Horseshoe Huddle

Colts Must Lean Into Up-Tempo Ground Game in Week One

How the Colts can gameplan for the Jaguars with Anthony Richardson.

Zach Hicks

The Indianapolis Colts selected 20 year old quarterback Anthony Richardson with the fourth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. After six months with the organization, Richardson is finally ready to take the field for his first start in the league.

Richardson isn't like most NFL Draft prospects. The 6'4" 244 pound quarterback brings a unique blend of athleticism and high level traits to the table, and the Colts are hoping to unlock that extraordinary potential in Indy.

While the sky is truly the limit for what Richardson can be in the NFL, he is still far from being a finished product. He struggled mightily at times in his lone season as a starter at the collegiate level, and there should be some legitimate fear as to how he translates immediately to the league.

With all of that in mind, Head Coach and play-caller Shane Steichen has to devise a gameplan that both plays to Richardson's strengths and also slows the game down for the young passer. Steichen wants to showcase his new offensive play-maker but not at the expense of overwhelming the rookie in game one.

So today, let's dive into a few elements that could go into the Colts' offensive gameplan for this Sunday. We will be looking at some trends that the Colts had in the preseason, Anthony Richardson's current strengths as a quarterback, and what Shane Steichen did last year (with the Philadelphia Eagles) to exploit this Jaguars team.

Preseason Trends and Analysis

Preseason football is difficult to analyze from an outside perspective. Obviously there is some value in these precursor games, but the question is how much can we really learn about a team in tune-up August action.

Schematically, it is hard to draw parallels to what we will see in the regular season. Preseason football is filled with rather vanilla play calls, but the Colts are in a unique situation. Head Coach Shane Steichen certainly didn't put out his entire gameplan in the preseason, but I do believe he threw in a few real offensive wrinkles for his rookie quarterback to work on in these games.

The Colts led every NFL team in the preseason in two notable metrics, and I believe these two metrics will carry over to real NFL games starting this weekend. The first of those two stats is RPO usage. The Colts leaned heavily into the RPO game in the preseason, which makes sense given Richardson's athleticism and his arm speed on such calls.

The unique aspect that a mobile quarterback brings to the RPO (run-pass-option) game is how it can turn into what is called a RPR (run-pass-run). A mobile quarterback is always a threat to tuck and run, and that also applies to this type of play call. Given that Shane Steichen's Eagles were second in the NFL in RPO usage in 2022, I'd expect the Colts to lean heavily on these play designs in 2023.

The Colts also ranked first across the NFL in pace of play/no huddle usage in the preseason. This is another metric that should carry over to the regular season, especially since Anthony Richardson seemed to be at his best with the boosted speed of play.

Richardson is a young player that gets too much in his own head over the course of the game. Some players need the game to be slowed down for them to get out of this funk, but Richardson appears to iron things out as the pressure (and the speed) ramps up. The quicker the pace of play, the better Richardson seems to look on the field.

Preseason football is a bit of a mess, but I do believe that the Colts' reliance on RPO plays and an up-tempo style of offense are factors that will be leaned on heavily this weekend (and throughout the course of the season).

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Anthony Richardson's Strengths

As I (and many others) have mentioned numerous times this offseason, Richardson is a raw quarterback that needs time and experience to develop in the NFL. His mechanics can be rushed and erratic, and his overall accuracy struggles as a result. Shane Steichen needs to lean into the strengths in Richardson's game early, and then he can slowly begin to iron out the weaknesses as the year goes on.

While that may limit the overall passing game for the Colts schematically, it should lead to a much easier gameday operation for the rookie. Richardson' rushing impact in particular is an area that the Colts can lean on heavily in the early stretch of the season.

At 6'4" 244 pounds with 4.4 speed, Richardson is a pain for any defender to bring down in the open field. The natural threat of his legs getting to the outside will open up rushing lanes for Colts' running backs, but it would also be great to see this young athlete take a few carries himself in this game.

