Indianapolis, IN — Lucas Oil Stadium is taking no prisoners to kick off Sunday’s contest between the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals. During pre-game warmups, two separate Colts were injured and are now inactive against the Cardinals: Charvarius Ward (concussion) and Anthony Richardson (eye).
This is an unfortunate yet massive blow to Indy’s defensive backfield, and in particular, its cornerback room. Ward was already keeping its starting group afloat while Kenny Moore II and Jaylon Jones
worked back from injury, but now Lou Anarumo’s cornerback room has depleted to two veteran reserve players and an undrafted free agent: Mekhi Blackmon, Chris Lammons, and Johnathan Edwards. Furthermore, practice squad call-up CB Cameron Mitchell is the lone reserve cornerback active today.
Below is a video of Ward suffering his concussion; you can see him running into TE Drew Ogletree, who was catching passes between the sideline and numbers on the field.
Thankfully for the Colts, they are dodging QB Kyler Murray today and will face off against former Colts QB Jacoby Brissett. This doesn’t make the assignments against WR Marvin Harrison Jr. and TE Trey McBride easier per se, but it does invite a sense of familiarity that may be used in Indy’s favor.
As for Anthony Richardson (eye), he may not be a healthy scratch that is mid-trade talks like speculation had it after it was revealed he was inactive for today’s game, but he might officially be the most injury-prone (and/or unluckiest) football player of all time. Yes, players get injured warming up sometimes, but it’s the way he was injured.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Richardson injured his eye while doing band work. This isn’t meant to pile on to his shortcomings, but rather to point out just how prone to injury he historically is. Even if Daniel Jones never came to town to right everyone involved’s wrongs, there’s a very real reality where the Richardson experiment never succeeds, not due to his subpar play, but because his durability is seemingly nonexistent.
