Retired Indianapolis Colts All-Pro player Pat McAfee, now of course a national ESPN media sports personality on The Pat McAfee Show, commented on the state of his former franchise after another loss to a weak opponent that essentially ended the season.

This came after the Horseshoe lost 45-33 to the 2-13 New York Giants on Sunday, in a must-win game to keep their season-ending playoff hopes alive:

The Colts didn’t play with nearly the level of urgency, energy, hustle, fundamentals and execution necessary for a team that was clearly fighting for its playoff lifestyle.

Of course, I think there is a lot of truth to McAfee’s statement when it comes to leadership, work ethic and accountability in the Colts’ locker room.

How this season ended so embarrassingly feels eerily similar to how the Carson Wentz-led Colts slowed down in the 2021 season as Indianapolis, once in the race for a playoff spot, lost its final two games of the year, including against the 2-4. 14 Jacksonville Jaguars on the road, 26-11, ending their playoff bid in devastating fashion.

(To be fair, at least the Colts team controlled its own destiny at the latest).

While McAfee makes a point to once again highlight the Colts’ second-year starting quarterback, Anthony Richardson, who infamously “dropped out” in Week 8 on the road against the Houston Texans, resulting in a two-game benching and other insight behind the Due to his maturity concerns, it is obvious that the leadership issues in Indianapolis are already ahead of him.

Let’s not forget that Colts team owner Jim Irsay vowed to do so after the collapse at the end of the 2021 season “wouldn’t bear it.” led the charge to replace Wentz with veteran quarterback Matt Ryan in a trade – largely because of the former’s leadership issues, and Indianapolis even brought in two well-known “Dawgs” as ex-players, Reggie Wayne and Mike Mitchell , as an assistant coach in their locker room. Coincidence? Hardly.

Those leadership concerns haven’t really changed since then.

Ryan obviously didn’t practice because his voice no longer carried as much weight as his game declined significantly due to advanced football age. He was fired after just one season in Indianapolis. (And in truth, I think we saw the same thing with Ryan Kelly this year, except for the fact that your voice doesn’t carry as much weight when your production has dropped significantly).

Since then, however, the Colts’ leadership core has been largely the same, and one assumes that when they selected the 21-year-old Richardson with the 4th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, he would completely change the tone of leadership within them from the start alone (and without any additional outside help) seems highly unrealistic – and we now know that it hasn’t worked so far.

He’s not Peyton Manning.

He’s not Andrew Luck.

Realistically, the Colts should have known this when they recruited him. This was not a top quarterback prospect with a decorated college football career, but the son of a former NFL quarterback who would command instant respect and leadership in the locker room. He became more attuned to his natural ability, promise and future potential.

He wasn’t going to be the “tone setter” on his first day on the job like these guys.

It will take time – if everything works out, and there have already been obvious growing pains and learning experiences.

Some patience is required here.

However, there are two things worth highlighting:

1. McAfee’s teams benefited from Hall of Famer or Colts Ring of Honor players like Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Reggie Wayne, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Dallas Clark, Gary Brackett, Antoine Bethea and Adam Vinatieri – especially Wayne. Mathis and Vinatieri helped fill the leadership gap on the Andrew Luck-led teams. It also helped that Luck carried early-depleted Colts rosters throughout McAfee’s career. When a team wins games, no one questions the leadership of their locker room because success seems to heal everything.

2. McAfee was arrested for public drunkenness during his second season on the Broad Ripple neighborhood channel He played with the Colts in October 2010, so it probably seems a bit contradictory to shed more light on the 22-year-old Richardson’s maturity issues than Pat himself had early in his career. Yes, I know, Richardson is supposed to be the next face of the franchise as the starting quarterback – the game’s most important position, while McAfee was a young player on a veteran Super Bowl contender. However, it’s not that players can’t grow up. Admittedly, Pat relied heavily on his natural ability early in his playing career before veteran placekicker and future Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri took a vested interest in him and took him under his wing to improve his physique and conditioning and really get him into shape improve craft. He finally became an NFL All-Pro in his sixth year in 2014.

While there appears to be some truth to what Pat said, it doesn’t appear to be entirely an “Anthony Richardson” leadership issue, as it completely predates him and speaks to other veteran team captains and holdovers in the same locker room – which McAfee certainly alludes to, even if he doesn’t give any specific examples.

Some of these recurring leadership issues are also likely being brought up from higher up in the organization and elsewhere (e.g. the coaching staff), but it may be time for the Colts to add a few additional “butt-kickers” from a player personnel perspective for 2025 and 2025 to get beyond that.