Anthony Richardson subbed himself out of his starting job.

In the Indianapolis Colts’ 20-23 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, 22-year-old quarterback Anthony Richardson asked to be subbed out prior to a big third down. In his own words, he was “tired,” and “that was a lot of running out there.” In response to this, the Colts are replacing him for the rest of the season with veteran Joe Flacco.

Obviously, you cannot do this as a quarterback in the NFL. No matter how tired you are, you’re supposed to be the leader on the field for every single snap, and the paychecks reflect that. You lose the respect of your teammates when you essentially give up on the team because you’re out of breath. It’s selfishness personified.

That being said, this is an irresponsible decision from Indianapolis. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for young quarterbacks getting some time on the bench to learn behind a veteran. However, this should’ve been done his rookie year. They already threw him to the wolves in year one, and now it just feels like they’re giving up on him.

This team that has not been able to figure out the quarterback position since Andrew Luck announced his early retirement in 2019. Anthony Richardson is a very young man who has an insane amount of raw talent. Letting him rot on the bench will just hinder his confidence at this point.

Richardson makes some very dumb decisions on the field. Terrible red zone interceptions, bad reads, and now this subbing out fiasco, but I believe he’s young enough to learn from these mistakes. He’s so physically gifted that I believe these are growing pains worth working through. In fact, I believe he has the most potential out of any any quarterback from the 2023 draft class. Bryce Young looks like a lost cause in Carolina. CJ Stroud looks to be going through some kind of sophomore slump, as he’s panicked in the pocket and has trouble getting the ball out. Will Levis creates a new meme every week with some of the bone-headed decisions he makes.

Again, I’m not saying learning how to handle yourself in the NFL from an experienced quarterback like cool Joe is a bad thing, but I do think this situation could’ve been handled much better. I believe this move will do more damage than good.