Colts general manager Chris Ballard said a few days after the 2024 season ended he would explore bringing in a quarterback to compete with quarterback Anthony Richardson in 2025. On Tuesday, at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Ballard further explained his vision for that competition, emphasizing it will be “open.”
“It’s gotta be the right guy to create real competition,” Ballard said. “But we want to create real competition. I think it’s good for the team, I think it’s good for Anthony.”
As for how Ballard will go about acquiring a quarterback to compete with Richardson, he said everything is on the table – which could mean adding someone via free agency, a trade and/or the NFL Draft. Again, though, Ballard emphasized creating competition with Richardson will take more than just adding another quarterback to the Colts’ roster – especially with Joe Flacco and Sam Ehlinger set to be unrestricted free agents in March.
“It’ll be open,” Ballard said. “And of course, it’s got to be somebody that can really challenge from a production standpoint.”
Ballard, too, said he’s had “good conversation” with Richardson about the Colts’ quarterback plans for 2025. He said Richardson is realistic about why there will be a competition – which tracks with what Richardson said after the 2024 season, when the quarterback said he’d welcome an open competition in 2025.
“Anthony’s accepted all of it, like he understands there needs to be some growth and there’s work,” Richardson said. “That’s one thing I’m really proud of him about, like, there’s no deferring or defensiveness. It’s like, ‘I know, I’ve got to go to work.’”
Chris Ballard: 2025 NFL Scouting Combine
The Colts will embark on this competition, both Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen said, without any expectations for how it’ll play out. But with that may-the-best-quarterback-win approach also comes a belief that competition will bring out the best in Richardson, who will turn 23 in May and has attempted just 741 passes in college and NFL games since graduating high school.
“I think you saw spurts of it – he is really competitive,” Ballard said. “And I think for a six-game stretch there, we saw some really special stuff out of it. Now we just got to get consistent. He’s a really good dude, he cares, and I think he’ll put the work in. So it’ll be fun to watch as we move through this. I know we all want Superman every week and every day, but his background when he came into the league and when we took him, it is what it is. So we’ve got to work through that.”
Richardson in 2024 completed 126 of 264 passes (47.7 percent) for 1,814 yards with eight passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions and six rushing touchdowns. He rushed 86 times for 499 yards, with that total sixth-most among quarterbacks last season. Twenty-one of Richardson’s rushes gained 10 or more yards, tied for the third-most explosive quarterback runs in the NFL.
Richardson missed six games in 2024 – four due to two separate injuries (Weeks 5-6, Weeks 17-18) and two when he was benched (Weeks 9-10). But the Colts, as Ballard said, also saw Richardson put together some special moments – like game-winning, come-from-behind drives against the New York Jets and New England Patriots – after returning from his mid-season benching. The deep ball touchdown he threw to wide receiver Alec Pierce in Week 1 still stands as one of the most impressive plays any quarterback has made in recent memory.
The flashes have been there, and the Colts believe having Richardson compete with a to-be-determined other quarterback could bring out the consistency he needs to be a sustained starter in the NFL.
“I said this from the get go, I think he’s a natural thrower,” Ballard said. “I do. I think sometimes he – I think the more passes he throws, especially with his feet, making sure he gets his feet right, makes sure he can layer throws, like all of that stuff needs to, it needs work. But when he does it right, it’s a beautiful thing. Now it’s just being able to do it right down after down after down.”
And the Colts, in 2024, did see how competition could push a player in a positive direction. When the Colts drafted wide receiver Adonai Mitchell in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, Pierce went to Ballard and asked what it meant for him.
“Nothing,” Ballard told Pierce. “Compete.”
The result was Pierce leading the NFL with 22.3 yards per reception with a career-high 824 yards on 37 catches. He had four career touchdowns entering 2024; he had seven last season, two of which gained at least 60 yards.
“Next thing you know, Alec, who had been getting crushed for two years, all of a sudden now he’s great,” Ballard said. “Which, I’ve always believed he’s great. I always thought Alec Pierce was good, right? Just circumstances, whatever, he wasn’t hitting what he needed to do. But I think competition is good. It brings out the best in everybody. It just does.”
There’s still plenty to be figured out about who will take part in this competition besides Richardson. But the “how” is coming into focus – it’ll be an open competition – and the “why” is clear, too. It’s about getting the best quarterback play in 2025 for the Colts.
