Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon spoke at the annual league meeting and discussed the team's quarterback situation, including Daniel Jones' new contract and Anthony Richardson Sr.'s trade status.
When Carlie Irsay-Gordon stepped into the primary ownership role of the Indianapolis Colts last spring, she inherited a quarterback situation that resembled a revolving door.
Since Andrew Luck abruptly retired in the summer of 2019, only one other quarterback has started on consecutive opening days for the Colts: Anthony Richardson Sr. in 2023 and 2024. However, Richardson is now on the trade block this offseason after injuries and inconsistent play led both sides to mutually agree to seek a new football home.
As the Colts navigate the trade landscape for Richardson across the NFL, they hope they have found stability in Daniel Jones as his replacement.
Jones was signed to a one-year deal last offseason and won the starting job over Richardson. The Colts were off to a highly successful first half of the season with an 8-2 record, and Jones was in the midst of a career year when an Achilles injury cut his season short in Week 14. The Colts finished on a seven-game losing streak and missed the postseason for a fifth consecutive year.
Despite the injury and his ongoing recovery, the Colts are optimistic Jones will be available to start Week 1, and Irsay-Gordon believes the team can pick up where it left off after its hot start to 2025.
“Obviously, the human body is a mystery, and everything points to (Jones') rehab going great; everything went well. And he’s gonna do all of the right things, so I’m really convicted that he’s gonna be (good)," Irsay-Gordon told media this week during the NFL's annual meeting, per James Boyd of The Athletic. "It’s sort of like last year, before we kind of faced some adversity and went downhill, it’s like we pressed pause on a movie and now we’re pressing play, and we get to see what happens at the end, which I think is gonna be a really cool thing.”
As for Richardson's future, it sounds as if Irsay-Gordon and the Colts are still optimistic about him as a prospect, but it just may not be with the Colts.
“(General manager Chris Ballard) can probably speak more to that, but I think Anthony, I’m proud of the way he’s handled himself. … He’s so immensely talented, and I feel like the world is his oyster," Irsay-Gordon said, per Boyd. "He totally has an opportunity to have a career in the NFL, if he wants to. I just feel so bad that he’s getting the short of the stick (with injuries).”