INDIANAPOLIS — Another injury to Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson has thrown a wrench to the Colts’ open quarterback competition.
Richardson is dealing with aggravation in the AC joint of his throwing shoulder, the same joint he sprained as a rookie.
Ultimately, Richardson and the Colts opted to undergo season-ending surgery on the shoulder in 2023 in an effort to prevent long-term issues with the young quarterback’s throwing shoulder, but the current injury to Richardson’s shoulder stems from “stress over time,” rather than a new collision like the one he first suffered against the Titans as a rookie.
“Last week in practice, Anthony sustained an injury in his throwing shoulder,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. “Felt some pain in it. Doctors, trainers checked it out. He’s got some aggravation in his AC joint, so we’re going to sit him out this week. Obviously, we’re going to sit him out for minicamp.”
The Colts do not currently have a timetable for Richardson’s return.
“We’ll see when he comes back,” Steichen said. “We’re not going to put a timetable for training camp on it, but when he does come back, we’ll ease him into the throwing, and then we’ll go from there. The good thing is there’s not going to be a procedure right now.”
Richardson’s injury history is one of the primary reasons the Colts signed former Giants starter Daniel Jones to compete with the No. 4 pick of the 2023 NFL Draft just two years into Richardson’s career.
The young quarterback has missed 17 of a possible 34 games in two NFL seasons due to injury. Richardson missed a game as a rookie due to a concussion, 12 due to surgery on his sprained AC joint, two due to an injured hip/oblique suffered against Pittsburgh and two at the end of the season due to back spasms stemming from a disc issue discovered on MRI.
Faced with that history, the Colts decided to go out and get a veteran with starter capability, a player that ultimately turned out to be Jones.
“The No. 1 thing we have to figure out, and what Anthony’s got to work through, is staying healthy,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said in his postseason press conference. “We’ve got to have competition at the position – just for one for the fact that competition makes everybody better. And then two, he’s not proven he can play 17 games.”
Jones will now take the lead in the quarterback race.
For the next two weeks of the team’s offseason — the Colts wrap up their offseason program with the team’s mandatory minicamp — but likely the early weeks of training camp. Steichen said the team believes Richardson will be back “at some point” in training camp, but not for the start.
Jones, the former No. 6 pick who led the Giants to the playoffs before his tenure took a downward turn, has impressed the Colts to start.
“He’s been great. … Acclimating to the offense, learning it, the system. Obviously, a smart guy, understands it, he’s picked it up,” Steichen said. “He’s a veteran guy that comes in early, late nights, does all the right things.”
The injury is a blow for Richardson, who has responded in the past to questions about the criticism that he’s injury-prone by saying he understands it, and he’d hoped to prove people wrong.
A lingering shoulder injury is a difficult blow for the young quarterback.
The early returns on Richardson this offseason had been good.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating, but he is in good spirits,” Steichen said. “He was in a really good spot. He was throwing good. The meetings were good.”
What Richardson’s injury means for the quarterback competition is impossible to tell right now, particularly considering that there is no timetable for Richardson’s return from a shoulder injury that no one saw coming.
Because of the uncertain nature of Richardson’s injury, it’s tough to predict when he’ll be back to compete for the starting job.
“Daniel will get a lot of reps,” Steichen said. “And then we’ll see how it plays out.”
What is an AC joint?
The scapula (shoulder blade) and the humerus come together to form the glenohumeral joint, the main joint in the shoulder. Within the main joint is the acromioclavicular (AC) joint. The AC joint links your clavicle (collarbone) to your shoulder blade. The AC joint sits atop the shoulder, while the collarbone connects the sternum (breastbone) to the shoulder blade.
“Relatively speaking it’s a pretty small joint,” Dr. Christopher Moriarty, a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine physician at IU Health told IndyStar when Richardson had surgery on the joint in 2023. “It cleans up the motion of your big shoulder joint, so it makes the surfaces align better. Most of the time it’s one of those things that doesn’t play that big of a role until you injure it.”
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