The Colts are moving Joe Flacco into the starting lineup. I don’t know that they had much of a choice. Anthony Richardson has been pretty terrible. He’s just not ready yet to be an NFL quarterback right now.
Richardson is completing only 44 percent of his passes, with way too many poor decisions and misfires. It’s just not happening, and it would probably get pretty ugly if they asked him to go out on Sunday against an aggressive Minnesota defense.
The move comes 10 starts into his career. They’ve been mostly underwhelming. In the 32-team era, only two other quarterbacks have had a lower completion percentage after their first 10 starts – Tim Tebow and Blaine Gabbert.
It’s early; they’ll keep working with him. But of the other 26 quarterbacks who completed under 55 percent in their first 10 starts, only four strongly turned around their careers – Eli Manning, Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford and Alex Smith.
LOWEST COMPLETION PERCENTAGE, FIRST 10 STARTS | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Com | Att | Pct | Yds | TD | Int |
2010-11 | Tim Tebow | 111 | 229 | 48.5 | 1,626 | 13 | 4 |
2011 | Blaine Gabbert | 142 | 291 | 48.8 | 1,514 | 8 | 7 |
2023-24 | Anthony Richardson | 109 | 217 | 50.2 | 1,535 | 7 | 8 |
2004-05 | • Eli Manning | 139 | 276 | 50.4 | 1,666 | 11 | 11 |
2002 | Joey Harrington | 188 | 373 | 50.4 | 2,090 | 11 | 15 |
2010-11 | John Skelton | 167 | 327 | 51.1 | 1,977 | 9 | 13 |
2005-06 | J.P. Losman | 130 | 253 | 51.4 | 1,450 | 7 | 8 |
2002-04 | Chad Hutchinson | 145 | 280 | 51.8 | 1,768 | 10 | 8 |
2009 | Mark Sanchez | 138 | 265 | 52.1 | 1,791 | 10 | 16 |
2018 | • Josh Allen | 146 | 279 | 52.3 | 1,776 | 7 | 11 |
2003-04 | Kyle Boller | 137 | 261 | 52.5 | 1,441 | 7 | 11 |
2002-04 | A.J. Feeley | 182 | 346 | 52.6 | 2,040 | 12 | 17 |
2006 | Vince Young | 138 | 262 | 52.7 | 1,571 | 9 | 10 |
2006-07 | Jason Campbell | 154 | 291 | 52.9 | 1,918 | 12 | 9 |
2017 | DeShone Kizer | 166 | 313 | 53.0 | 1,823 | 5 | 14 |
2005-06 | • Alex Smith | 139 | 262 | 53.1 | 1,655 | 4 | 11 |
2007-08 | JaMarcus Russell | 143 | 269 | 53.2 | 1,669 | 7 | 5 |
2009 | • Matthew Stafford | 201 | 377 | 53.3 | 2,267 | 13 | 20 |
2010 | Jimmy Clausen | 142 | 266 | 53.4 | 1,452 | 3 | 7 |
2008-09 | Brady Quinn | 164 | 306 | 53.6 | 1,692 | 10 | 7 |
2004-05 | Ken Dorsey | 162 | 301 | 53.8 | 1,601 | 8 | 11 |
2002-03 | Patrick Ramsey | 185 | 343 | 53.9 | 2,374 | 12 | 10 |
2011 | Christian Ponder | 149 | 274 | 54.4 | 1,754 | 13 | 13 |
2002 | David Carr | 148 | 271 | 54.6 | 1,797 | 9 | 11 |
2007-11 | Kellen Clemens | 157 | 287 | 54.7 | 1,767 | 6 | 8 |
2006 | Bruce Gradkowski | 170 | 311 | 54.7 | 1,604 | 9 | 9 |
2005 | Kyle Orton | 145 | 264 | 54.9 | 1,389 | 8 | 11 |
For the short term, they’ll turn to Joe Flacco, and he should pump some life into the passing game, making Michael Pittman, Josh Downs and Alec Pierce look more viable. Flacco has played in three games this year, and he’s thrown multiple touchdowns in all of them. At Jacksonville, he passed for 359 yards and 3 TDs.
Flacco this week will work against a complex and aggressive Minnesota defense, but one that tends to allow production through the air. The Vikings currently rank next-to-last in pass defense, allowing even more yards than that Jaguars secondary that Flacco carved up earlier.
—Ian Allan