Anthony Richardson has had a long runway for his return to the NFL following season-ending shoulder surgery, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear he'd experienced some shoulder fatigue during offseason activities.
To some, it might have even been slightly alarming. But fear not, Colts fans: Richardson is still on schedule to be fully ready for training camp.
“He’ll be full-go,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said during an appearance on The GM Shuffle podcast. “He was full-go all the way up until the last day of OTAs, and we had two heavy throwing sessions the two days before, and so we backed off a little on the last day.”
Ballard's explanation tracks with what Richardson would experience following surgery on his throwing shoulder. Even with months of time to rehab, a surgically repaired shoulder is still going to be tested more intensely in consecutive practices than a given rehab session, explaining the fatigue and soreness Richardson said he felt by the final session.
Richardson even admitted he was surprised he'd only felt the fatigue then, revealing he thought it would arrive sooner. If anything, the timing was a minor victory for Richardson on his road back to the field.
That road will travel through the remainder of June and most of July before arriving at training camp, where Ballard and the Colts organization don't anticipate they'll need to place any limitations on their promising young passer.
That in itself is an early win. We'll sort out the rest in July and August.