2024 Week 8: Colts 20, Texans 23
Despite Anthony Richardson’s terrible QB play the Colts somehow had a chance to win this game, twice actually, but the Indy offense fell short. The Texans just aren’t as good as we all think.
Houston moves up to a very weak (6-2) team, and they will likely win the AFC South due to a lack of competition and spirit in the division but to be completely honest, none of these four teams (HOU, IND, TEN, JAX) deserve to win any division.
The Colts (4-4) are in the race as well, but with two losses to Houston this year their hopes are close to dead. Indy faces MIN, BUF, NYJ, DET in the next 4 weeks, their season is done unless the usurper Joe Flacco can make some magic happen.
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Anthony Richardson Rant:
- Well, there’s a lot to discuss here…
Yesterday HC Shane Steichen benched 22-year-old Anthony Richardson (10/32 for 175 yards, 1 TD/1 INT; 6 rushes for 45 yards) for Joe Flacco, and today when asked if AR was the QB going forward he said “I can’t predict the future, but, I mean, that would be great. We’ll see.” This move has been a hot topic the last few days, sparking conversations and input from everyone in the football world, from Dan Orlovsky, to Pat McAfee, to myself, everyone is weighing in. I don’t think this is good for the future of football, and will likely have repercussions for YEARS to come. The project QB is all but dead – Richardson will be the last first-round-developmental QB for a long time.
Teams are starting to ditch their highly drafted QBs after two years now, Josh Rosen was the first domino to fall back in 2019 when Arizona abandoned him for Kyler Murray, a decision that hasn’t made an impact on the success of the franchise. Since then we’ve had Drew Lock, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Kenny Pickett, and all of last year's class except for Stroud: AR, Will Levis, and Bryce Young. Every one of these players were 1st or early 2nd-round picks that teams gave up on and never tried to develop for one reason or another. Rookies are usually given Year 1 to fumble around but if they don’t play like a Top-10 QB they’re booed out of town before Year 2 is over. From this year's class, Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, and Bo Nix are playing well, but if they regress at all they will all be labeled busts. If/when Nix loses to LAC he’s going to go from a developing rookie to a bust in the 3 hours it takes to play an NFL game, in the eyes of the media.
Earlier today I posted a tweet about your emotional league-mates and that you should exploit that, well now we have NFL front offices acting in the same manner, and they have been for years, really. YOUR favorite NFL team is no better managed than Joe Football-Fan’s fantasy football team, and you expect them to put the best product on the field week after week? I think the driving factor for AR’s benching isn’t because of poor performance, but because he’s erratic and inconsistent. What’s the difference between bad play and inconsistency? When all is said and done, coaches want a QB that is boring, runs the playbook to a T, and doesn’t turn the ball over. The only time they accept anything other than that is when they are gifted with a Josh Allen-Lamar Jackson type. Any type of personality at QB is a red flag for coaches. They want it in their WRs and DBs, not the O-line or QB.
WR/TE Report:
- Stefon Diggs (5-81-0/9) is out for the year, which means Tank Dell (4-35-1/4) is going to be the same player he was last year, 5-6 catches for 60-70 yards and maybe he will score a TD to have a huge game. When Nico Collins returns he and Dell will be WR 1.5 set-and-forget players.
- The Diggs injury should also help Dalton Schultz (4-52-0/6) and Cade Stover (2-19-0/3) as they go with more 12-personnel, especially this week without Nico.
- Josh Downs (4-109-1/9) had a big game and was a half-foot away from another TD late. Just like we had seen earlier this year with Flacco, Downs will be an ace WR moving forward. In the 3 weeks Flacco played Downs was the PPR #6 WR and Michael Pittman (1-16-0/6) was the #22, both have value for as long as they ride out Flacco.
