Health has been an issue for Richardson since the Colts drafted him fourth overall in 2023. He's missed 17 of 34 games, including four last season with hip, oblique, foot and back injuries (he was benched while healthy for two other games). Perhaps an even greater issue is Richardson's accuracy. Last year, it was off the chart -- the bottom of the chart. At 54.9 percent, his on-target rate was last in the league by more than 12 percentage points, and his 47.7 completion percentage was the worst since Tim Tebow's 46.5 in 2011. It doesn't help that Richardson is in love with the deep ball. He threw 20.1 percent of his attempts at least 20 yards downfield -- far and away tops in the league -- and had a league-high 12.2-yard average target depth. Yet, he converted that to a mere 6.8 YPA (25th). His massive rushing production -- 499 yards and six scores in 11 games -- was the one saving grace for his fantasy value, but he nonetheless failed to reach 14 fantasy points in seven games (four with single digits). This year, he could lose the starting job to free-agent signing Daniel Jones, who will split first-team reps at training camp. The Colts have solid skill-position players, and Jonathan Taylor likely will get around 20 carries per game again, so Richardson doesn't have to be prolific. He just has to be not terrible, nor constantly injured. There's still hope his accuracy improves with better footwork and touch, as he turned 23 in May and has just 348 NFL pass attempts to his name. Even modest improvement might be enough to yield low-end QB1 production for fantasy given his rushing skills, but he'll need a bigger step forward to keep the starting job all year.
