On training camp eve, Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard indicated that the club currently intends to keep all three quarterbacks: Daniel Jones, Anthony Richardson, and Riley Leonard.
While Richardson’s earlier offseason trade request still stands, the Colts have appreciated the ongoing positional competition between Leonard and him behind Jones, with Richardson consistently being a high quality teammate—and don’t plan to ‘give him away’ by any means (via WISH-TV):
Perhaps it’s purely trade posturing, but Ballard insinuated that he believes Richardson still has a bright future in this league—although he stopped short of saying it will continue to be with the Colts. It’s worth noting that Richardson is in the last year of his Colts rookie contract, and Indy would save $5.385M if traded this season.
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With Jones limited, the Colts had been splitting offseason reps between Richardson and Leonard with the first-team offense. It’ll be interesting to see who primarily receives the backup quarterback reps behind Jones now or whether it’ll continue to be a split throughout training camp and preseason until the QB2 victor emerges.
At any rate, it seems as though if the Colts get meaningful trade return value for Richardson, they may move him.
Otherwise, given that Jones is coming off a torn Achilles and has had some durability concerns throughout his career—dating even back to his New York Giants days, it may be more prudent to keep him around for additional quarterback depth, with Leonard only having one career start to his name.
