Pat McAfee is clearly excited about the Indianapolis Colts’ signing of Daniel Jones.
But lest you believed the former All-Pro punter’s enthusiasm was sarcastic — a fair thought considering his recent history with his former team — it appears to actually be genuine.
There is, however, a catch.
While discussing the Colts’ addition of the former New York Giants quarterback on Tuesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the conversation inevitability shifted toward Anthony Richardson’s future with the franchise. And after Darius Butler called attention to Dan Orlovsky’s suggestion that Richardson could ask for a trade, the real motivation behind McAfee’s support of the Jones signing became clear.
“He should! Yeah, absolutely. Fresh start! New building! Massive upside,” the former Colts punter said of a potential Richardson trade request. “I think if you’re one of the other 31 teams, remember what you thought about Anthony Richardson. A lot of upside. Guy’s got a ton of potential… maybe he does ask for a trade. Maybe a fresh new start somewhere else is what Anthony Richardson needs.”
How sincere was McAfee with his praise of the No. 4 pick of the 2023 NFL Draft? It wasn’t too difficult to read between the lines.
“If that’s the case, if he does look to go somewhere else, we will appreciate the hell out of his time in this city and we will be thankful that we were able to be like grade school for him to learn how to play football and be a football player and be a professional and everything like that,” he said. “And I think he would have massive success somewhere else.”
After Butler noted that Colts fans are currently “torn” regarding Richardson’s outlook, McAfee stated that wouldn’t be the case if they knew as much as he did about the 22-year-old signal-caller’s work habits. The 2-time Pro Bowl punter later stated that the Colts’ first two days of free agency indicate that the franchise is attempting to change its culture and “heighten the professionalism” before running down a laundry list of improvements he believes Richardson needs to make both on and off the field.
“Will he have the professionalism to pay attention to every single detail about how he presents himself, how he operates and how he goes about his business on the day-to-day?” McAfee said. “Treatment and meetings and workouts and being on time, being early. All these things about being a professional. Will A.R. do that this offseason? Maybe. Especially now that there’s a little bit more pressure…
“But for me, Danny Dimes, sure he’s thrown some pick-6s. Sure, he’s looked terrible at times. But he doesn’t have a 47.7 completion percentage. I assume he shows up on time to everything. I assume he’s a guy that will be like, ‘Yeah, I’m an NFL quarterback. I’m gonna be a professional. So nonetheless, it’ll be good for A.R. to either see it or it will be good for a 27-year-old to get paid $14 million as a starting quarterback in the NFL.”
The backdrop to all of this is that Pat McAfee spent the better part of the 2024 NFL season feuding with his former team, much of which stemmed his criticism of Richardson’s decision to voluntarily pull himself out of a game. But while the Colts have yet to “transfer portal the whole f***ing team” as the College GameDay star suggested they do, the first two days of free agency appear to have mended some fences, as perhaps best evidenced by the addition of a viable alternative to Anthony Richardson at quarterback.
