Anthony Richardson was benched the past two games before getting back into the lineup against the New York Jets in Week 11. Richardson led the Colts to a victory and maybe had one of his best games of the season. On Cleats & Convos, wide receiver Josh Downs mentioned that Richardson getting benched may have done him more good than bad.
“I think it matured him a little bit just talking with him. It was tough of course, I mean nobody wants to be benched but you know similar to the Panthers with Bryce Young he came back and played better,” Downs said. “I think AR is doing the same thing. He might’ve just needed it to refocus a little bit and just go back to the basics and that’s what he’s doing.”
Downs then began bragging on his teammate, talking about his athleticism.
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“Last game we had third down they called my number on a route and I lowkey tweaked and got caught running two different routes. I made the decision late, and the D-End jumped on his back, and I’m hearing the crowd screaming so I’m thinking sack,” Downs said. “As I turned around the D-End is on his back, but he’s looking at me just tosses the ball in the air and gets it out to me first down. He’s done that a couple times this year, 300 pounds on his back just swinging him off and keep pushing. Dude really has abnormal strength, he OD, he could come off that edge if he really wanted to. He ran a 4.4, he ran faster than me at the combine.”
There’s no doubt that Richardson possesses some skills that other quarterbacks don’t have, and if he can tap into those skills, he can be a dynamic player at his position.
Is Anthony Richardson hitting his stride with the Colts?
Josh Downs isn’t the only one who thinks benching Anthony Richardson may have helped him. Richardson himself spoke about the benching and what it allowed him to do over the past few weeks.
“It kind of just let me relax a little bit,” Anthony Richardson said, via Stephen Holder of ESPN. “It just allowed me to take a step back and just clean up some things that I had to clean up. And that was really my focus, making sure when I did get the opportunity again, making sure I was at the best of my ability and I was doing the right thing for the team.”
Richardson is the future of the Colts, and the more reps he gets now, he’ll be better as the games continue. The Colts are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs, but if they can make a push toward this final stretch of the season, things could get interesting.