There's a common saying around football that pops up every now and then. Sometimes it's attributed to John Madden. Whether that's accurate or not seems up for debate; more accurately, it's a saying that's ingrained in how plenty of folks view the quarterback position.
"If you have two quarterbacks," the line maybe said by John Madden goes, "you actually have none."
The Colts have two quarterbacks on their roster – Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones – who will compete to be the team's starter this season. When teams have a quarterback competition, it often looks like what the Colts have in 2025: A highly-drafted quarterback who's struggled, for whatever reason, to find consistency facing off against a veteran.
The problem teams have run into in the past hasn't necessarily been just having a quarterback competition; it's been mis-alignment between team decision makers on how the competition will go and what it will take to win it.
As they embark on their own competition, the Colts are not doing so with that mis-alignment landmine waiting to be triggered.
"I think any time you're (discussing) the GM, head coach relationship — and let's include the owner in that equation — all of us, I would tell you, we don't always agree in the initial moments," general manager Chris Ballard said on Thursday's debut episode of "The Colts Show," a new podcast you can listen to here and watch here. "But as we work through whatever issues we have, whatever things we think we need to improve on and come to a final decision, then we're all on board and we're all moving forward in the same direction. I think if we're all agreeing at every moment in the process before we come to that final decision, then we're not thinking — nobody's really challenging each other.
"I enjoy problems. I mean, Lord knows we've had a few of them, but solving the problem is the fun part of what we get to do. So working through the quarterback situation with a young player that has real talent in Anthony that we still like, and then being able to acquire Daniel Jones, who the coaching staff identified pretty early as a good fit for what we want to do offensively, we thought it was going to create great competition not only for Anthony, but also for Daniel and bring out the best in both of them."
Ballard, then, drove home the point – a quarterback competition is doomed to fail if a team's ownership, football operations and coaching staff are not all aligned before it starts.
"It's hard to succeed when you have people pulling in opposite directions, which we don't have," Ballard said. "We are all pulling in the same direction. We all have an agreement on where we're going and how we're going to get there."
The Colts, collectively, are embarking on their own competition without an ideal outcome in mind. There's no timeline on when a starter needs to be named. There's no bias in who that starter has to be. The goal is winning games, both Ballard and Steichen emphasized, whether it's Jones or Richardson behind center.
For more on what Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen think of Anthony Richardson (and why they haven't given up on him), as well as Daniel Jones (and what both like about him), plus what the Colts' general manager and head coach see in a few other parts of their roster, check out Episode 1 of The Colts Show on:
- Apple Podcasts
- Spotify (and wherever you get your podcasts)
- YouTube
Be sure to subscribe to Indianapolis Colts Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts as well to get new episodes of The Colts Show and High Volume With Jeffrey Gorman delivered to your feed every week.
