NFL Notes: Colts Name Anthony Richardson Starter for Saturday, Hard Knocks Episode 1, More

On Wednesday, the Indianapolis Colts listed Gardner Minshew “or” Anthony Richardson ” as the top quarterback on their depth chart. Head coach Shane Steichen has since provided some clarity, at least regarding this week’s preseason tilt.

Colts Name Anthony Richardson Saturday’s Starter

After avoiding the QB1 discussion with a minor caveat on their initial depth chart, Colts head coach Shane Steichen clarified Thursday morning that Anthony Richardson will start Saturday’s preseason contest against the Buffalo Bills.

Richardson worked with the first team this morning and has been spending time with the unit over the last week. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Richardson has been impressive in his first pro training camp. Colts wide receiver Josh Downs said recently that Richardson can make throws that other quarterbacks can’t. “He flicks his wrist, and the ball goes 60 yards.”

Colts head coach Shane Steichen recently said that Richardson was doing a good job of continuing to grow in his brief time with the Colts. “The thing we were looking for — obviously, he was stacking the days in spring, and then you get that time off in the summertime; we didn’t want him to take a step back. And I don’t think he has done that at all. He’s continuing to improve and grow, and we gotta keep doing that.”

There have been several days since the start of training camp in which the oohs, and ahhs surrounding Richardson have been the loudest story of the day around the league. Of course, there have been some less-than-impressive days. But by my scorecard, the good days have easily outweighed the bad ones thus far.

Hard Knocks — Episode 1

I had a chance to watch the first episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks yesterday, and I was struck with a couple immediate takeaways. The first is that the Jets might not have wanted Hard Knocks, but they’ve certainly embraced it. There was much to do about the possibility of the Jets stone-walling the Hard Knocks crew to send a message to the league, but the first episode contained none of the sort.

After the episode opened with Robert Saleh’s crow(s) vs. the eagle speech, it was all about Aaron Rodgers, Sauce Gardner, and Garrett Wilson. This isn’t all that surprising, but it was a heavy dose of the trio.

Sauce Gardner was shown returning to Cincinnati to fulfill his promise to his mother when he left school for the NFL Draft that he would graduate. Always love to see stuff like that. The Garrett Wilson vs. Sauce, ‘iron sharpens iron’ angle in practice is also fun. Seeing two of the game’s brightest young stars go at each other in a healthy practice battle will improve both of them.

Now comes the part that will make some BN Bears regulars throw up in their mouth a little — Aaron Rodgers’ face turn is in full swing. He’s cool, calm, and collected in the show’s first episode. He puts on an aerial display that only he and a few others in the NFL can and wows his teammates. He’s shown taking Zach Wilson under his wing and becoming a locker-room favorite, with teammates praising how cool he is and how happy they are to have him.

Rodgers comes off as a pretty cool guy to just about everyone except for Bears fans and some scorn Packers fans. I wrote about it months ago. This is something that you could see coming from a mile away. New team, new city, new mindset. We’re watching a recharged and refocused Aaron Rodgers here. The rest of the AFC East and AFC should be on notice because he will elevate that Jets team to the heights of Super Bowl contender this season.

“Eight is special, I don’t care about what anybody says about eight, eight is a special dude,” Jets DT Al Woods said during a conversation with DT Solomon Thomas. “And he cool as f—! That be the great thing about him, he cool as f—. It’s nothing what people portray about him on T.V. Whatever they say about Aaron Rodgers on T.V. is a lie.”

Extra Points