Team news: Indianapolis Colts | Page 2

Colts QB Anthony Richardson suffered an orbital fracture during pregame warmups before Indy’s game against the Cardinals Sunday.

Head coach Shane Steichen told reporters the news after the game. This explains the Colts making Richardson inactive Sunday and having Riley Leonard backing up Daniel Jones. Richardson reportedly suffered the injury in the locker room during to a malfunctioning piece of apparatus. Richardson was taken to the hospital. The Colts won, 31-27, to improve to 5-1.

The Colts had a lot to smile about after a 40-6 win over the Raiders on Sunday, but one down note involved kicker Spencer Shrader.

Shrader got hit while kicking an extra point in the second quarter of the game and had to be helped off the field due to a knee injury. He was ruled out a short time later and head coach Shane Steichen’s limited update on his condition suggests he’s going to be out of action for a while.

“It doesn’t look good, but I don’t have the full update,” Steichen said, via the team’s website.

Shrader made 13 field goals in September, the story pointed out, but the Colts look like they will be in need of a new kicker heading into Week 6.

The Colts are ruling out WR Alec Pierce, CB Kenny Moore II, RB Tyler Goodson and S Daniel Scott.

Pierce is a bit of a surprise seeing how he's been practicing, but he did not pass the concussion protocol, according to Shane Steichen. That's his second straight game.

Related Players: Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs

In a follow-up question with Shane Steichen, he said "working through that" regarding Adonai Mitchell playing this week, which is all the more interesting with Pierce out. It's possible we see a condensed target tree with Pittman, Downs, and Tyler Warren taking the vast majority of the work. Pittman is a WR2 candidate, Warren an obvious TE1 and Downs would move up into a WR4 role for managers searching for WR help.

The Colts ruled out WR Alec Pierce (concussion) for Sunday's game vs. the Rams.

Related Players: Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs, Adonai Mitchell

Pierce has been the main beneficiary of Daniel Jones' deep ball, racking up an 18.8 aDOT and 171 yards through three games. Adonai Mitchell should absorb some of that work, but it's still not enough to plug him into any but the deepest fantasy lineups.

Colts WR Alec Pierce is in concussion protocol.

Related players: Josh Downs, Adonai Mitchell, Michael Pittman, Tyler Warren

It's a bit of a hit for the Colts red-hot offense. Pierce had a 4-67-0 line in Week 3, and given the trend of players having to miss a week after getting placed in protocol, we have to maybe lean toward Pierce not being able to go in Week 4. It will be worth keeping an eye on the injury report this week. Downs and Warren could see more targets if Pierce is out for Week 4.

Colts HC Shane Steichen says Jonathan Taylor is "good" after taking an awkward hit to his neck area yesterday.

Related players: DJ. Giddens

Good news for Taylor and his owners. It sounds like Taylor could have come back, but the Colts had a big lead against the Dolphins and the team decided to be cautious. The post went on to say the Colts also wanted to get a look at Giddens.

With Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson Sr.'s future in flux following Tuesday's decision to name Daniel Jones the team's starting quarterback, Richardson's agent reacted with disappointment in the move and said he's unsure of his client's future with the club.

The agent, Deiric Jackson, stopped short of demanding a trade, but he wondered aloud whether coach Shane Steichen's quarterback decision might have been predetermined when the Colts signed Jones in March to a one-year, $14 million contract.

"We have a lot to discuss," Jackson told ESPN of his impending conversations with the Colts.

Jackson said he believes Tuesday's decision and some previous situations involving Richardson have damaged the team's credibility, according to the story. As the story pointed out, Richardson was benched for two games last season, with Steichen saying at the time that Richardson needed to improve his game preparation. The team quickly reinserted the 2023 No. 4 draft pick into the starting lineup after suffering two straight losses with veteran Joe Flacco under center. The Colts say, according to the story, that Richardson still has a future with the team.

Another day, another Week 1 starting quarterback has been named.

According to NFL Media, Daniel Jones has gotten the nod over Anthony Richardson.

Related players: Anthony Richardson, Riley Leonard

As the story points out, it's a stunning move considering the investment the Colts put into Richardson. The competition was reportedly close, but still doesn't seem like good news for Richardson's future in Indy. However, the door probably isn't closed for a change at some point, given the struggles Jones had to end his career with the Giants. Our own John Paulsen reminds us, however, that Jones has had a couple of competent seasons. He threw 24 touchdowns versus 12 picks as a rookie, and had a 15:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio back in 2022 when he went 9-6-1 as the Giants' starter. Given Jones’s ability to run the ball, he’s still an intriguing value pick. Any sort of recovery in his passing numbers would vault him into the QB2 conversation.

Tyler Warren was described by the Colts' brass as an "easy" selection at 14th overall. And nothing that's happened in the intervening months between the draft and now suggests they were wrong.

The story said Warren has displayed sure hands and physical running after the catch, as well as developing as a blocker, and that the Colts could not be more pleased with their pick. The story added members of the team think Warren's overall toughness and physicality will set a tone for the team this coming season. The story finally added we should look for the Colts to give Warren plays that give him an opportunity to gain yards after the catch. The Colts projected Warren to be a player who would thrive in the open field, and those projections are proving true, the story said. Rookie TEs usually come with risks, or they used to, but we already have Warren ranked 10th among our TEs, making him a low-end TE1 who can be had in the middle of the ninth round.

The Colts held their 13th and final training camp practice at Grand Park on Thursday, bringing to a close this chapter of their competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson Sr.

The book, however, does not have an ending yet.

"We'll work through that," head coach Shane Steichen said of a decision on the Colts' Week 1 starting quarterback. "We had today, we got a preseason game (Saturday), we have some practices next week and we'll work through that. I don't have an exact timetable on it, but sooner rather than later would be nice."

Hopefully the "sooner" means next week, but there's no way of knowing at this point. It seems like Richardson has the slight edge here, and he would be instantly startable as a fantasy asset, but the raw targets would go down across the board. If Jones wins the job, he'll be a fringe QB2/3.