According to The Athletic’s James Boyd, Indianapolis Coltsquarterback Anthony Richardson, who’s recently been granted permission by the team to seek out a trade, has regained full vision in his injured right eye:
“Richardson’s representation also provided the Colts with medical documentation Wednesday night that shows Richardson has regained his full vision after suffering an orbital fracture in October, the source said via Boyd. “Those medical records will also be provided to any of Richardson’s potential suitors.”
“‘He has 20/20 vision in both eyes,’ the source said.”
Now, it should be taken with the caveat that this latest medical update is coming from Richardson’s representation, and it behooves the 23-year-old quarterback to have a more robust trade market among potential active trade suitors with a truly clean bill of health going forward.
Those same suitors would presumably be more hard-pressed to trade anything significant for a young, but oft-injured quarterback with added lingering vision limitations instead—and at the league’s most important position at that.
As far as possible suitors are concerned, the Minnesota Vikings have become the early frontrunner to trade for Richardson, and there’s already reported mutual interest between the two sides.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell reportedly coveted Richardson before the 2023 NFL Draft team, as there’s been speculation that they tried to trade a king’s ransom to snatch him early on in that year’s draft before Indianapolis ultimately rebuked their attempts and made him their latest franchise quarterback hopeful.
Not to mention, O’Connell’s on camera post-game offering words of encouragement to Richardson following a prior matchup during Week 9 of the 2024 season.
Having fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, presumably for allowing Super Bowl Champion quarterback Sam Darnold to leave while drafting the struggling JJ McCarthy, the Vikings are looking to improve their starting quarterback play this offseason—by at the very least, bringing in direct, bona fide competition to challenge McCarthy for their starting QB1 job.
Richardson would seem to fit a lot of that bill—albeit not perfectly.
He would find himself in a starting quarterback competition for a consecutive offseason, and coincidentally, the same franchise that Colts incumbent starting quarterback (albeit pending free agent) Daniel Jones left prior to joining Indianapolis last offseason.