Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 5. The injury happened when he ran the ball.
Owner Jim Irsay nevertheless has defended Richardson’s style.
“He’s not running too much,” Irsay told Jori Epstein of Yahoo.com on Wednesday at the quarterly league meetings. “He’s protecting himself. He really is. If you look at the one on the shoulder injury, you can’t believe it happened. It’s just a normal tackle. You know, it’s not even a physical [tackle] like Andrew’s tackle [when he injured his shoulder]. . . . It happens, but it hurts to see his shoulder, the throwing shoulder, at so young.”
There’s a deeper issue with Richardson that might have come to light with his injury. There was concern, we’re told, during the pre-draft process not about his running but about whether he can avoid taking big hits that would cause injury.
It’s a skill. It’s arguably an instinct. Knowing when and how to absorb contact in a way that keeps a normal tackle from becoming something worse.
Patrick Mahomes, despite the ankle injury he suffered in the playoffs, rarely takes a big hit as a runner. Other great players at quarterback and other positions avoid having something routine become something ruinous.
It’s about knowing how the ball carrier’s body fits within and among the other players. When to go down. How to go down. How to go with a hit in a way that doesn’t result in, for example, the shoulder slamming into the turf.
That will be the question for Richardson in 2023.
It won’t be the only one. He needed to play a lot of football this year. Even if he stays healthy next year, he will be behind where he would have been if he had been able to play the full season.
Still, the biggest challenge will be finding a way to avoid hits that can result in more injuries.
