The Anthony Richardson era is over in Indianapolis, even if the Colts don’t want to admit it yet. It’s time to see his trade value.

Colts QB Anthony Richardson | Perry Knotts/GettyImages

The Indianapolis Colts have seemingly given up on Anthony Richardson. They might not have come out and explicitly said it yet, but I’d be surprised to see Richardson suit up again for the Colts in his career. There’s no way you can convince me that in the few short months he’s been in town, Daniel Jones has not only a better grasp of the offense than Richardson, but is the best option to lead them to the playoffs.

Richardson has his flaws, but that’s less on what he has or hasn’t done and more on the lack of development.

He’s probably one of the most inexperienced top draft picks as a quarterback in NFL history.

He was always going to need time and reps and the Colts have basically given him neither. And now they’re at an impasse.

The only solution for them is to dump Richardson while he still has value and collect some draft picks or players along the way.

The first team to come calling should be the Los Angeles Rams.

Sean McVay is a quarterback whisperer of sorts and could use Richardson as a long term building block when Matthew Stafford’s career is over.

What a Los Angeles Rams-Indianapolis Colts trade for Anthony Richardson would look like

This is similar to maybe what happened with Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson.

They fizzled out with the New York Jets and they sent them away for pennies. This was in an effort to get them a quarterback they thought would be the answer.

Richardson would probably yield a similar trade package as them as he hasn’t just proven enough to be a high-valued target.

The Rams should offer up a second-round pick and a sixth-round pick for Richardson.

While that seems like high value, the Rams picked up a second first-round pick from the Atlanta Falcons this past draft, so giving up a second round pick shouldn’t be too tall of a task.

The Rams could possibly get away with a third-rounder, but for the sake of argument, let’s settle on a second-round pick.

The Rams shouldn’t hesitate to move off their second-round pick for Richardson if they have to

Why giving up that pick is important is because Richardson would be in the best situation possible

He’d get to learn from Stafford for a year or two and not have the pressure of contributing right now.

While reps are important, he needs to be in a low pressure situation. C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young ruined Richardson because they both started out the gate and Stroud’s meteoric rise as a rookie ramped up the pressure on both Young and Richardson.

According to a story in The Ringer, Caleb Williams, Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels have already doubled Richardson’s career dropbacks in one season.

And Drake Maye, who didn’t make his NFL debut until Week 6, already has more than Richardson’s 395 as well.

The Colts snatching more reps from Richardson isn’t going to make him better.

He’s in year three and at this point, he shouldn’t be in a quarterback battle, but rather putting the final pieces together to engineer this offense.

The coaching staff failed to develop him. While Richardson isn’t absolved of all blame, he’s not the only one that deserves it.

He deserves a team and a staff that’s willing to be patient with him and actually show him what it means to be an NFL quarterback.

The Colts bit off more than they could chew when they drafted Richardson. They knew they didn’t get a polished product.

That’s why the Rams need to land Richardson. They don’t need him to be a polished product yet.

They just need him to learn from a former Super Bowl champion and be ready when it’s time for him to take over.