What is the best course of action when you have a player that is currently making more money than what he brings in value to your team? The options always seem to be to either trade the player, or to cut the player. You try to minimize the loss, by getting rid of the player or the contract. What if there was a third way? What if you could use the player in a way that he was actually worth what you are paying him?
If you were to only read that paragraph, you might say that the last option might be the best way to maximize your spending dollar. As in any exercise, the options are not always clear and would appear different when more information was revealed. So, let’s add our player and team to the choices and see which becomes the best option. Spoiler Alert, it’s AR and the Colts.
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Right now, Anthony Richardson is set to make almost 11 million dollars for the coming season. You have to believe that every attempt has been made to try and trade the player. If there have been suitors, it is pretty clear that the return for the player would not compensate us for the loss of the player and the payment we would still have to make. Cutting the player would be even less compensation.
The last designation we saw for AR, was “Cleared to play”. Two months ago, Ballard reported that the eye is “getting better” and that we would “Just work from there”. This may sound like a bash, but if the last NFL snap he took was him not seeing an Edge bearing down on him, what does that look like with a blind spot?
His depth chart status is also a little fuzzy. With Jones unable to practice, he can easily be looked at as QB1. Some might say that given the current situation, Riley Leonard is QB1 until DJ comes back, which would make AR QB2. If both players slide when DJ returns, that would make AR QB3. 11 million is quite a bit of resource usage for a 3rd string, emergency type QB.
To go back to the original question in the first paragraph, “What if you could use the player in a way that he was actually worth what you are paying him? I would like to propose something, but I need help to know how to even ask. What I would like to know is if AR would be receptive to a position change and more importantly, would you approach him or his agent?
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Let me start by giving you some measurables and then ask you what position that they might be best suited for. 6’4”+, 240 lbs ish, 4.43 40 time, over 40” vertical and has nearly 33” arms attached to over 10” hands. This sounds like a Wide Receiver and pretty Megatronish to me. Johnson didn’t win because of his savvy route running or extensive route tree. He won because he was simply the better man when the ball came to him. Also, and maybe to a fault, we know that this player is not afraid of contact.
What would be your first sentence if you asked AR or his rep to consider changing positions? There are quite a few angles that you could take including presenting what an opportunity it could be. He wouldn’t be the first QB to move to WR. Terrelle Pryor, Antwaan Randle El, and Matt Jones, among others, found a way to turn their athleticism into a better way to contribute. Of course, none of those players were the 4th pick in the draft.
If it is financial, he has to know that WRs are near the top of the food chain in salary. If Megatron was playing today, he might be making 50 million per year. If AR could be a starting level WR, he would make more money than he would if he remained a 3rd string QB. If he can be great, he’d make nearly as much money as the best QBs in the league. Furthermore, it might be his quickest way back to the field, unless he wants to go to the CFL or UFL in an attempt to resurrect his career.
You could point out that all eyes are no longer on you. If it doesn’t look pretty right away, it will be understood. This is not a position that you have a small sample size of, this is a brand new position and when being evaluated, that will be understood much better than it was when coming to Indy as a QB. No expectations and no extra pressure to save the franchise from mediocrity.
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With the deadline for picking up the 4th year option coming on Friday, you could say that you would pick up that option if he agreed. Only the semi-miracle of seeing him both getting an opportunity to play QB AND playing really well, would see him getting 22 million dollars to play his 5th year. The Colts would have to be some kind of committed to make this offer, so he should realize that. They would essentially be betting that they would be getting their other outside receiver. You could even make WR in the language, rather than TE, so that his franchise tag would higher, if it ever got to that point.
You could say that as long as you are on the field, we would find ways to use you. Sweeps, screens, runs out of the backfield like Samuels did for the 49ers, Wildcats, sneaks, jump balls and even the opportunity to chuck it once in a while. You might even get a chance to block M.J Stewart a couple of times a year! Remember him? He should know every route, since he has thrown to those routes with no coverage and tracked what a WR does on each occurrence. You can reiterate that you think he is valuable and picking up that 5th year option would absolutely prove that.
Another approach would be to point out his worth in the NFL right now. His agent was allowed to talk to teams about a trade, so he knows what they offered. 31 teams had an opportunity to “unlock” you, but found college QBs without nearly as much talent or youth in most cases, to be that guy on the end of the bench with a clipboard. Hoping to get on the field as a QB this year, will in all probability just see you get a year older and year further from NFL memories.
You can say that you are not picking up the 5th year option without the move. You could ask him if he wants to wait until he is out of league for a couple of years to realize that he wanted to try it at WR, ala Tebow and his attempt to become a TE. You can say “You will hate yourself if there was a pathway to a long NFL career and you chose not to take it.”
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Then if you want to get downright brutal with him, you can remind him how outwardly supportive that the staff has been, when they have been asked questions about you. He might never get a call if that staff changes its tune. This would not bode well for the long term relationship and would definitely be a d**k move, but the high road has not produced a better player or wins. I couldn’t go that route, but there is a lot of money and a lot of jobs on the line.
Have I wasted your time? Is this even the remotest of possibilities? How would you go about approaching AR, or would you at all. The thought of seeing him out there basically making DBs look overmatched, has a lot of appeal to me. I thought about writing about the draft, so that I could find another way to mention winning the Draft Contest, or to dive into the 53 man roster, but we get enough like content like that. So, here is my change of pace for this week.
Thoughts?
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