Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson missed last week’s game with an oblique injury, and it’s currently unclear whether or not he’ll be back for the Week 6 matchup against the Titans.
But Richardson told reporters on Wednesday that he’s feeling “way better” than he did last week.
“I was able to move a little better, able to get going, start running and throwing,” Richardson said, via Kevin Bowen of 107.5 The Fan. “So, feeling good about that.”
Richardson added that he feels he can perform the duties of quarterback. But it sounds like the team will take the rest of the practice week to make a decision on his status for Sunday.
“I can run, I can throw, I can do the stuff that they want me to do in the offense,” Richardson said. “So, we’re just going to take it day by day and see how the rest of the week is.”
If Richardson can’t play, veteran Joe Flacco would be in line to make his second start for the club.
Richardson has completed 50.6 percent of his throws this season for 654 yards with three touchdowns and six interceptions. He’s also rushed for 141 yards with a TD.
There’s no quarterback controversy in Indianapolis.
Joe Flacco has completed 49-of-70 passes for 527 yards and five touchdowns since Anthony Richardson injured his oblique early in a Week Four win over the Steelers, but head coach Shane Steichen made it clear on Monday that the team is going to put Richardson back in the lineup once he’s medically cleared.
“He is our starting quarterback,” Steichen said, via Kevin Bowen of 107.5 The Fan.
Richardson is 39-of-77 for 654 yards, three touchdowns, and six interceptions on the season, but Steichen pushed back at the notion that the team is sacrificing a chance to win now in order to develop Richardson for the future.
“We are trying to win football games,” Steichen said. “That’s the bottom line. We are trying to win football games. Obviously, when Anthony is out there, he makes a lot of big plays for us. That’s where it’s at.”
Richardson was a limited participant in practice last week. Wednesday will bring word on how much he’s doing at practice as the team moves toward their Week Six trip to Tennessee.
It sounds like the Titans are anticipating that quarterback Will Levis will be OK for Week 6.
Levis suffered a shoulder injury against the Dolphins last Monday night. Head coach Brian Callahan told reporters in his press conference that Levis was unlikely to practice for the team’s “bonus” session on Monday. But Levis should return for Wednesday’s practice.
If he does that, then Levis will be in a position to start.
“[I]f he’s good to practice and good to go, he’s going to play,” Callahan said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN. “Unless it’s affecting his ability to do his job, I don’t think there will be any discussion on that point.
“Again, if it still hurts a ton, and he’s having trouble throwing effectively and all those things, then yeah, that’s a whole different conversation. But we’ll just see how the week of practice goes.”
In four starts, Levis has completed 68.4 percent of his throws for 604 yards with four touchdowns and six interceptions. He’s also lost three fumbles.
The Titans will host the Colts in Week 6.
Ravens running back Derrick Henry needs only 18 yards on Sunday to reach a major milestone.
He currently has 9,982 career rushing yards. Unless the Bengal completely shut him down, he’ll get to 10,000.
Henry also has 99 career touchdowns. One more gets him to 100.
If both happen, they will have happened in his 124th career game. That would make him only the fifth player in league history to have 10,000 rushing yards and 100 touchdowns from scrimmage in their first 125 career games.
The others are Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Adrian Peterson.
Henry is currently 32nd on the all-time rushing list. This year, he has already climbed four spots, passing Chris Johnson, Joe Perry, Matt Forte, and Clinton Portis.
With his next 480, Henry will pass Ricky Williams, Ottis Anderson, Marshawn Lynch, Eddie George, and Tiki Barber.
Henry is 2,757 rushing yards away from cracking the all-time top 10.
When ESPN/ABC rattled off the audience numbers for Monday night’s simultaneous overlapping doubleheader, the release omitted the numbers for Titans-Dolphins on ESPN.
As usual, it wasn’t an oversight. It was a deliberate nothing-to-see-here gesture.
Via Jon Lewis of SportsMediaWatch.com, the Titans-Dolphins game generated an average audience of 5.61 million viewers. While the game boosted the ability to brag about the total audience for the 2.5-hour overlap (20.3 million), the numbers for Titans-Dolphins are anemic, as NFL prime-time standards go.
The next overlapping doubleheader comes on October 21, with Ravens-Buccaneers on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+ at 8:15 p.m. ET an Chargers-Cardinals at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
That night, the total, combined audience surely will not be 20.3 million.
