Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones?

Anthony Richardson (left) Daniel Jones (right) via New York Post

The Indianapolis Colts have found themselves in a familiar dilemma with the Quarterback Position. After multiple years of cycling through veteran quarterbacks such as Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan to fill the void of Andrew Luck’s retirement, they finally drafted Anthony Richardson with the 4th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Richardson is entering his 3rd NFL season at the age of 23, and up to this point you could call his career underwhelming. Being limited to just 4 games in his rookie season due to a shoulder injury, and battling being benched and obtaining other injuries in his sophomore season, it is safe to say the Colts are uncertain on the future of Richardson.

Before entering the 2025 NFL season the Colts opted to sign Daniel Jones, 28 year old former New York Giant QB to a 1 year $20 million dollar deal that includes a $6 million dollar signing bonus. The signing wasn’t to the surprise of many fans as Chris Ballard had stated that he was “Bringing in competition” to challenge Anthony Richardson and see if that would bring out the best in him. Daniel Jones wasn’t on the list of names that fans wanted to see brought into the organization due to his underwhelming history with the New York Giants. Daniel Jones in his 6 years with the team totaled 14,582 yards, 70 touchdowns and 47 interceptions while completing 64.1% of his passes and adding 2,179 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground. As well as a record of 24–45–1 in the regular season and only one playoff appearance.

The Colts have yet to decide who to give the starting quarterback job to, so let’s break down the pros and cons of each player.

First, we have Anthony Richardson, the 23 year old athletic specimen with an absolute rocket of an arm. Richardson was drafted as a very raw potential quarterback that would need time to develop before he would really be ready to take over an NFL offense. That is one of his cons, inexperience, during his time at the University of Florida he played in 24 games and attempted 393 passes. To compare, Jayden Daniels, the rookie standout, played in 55 games and attempted 1,438 passes during his collegiate career. Those college years really matter for a quarterback’s development, college football is a perfect place to really learn what it takes to bring your game to the next level. Richardson was deprived of those college reps where quarterbacks really learn to read defenses, learn how to properly take care of your body, and learn how to prepare for opponents each week. Another one of Richardson’s biggest concerns is his accuracy, Richardson had the worst completion percentage among starting quarterbacks by completing only 47.7% of his passes, for reference the next worst would be Trevor Lawerence who completed 60.6% of his passes. There were many instances during the season where it seemed Richardson would sail passes, or miss receivers that were wide open, specifically on the throws that would widely be considered as the easy throws. Lastly, the biggest flaw with Anthony Richardson is the injury issue. Richardson has missed 17 games in his 2 year career because of injury, with a mix of concussions and a season ending shoulder injury, he has had a big issue with staying on the field.

The ceiling of Anthony Richardson has always been his biggest pro, we haven’t seen a quarterback this athletically gifted in the history of the NFL. Richardson is a 6 foot 4 245 pound QB that runs a 4.43 40 yard dash and has a 40.5 inch vertical, absolutely insane. Richardson’s arm strength is very impressive, the velocity of his passes, his ability to make 50 yard passes with the flick of a wrist. We’ve seen Richardson make throws that only very few quarterbacks have the ability to do. One of Richardson’s biggest strengths is his ability to use his legs, in 11 games last season he ran for 499 yards and 8 touchdowns. His legs also get him out of tough scenarios when facing pressure and his ability to escape and throw defenders off him. The last pro to Anthony Richardson is that he’s still only 23 years old, making him one of the youngest quarterbacks in the NFL despite being drafted 2 years ago. He still has time to learn and progress, and youth is the only attribute that can’t be fixed.

Now to Daniel Jones, the former 6th overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. Daniel Jones’s biggest flaw to me is his arm strength, one of the biggest complaints among Giants fans was his inability to throw the deep ball. He lacks the strength to complete those deep balls to receivers on go routes and that crippled the Giants offense. Another flaw to Daniel Jones is winning, as mentioned previously he has 24 wins in his 6 year career. I know that winning isn’t solely on the quarterback, but under Daniel Jones the Giants averaged 17.2 points per game, and it is hard winning football games in the NFL when your offense is only putting up 17.2 points. When the lights are the brightest it seems that Daniel Jones just doesn’t perform, Jones has a 1–15 record in primetime games. That lone win came against the Commanders during the 2022 NFL season, the team that finished last in the NFC east that season with 8 wins. Daniel Jones just doesn’t have a high ceiling and lacks the ‘wow’ factor at the quarterback position.

For his pros, compared to Anthony Richardson he is a much more accurate and consistent quarterback with the short and intermediate throws. Daniel Jones has a career completion percentage of 64.1% which is much higher than Richardson’s. He has the consistency that Shane Steichen is looking for when it comes to completing the checkdowns at a high rate, his ceiling might not be higher than Richardson’s but his floor is certainly higher. His ability to run the ball is also a positive for Jones, in his best season he ran for 708 yards and 7 touchdowns, and has some pretty underrated speed. Another pro for Daniel Jones is that the question remains, did he just need a change of scenery?A lot of quarterbacks in the NFL have grown at the quarterback position after leaving the team that originally drafted them like Sam Darnold or Geno Smith, those 2 quarterbacks are the recent ones that come to mind when you think about needing a change of scenery. Both of them were regarded as busts and were written off, but found themselves succeeding when moving to a new team, could Daniel Jones be the next?

After going through the pros and cons in my opinion it’s a no brainer that the Colts should roll with Anthony Richardson as their starting quarterback this season. I understand that he hasn’t looked great this far, but he is still 23 years old and his ceiling is just remarkably higher. The Colts invested the number 4 overall pick and moving on from him after 15 games just doesn’t seem logical to me. He has shown flashes of being a high level starter in this league, he led game winning drives against the Patriots and the Jets last season and looked really good in doing so. He has made incredible throws, and arguably the best throw of last season in week 1 against the Texans to Alec Pierce, a 60 yard throw off his backfoot after recovering from stumbling with a man in his face. It was one of those throws that makes your jaw drop, and that very few quarterbacks have the ability to make. I value the higher ceiling of Anthony Richardson versus the higher floor of Daniel Jones, sure Daniel Jones will complete 60% of his passes but at his absolute best he is an average quarterback. Meanwhile, the sky is the limit for Anthony Richardson if he can work on those short and intermediate throws and the Colts should give him another shot before walking away from him.