The Eagles leaned heavily into the read option game and designed QB power game with Jalen Hurts the last few seasons, and I'd expect Shane Steichen to take a similar approach early this year with Anthony Richardson:

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Two other (somewhat) minor notes that I'm curious to see this weekend are if the Colts lean into pistol formation and how much pre-snap motion the Colts rely on early in the year.

Shane Steichen's Eagles were among the bottom of the league in pre-snap motion last year, but Richardson relied on it quite a bit last season at Florida. Florida used it to give coverage indicators to their young quarterback, so it will be interesting to see how much Shane Steichen utilizes this in week one.

As for pistol formation, this is another design that Steichen simply did not use with the Eagles, but Richardson looked very comfortable in these sets last year with the Gators. 

Pistol has its strengths and weaknesses, but it is a great set for a young mobile quarterback that is still growing as a passer. It makes perfect use of Richardson's rushing ability while also limiting the passing options to half field reads and utilizing play-action regularly.

The Colts hardly ran pistol in the preseason, but it was one of their more prominent play designs in training camp, signalling to me that this wrinkle could be something that has been saved for regular season play.

How Philly Attacked Jacksonville in 2022

Shane Steichen's Eagles had their fair share of struggle with the Jacksonville Jaguars back in week four last season, but they were able to formulate just enough offensive success to get the job done.

I went back and charted the Eagles gameplan for that match-up and particularly looked at the Eagles' explosive plays as a reference. The Eagles had 15 offensive plays that gained 10 or more yards in this week four showdown, with seven of those plays being through the air.

As I have alluded to above, the early season gameplan for Richardson has to be leaning on the young quarterback's ability as a rusher, his effectiveness in the RPO/RPR game, and building easy completions to build up his confidence. If you look at the Shane Steichen's gameplan for the Jaguars' defense last season, those three aspects were huge in the Eagles' week four win.

The Eagles had eight offensive plays gain 10+ yards against the Jaguars that were a direct result of having a mobile quarterback. These plays include a handful of read option hand-offs, RPO variations, and a QB scramble for a solid gain. Two of the remaining passes that went for explosive gains were on screen plays. 

The Jaguars last season allowed the fourth most yards after catch (2,295 yards) and missed the seventh most tackles in the league (82) according the Pro Football Reference. The Eagles exploited this by drawing up simple completions designed to create extra yardage after the catch.

Jalen Hurts completed just 16 passes in this game, but he was able to effectively get the ball out in space to his playmakers on RPO passes and screen plays. If the Colts want to make life easier for Richardson this weekend AND attack an area of weakness on the Jaguars, they would be wise to do the same thing:

Final Thoughts

Rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson is gearing up for his first start in the NFL. The Colts would be wise to play to the young quarterback's strengths early in order to allow for him to get his feet under him in his first action in the league.

The gameplan feels fairly simple from my perspective; lean heavily into the ground game and build easy completions for Richardson off of the rushing attack. Anthony Richardson's natural ability as a runner will add stress to the Jaguars' defense, and if they can hit a few play-action passes behind the crashing linebackers, that should be just enough to keep the offense moving.

This is not a game where Richardson needs to complete 40 passes for the Colts to win. If they can rely on the quick game and the explosive run dynamic that their rookie quarterback can bring, the Colts can easily keep pace with a strong Jacksonville Jaguars team.

Need your fill on daily Colts' content? Head over to the Locked On Colts' YouTube channel where Jake Arthur and I hit on all the major topics surrounding this team. Hit that subscribe button while you are there!

Follow Zach on Twitter @ZachHicks2.

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Zach Hicks
ZACH HICKS

Zach Hicks is the Lead Analyst for HorseshoeHuddle.com. Zach has been on the NFL beat since 2017. His works have appeared on SBNation.com, the Locked On Podcast Network, BleacherReport.com, MSN.com, & Yardbarker.com. 

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