“Look at that bomb of a throw from Anthony Richardson.”
“Richardson bulked up this offseason. The league better watch out.”
“Anthony Richardson is a physical freak. He has a chance to be something special in this league.”
These are some of the phrases you might hear from fans of the Indianapolis Colts as Anthony Richardson heads into year number two. While year one didn’t go exactly as planned, optimism is sky high for the young signal caller. It is easy to see Richardson as part of the fabric of the future, but that wasn’t always the case. If the Colts didn’t hold the fourth pick in the draft that year, where would they be now? We don’t know how things will ultimately go, but we can thank one man for the excitement heading into 2024: Jeff Saturday.
Saturday just celebrated his birthday, and we have many reasons to wish him a happy one. As a player, he was great. To see fans wearing the jersey of the team’s center is not a common occurrence. Saturday became a fan favorite and a favorite of Jim Irsay. That is why he was hand-picked as Frank Reich’s successor when Reich was fired mid-season. Saturday was thrust into an impossible position. No experience as a coach. No ability to hire his own staff. No training camp to learn his players. No chance. The fact that he won his first game was the thing of movies. (Maybe it was due to the ineptness of the Raiders, but let’s go with the thing of movies.)
Yes, Saturday was in a bad spot. That is why he lost the next seven games. Fans circulated a petition begging that he not be the permanent head coach. It was rock bottom for the man named Saturday who scored on a Sunday in the AFC Championship game.
Time heals all wounds, and now is a perfect time to give Saturday the credit he deserves. Like I said, it was an impossible position. Let’s say for fun that he had won a few more games. Take away the embarrassment that was the Minneapolis Meltdown (Is that trademarked? Maybe I should trademark that…) and take away the Texans touchdown to beat the Colts at home in what will mark the last time Lovie Smith is a head coach. Just give him back those two games and what becomes of the Colts? They would have gone 6-10-1 moving them from fourth to seventh in the draft.
Perhaps they move up to get Richardson at number four, but there is no guarantee of that. Even if they did, at what cost? I enjoy seeing Will Levis in a Titan’s uniform versus having to imagine him as a Colt. As rough as it got, Saturday stepped in and ended up delivering the Colts a potential league wrecker. Was it intentional? Of course not, but it happened. All we can do is say thank you to Coach Saturday for taking on an impossible mission and doing his best. In my opinion, it just happened to work out.
Hindsight will be 20/20 on Richardson. Right now, you can’t deny the excitement, and that excitement is due to Jeff Saturday. I admire him for rising to the occasion. I hate that some fans signed a petition to not bring him back, but it is all part of Colts history now. The history is set. We know what happened. We don’t know the future though. If Richardson can bring a championship to Indianapolis, however, Jeff Saturday better be part of the parade
