t Bury Him Yet
Mahomes sat. Brady sat. Montana sat. The blueprint for developing elite quarterbacks has been the same for fifty years: limit exposure early, build competency incrementally, then turn them loose when the infrastructure is ready. Richardson started immediately into the fire because the Colts needed wins and had nothing else. That’s not a development plan. That’s desperation dressed as confidence.
He’s 23 years old. He has 17 starts. The Colts’ quarterback history shows no rings from high picks who stayed in a broken environment. Peyton Manning needed years to get the roster around him before January mattered. Richardson didn’t get years. He got chaos.
Run this through the HeyTC Super Bowl Simulator for Indianapolis after the trade and the odds are neglibible. Jones is a fine bridge. Fine doesn’t win rings. And Richardson, in the right landing spot, on a team with a real line and receivers who separate and a scheme built for what he does, looks entirely different than what Indianapolis produced.
Some team is about to find out. The Colts gave up on the environment problem instead of solving it. That’s the mistake. Not the pick. Not the quarterback.
Rings follow the fix. Indianapolis never fixed anything.
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