AR to the OR

... and, well, there goes that season. And maybe another high-end draft pick.

Sorry. Seems the Blob's inner pessimist has the run of the joint today.

He's looking around, the sour old coot, and he's starting to wonder where Your Indianapolis Colts go from here. Yes, they've been better so far -- maybe even way better -- than all the inner (and outer) pessimists figured. Yes, Gardner Minshew is a hell of a backup quarterback. And, yes, Michael Pittman has blossomed into a premo WR1, and Zach Moss and Jonathan Taylor make a nifty 1-2 punch at running back, and Zaire Franklin is suddenly tackling everything in sight.

Oh, and Matt Gay can kick those field goals, by golly.

However ...

However, we saw all Sunday in Jacksonville how you beat this team.

Overplay the run. Make Gardner Minshew beat you. Pick on the Colts energetic but youngish secondary, the weak spot in a D that's solid everywhere else.

The result Sunday was Jville 37, Colts 20, as Minshew threw a trio of picks and the Colts averaged 2.6 yards per carry against a defense loading the box. And now?

And now it's Mnshew or bust the rest of the way, because the guy the Colts are banking on as their future seems headed for season-ending surgery on his throwing shoulder -- four starts into his career.

Thus you're allowed to wonder what the future looks like now. And whether it looks any different than the recent past.

Look. Anthony Richardson is by all accounts a remarkably grounded young man with a remarkable athletic skill set, and so you hope he makes a full recovery. You hope he doesn't lose anything throwing the football, and that he learns how better to protect himself when he uses the legs that are so much a part of his game.

You hope -- oh, how you hope -- the fact he got hurt in every single game he's played so far is just some weird anomaly, and not a sign he's the most dreaded word in the NFL dictionary.

That word would be "fragile."

I don't want that to be true. You don't want that to be true. Nobody who enjoys watching exceptional football players make exceptional football plays wants that to be true.

That of course would include Colts management, which has banked so much on this 21-year-old kid. Now they'll have to wait an entire year at least to see what the return on the investment will be.

For now, even if the Colts manage to prove him wrong the rest of 2023, my inner pessimist knows what he's looking at here. 

Call it a holding pattern.