Head coach Shane Steichen said the Colts are still evaluating the severity and nature of the right shoulder injury quarterback Anthony Richardson sustained during the second quarter of Sunday's 23-16 win over the Tennessee Titans at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Richardson exited the game after being tackled by Titans cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting and linebacker Harold Landry III on a designed running play. After the game, Steichen said the Colts don't want to take away a part of Richardson's game – his explosive playmaking ability with the ball in his hands – in the wake of Sunday's injury.
"When you have a dynamic player like him, obviously one of his skillsets is as a runner," Steichen said. "That's what makes him really good. The designed run that he got hurt on, we ran something similar to that last week where he popped it for a big one, then obviously this week he got the shoulder on that play. That's stuff that you gotta look at and be smart with and it's part of the game. You don't want it to happen for sure."
Richardson had a late exit from the Colts' Week 1 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, then left the team's Week 2 win over the Houston Texans with a concussion sustained in the first half. Steichen was asked about how Richardson can handle the emotional and mental side of leaving three of his four starts with injuries.
"You gotta fight through those things. That's part of this league," Steichen said. "You gotta have the conversations that'll build you stronger. Sometimes in life with any type of deal, you get nicked up, why does this happen to me? You gotta think about the positive and think that obviously something good's going to come out of it in the end."
Gardner Minshew tagged in off the sideline and completed 11 of 14 passes for 155 yards (11.1 yards/attempt) with a passer rating of 112.8 as the Colts churned out a seven-point win over the Titans, the team's first win against Tennessee since the 2020 season.
