The Indianapolis Colts have a lot of business to take care of before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline.
There’s still an expectation that the likes of Josh Downs, Grover Stewart, Keenan Allen and maybe Jonathan Taylor will get traded. The Colts already traded Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner a couple of weeks ago.
But none of those names was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, a player who’s in the final year of his rookie contract and will also be a free agent at the end of the year.
Colts fans know very well that those statements apply to Anthony Richardson.
And as the trade deadline approaches, Richardson’s status feels to be as much in limbo as it has been. It’s not clear what his future holds.
Is Anthony Richardson Being Traded?
It’s not obvious that Richardson will be traded, but from a Colts perspective, it wouldn’t be shocking.
As far back as the offseason, Richardson was viewed as a potential trade candidate. The Colts have stuck with Daniel Jones, who beat out Richardson in the 2025 preseason. That made Richardson expendable.
Given that Richardson is going to be a free agent and is unlikely to re-sign in Indy, if the Colts could get even a late-round draft pick for Richardson at this point, there really wouldn’t be a good reason not to do that.
Unless the Colts end up trading Jones, which has been rumored but doesn’t seem incredibly likely, it doesn’t do them a whole lot of good to keep Richardson around — unless they truly feel they’d consider re-signing him after this season, which no signs point to.
Colts Benching Scenarios
The other scenario at play here is that the Colts decide to bench Daniel Jones at some point.
If they do that, it would mostly be to get a look at their other QBs — while protecting themselves from having to potentially pay Jones an injury guarantee portion of his contract if he gets hurt badly in the second half of the season.
Still, that would be the best path for Richardson to play substantial snaps this season. If the Colts benched Jones, Richardson seems like he’d get the first chance.
Indy would potentially want to see Riley Leonard play, too, so it likely wouldn’t be all Richardson even in this scenario. At the moment, though, it’s about all Richardson has to hope for. He seems to be very much stuck in place.
Colts’ Anthony Richardson Stuck in Limbo Before Trade Deadline