The Pittsburgh Steelers were scheduled to play against Indianapolis Colts QB Anthony Richardson in his rookie season, but he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 5 after a pretty impressive start to his career.
When the Steelers play at Indianapolis on Sunday, it will be the first time they have faced the highly athletic quarterback.
“He’s a unicorn,” outside linebacker Nick Herbig said after practice Wednesday via a video posted on the Steelers’ website. “He’s big, he can throw the ball, he can run. He can do it all. So we gotta be able to get him down.”
Herbig will be making his first NFL start on Sunday with Alex Highsmith injured. While DeMarvin Leal figures to play a bigger role to help set the edge in the run game, Herbig will need to hold up against one of the better offensive lines in the league. He has proven he can be an effective pass rusher, but he hasn’t been tested over the course of a full game against the run.
Having a quarterback like Justin Fields to practice against helps in dealing with a mobile quarterback like Richardson. Several Steelers defenders talked about that throughout training camp. But Richardson is a bit of a different beast. He is listed at 6-4, 244 pounds and runs a 4.43-second 40-yard dash. That is a tough guy to bring down. Kind of like Ben Roethlisberger in the way that tacklers would bounce off him.
“A big athlete at quarterback. Definitely gonna have to defend that and gonna have to change some stuff around,” linebacker Payton Wilson said. “But just identifying that he’s there and being able to account for him. Most of the time you don’t really have to account for the quarterback in the run game, but this week we do. So just adjusting our rules to make sure that we can keep him in the pocket.”
Often pass rushers will be asked to never rush too far past a mobile quarterback in an effort to reduce the hole that they can escape through. For a guy like Herbig, who wins with speed, that will be a bit of a challenge. The Steelers have the most speed that they’ve had on their defense in quite some time, which should help.
Richardson has been struggling a little bit through the first three games, but he has all the athleticism and arm talent to break off a big play at any given moment. He has completed 36 of his 73 passes for 583 yards, three touchdowns, and six interceptions this season. He has also added another 117 rushing yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.
