Dan Campbell on Anthony Richardson: They’ve taken off the handcuffs, allowed him to just go

After riding the bench for two games, Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson returned to the starting lineup and led the club to a 28-27 victory over the Jets last week.

It was Richardson’s best performance of the season, as he completed 20-of-30 passes for 272 yards with a touchdown and rushed for 32 yards and two TDs — including the game-winning score with 46 seconds on the clock.

The Lions will be in Indianapolis to face the Colts this weekend and Detroit head coach Dan Campbell explained in his Wednesday press conference some of the unique challenges Richardson presents — especially coming off his last outing.

“I think what you saw was, last week, really, [him] at his best,” Campbell said. “I’m not even sure you can go back to earlier in the year because I feel like they’ve taken the handcuffs off of him and allowed him to just go, and I think it’s — there’s a lot of things to where, you’ve got to be careful, that’s your guy. You run him too much, he gets hit, he gets injured, he gets — and I think now, all bets are off and we’ve got to get first downs, we’ve got to score touchdowns, and you’ve got to lead us to it.”

Campbell noted the various ways runs they have with Richardson, whether it’s a QB power, RPOs, or zone-read — plus his scrambles. The play-action game can also be effective off of that. And given his frame, Richardson isn’t easy to bring down if you even get the opportunity to get a sack.

“[I]f he is in the pocket and you’ve got your arms around him, trying to bring him to the ground, he’ll just stiff arm you off of him, he’ll just press you off, and then throw it down the field,” Campbell said. “And it’s rare, his strength, his ability to run, and he really does have a nice deep ball, he’s an accurate passer down the field, and I mean deep.

“So, that’s what makes him dangerous, it’s all-encompassing is what it is, and when you accompany that by getting this halfback going, you get [Jonathan] Taylor going and all of a sudden, this becomes a very dangerous offense. So, it’s really no different than anything else, we cannot allow them to get this run game going, because if they do it’s going to be tough.”

While Richardson has completed just 48.5 percent of his passes this season, he is averaging a league-high 15.6 yards per completion — illustrating how dangerous he can be in spurts. Overall, Richardson has thrown for 1,230 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions and rushed for 274 yards with three TDs in 2024.