The Colts Made a Mess of Anthony Richardson, and His Fifth-Year Option Is Just the Beginning of Their Problems

Let me be direct with you. The Indianapolis Colts are staring down one of the most consequential decisions in franchise history with Anthony Richardson's fifth-year option, and they are going to get it wrong. Not because they lack the intelligence to understand the mechanics of contract decisions, but because the entire trajectory of this situation has been poisoned from the moment they made Richardson the number one overall pick in 2023. The Colts have created a scenario where virtually any decision they make with that option will haunt them for years. That's not hyperbole. That's the reality of how badly they've mismanaged this quarterback situation from day one.

First, let's establish the context that seems to escape most of the mainstream talking heads who cover the NFL with the sophistication of a high school sports blog. When teams exercise fifth-year options on first-round quarterbacks, they're typically doing so because the player has developed into something approaching a franchise asset. They're making a statement that says, "We believe in this guy enough to commit another year of guaranteed money." The fifth-year option exists as a bridge mechanism. It allows teams to buy additional time before making the massive financial commitment of a long-term extension, or it allows them to avoid hitting their salary cap with that extension if the quarterback has underperformed. It's a practical tool in the modern NFL salary cap environment. But here's where the Colts have really backed themselves into a corner with Richardson.

The problem isn't the mechanism itself. The problem is that Richardson has spent the better part of three years being absolutely destroyed by circumstance, incompetence, and his own physical fragility. He's played in twenty-six games through the 2024 season. Twenty-six games. A quarterback drafted first overall should have the opportunity to establish himself as a legitimate NFL player within that window. Instead, Richardson has been the subject of constant debate about whether he was ever meant to be an NFL quarterback at all. That's what happens when you draft someone that raw, that physically impressive but technically underdeveloped, and then fail to provide him with even basic stability at the position.

The Colts have been an absolute circus at the quarterback position since 2023. They drafted Richardson, who hadn't started a college football game in two years before declaring for the draft. That alone should tell you something about how much of a project this was. Then they surrounded him with one of the worst offensive line situations in the entire league. Then they cycled through offensive coordinators like a cafeteria worker cycling through hairnets. Then they watched him deal with back injuries that were so significant they required surgery. And through all of this, the fan base, the media, and yes, the organization itself, have questioned whether Richardson was ever the right choice.

Now they're facing the fifth-year option decision, and every path forward looks treacherous. If they pick it up, they're committing to a quarterback they've already shown a lack of confidence in through their personnel decisions. They're betting big money on someone who hasn't proven he can stay healthy or develop as a passer at the professional level. The optics alone are terrible. The fanbase will interpret it as cowardice, as the organization trying to have it both ways. If they decline it, they're admitting in the most public way possible that the first overall pick of 2023 did not work out. That's a failure that reverberates through multiple front offices and coaching regimes.

Here's what really grinds my gears about this situation. The Colts had one job with Richardson. One job. Provide stability, coaching, protection, and time. They failed on all four counts. They couldn't keep him healthy. They couldn't provide consistent offensive line improvement. They couldn't keep coordinators in place long enough to develop any continuity. And through it all, they kept talking publicly about whether he was the right fit. You want to know why Richardson hasn't succeeded? Look in the mirror, Indianapolis. You made it impossible for him to succeed.

The fifth-year option decision, then, becomes almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Whether the Colts pick it up or decline it doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that they've wasted nearly four years of a player's professional development. They could have had someone ready to build around. Instead, they have questions marks and a fan base that's tired of hearing about quarterback experiments.

Let me address the actual financial mechanics for a second, because this is where people often lose the plot. The fifth-year option on Richardson's deal will likely be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of forty-two to forty-five million dollars. That's not insignificant money, but in the current NFL landscape, it's also not career-altering. The real impact comes in what it signals about the organization's commitment going forward. If they pick it up, they're saying they're willing to spend that money despite the lack of results. If they decline it, they're saying this experiment ends after 2025 barring a dramatic improvement. Neither option comes with clean hands.

The broader issue here is that the Colts have made themselves a cautionary tale for the entire league about how not to develop a quarterback. You don't draft someone first overall and then treat him like an afterthought the moment he struggles. You don't cycle through coaches and coordinators when you have a developing signal-caller. You don't let injuries compound into bigger problems. You don't publicly question your own pick. And yet, the Colts have done all of these things.

My verdict on this situation is brutally simple. The Colts should decline the fifth-year option on Anthony Richardson. Not because he can't develop into a decent NFL quarterback, but because the organization has already proven it's incapable of providing the environment necessary for that development. Keeping him under contract for another year while they continue their typical carousel of incompetence would be unfair to Richardson and counterproductive for the team. Sometimes the most honest thing an organization can do is admit failure and move forward. For Indianapolis, that moment is now.