Stampede Blue
According to NFL.com’s Marc Ross, rather unsurprisingly, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson isn’t projected to receive a 2027 5th-year team option by his current club, being eligible as a member of the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft class:
Pick 4. Anthony Richardson
Indianapolis Colts · QB
Exercise the option? No.
Indy took a gamble when selecting Richardson fourth overall, and that gamble hasn’t paid off. He played four games as a rookie before a shoulder injury ended his season. He missed multiple games in 2024 with hip, oblique and back injuries, before losing the starting gig to Daniel Jones in the 2025 preseason. In October, he suffered an eye injury during pregame warmups that sent him to injured reserve, leaving the Colts to turn to 44-year-old Philip Rivers and rookie Riley Leonard after Jones was lost for the year with an Achilles tear. I’m not sure how long the Colts can continue to keep their eggs in this basket.
Currently, Richardson is entering the last year of his rookie contract with a cap hit of $10.82M (per OverTheCap), but Indianapolis could still pick up his 5th-year team option until May 1st of this upcoming Spring—albeit at this point, that doesn’t appear very likely at all.
That 2027 5th-year option would otherwise project to pay him around $22.9M, which again, at that exorbitant price point, even far less likely.
Due to a freak accident in which a medical band snapped in Week 6 pregame training work, Richardson, once the primary backup to starter Daniel Jones after losing a heated offseason competition in training camp and preseason, suffered what would be a season-ending fractured orbital bone, having been placed on injured reserve.
It was an incredibly unfortunate event for Richardson’s early career, as Jones went down to his own season-ending injury in Week 14, which was a torn Achilles, and the Colts could’ve theoretically turned back to their demoted former 4th overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft and starting quarterback (instead of an unretired 44-year-old Philip Rivers and rookie Riley Leonard) to potentially right the ship and save their late season.
Who knows?
Had Richardson played well (which is a BIG IF) and with Jones’s uncertain injury status to begin 2026 and as a pending free agent, perhaps the still 23-year-old quarterback could’ve won the Colts starting quarterback job back outright.
We’ll never know, and may never now how Richardson’s career could’ve turned out otherwise in Indianapolis.
The oft-injured quarterback may have run out of opportunities in Indianapolis (while others somehow haven’t?), and with rookie Riley Leonard playing well in the regular season finale, the Colts may have found their long-term QB2—and may want to shed Richardson’s $10.82M cap hit to spend elsewhere to improve the remaining roster.
Richardson will always be a lingering enigma to me.
Maybe it was scripted enough early on by head coach Shane Steichen, but he showcased a lot of upside and ability as a 21-year-old...
