Anthony Richardson’s pregame mishap this week was apparently no laughing matter.
The Indianapolis Colts quarterback Richardson was a surprise inactive for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals after suffering a bizarre injury during pregame warmups. Richardson was reportedly doing band work when he injured his eye (full details here).
After the game against the Cardinals, Colts coach Shane Steichen shared a concerning update about Richardson. He revealed that Richardson suffered an orbital fracture and spent Sunday’s game in the hospital as a result, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The former No. 4 overall pick Richardson was replaced by Riley Leonard as Indianapolis’ No. 2 quarterback behind starter Daniel Jones on Sunday. The Colts went on to defeat the Cardinals by a 31-27 final score to improve to a surprise 5-1 on the season.
Richardson was supplanted by Jones as the starter during training camp, and it didn’t look like he had any chance of reclaiming the job given the team’s strong performance with Jones under center. Now those chances are even lower with Richardson dealing with an orbital fracture, which can require several weeks of recovery time with no contact.
Last month, we heard that the possibility of a Richardson trade out of Indianapolis might be on the table. Though he is still just 23 years old, Richardson has been underwhelming when healthy (especially as a pocket passer), and now he can add an orbital fracture suffered during pregame warmups to the long list of injury woes in his young career.
