Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson has a lot to prove entering his second season, and Chris Simms is one of those critics.

The former NFL quarterback, who works as an analyst for NBC Sports, is unveiling his top-40 quarterback rankings for the 2024 season.

After missing most of his rookie campaign due to a shoulder injury, Richardson didn’t get much love from Simms.

In fact, Simms ranked Richardson at No. 32 among quarterbacks in a tier labeled “The Young and Reckless” with Bryce Young, Sam Darnold and Jameis Winston.

Even with the limited sample size we have on Richardson from his rookie season, to have him in the same tier as Winston and Darnold, who played a combined 206 snaps in 2023, is a bit ridiculous.

Young gets a slight pass even with how brutal of a rookie season he endured. The situation he was put into was not conducive to the development of a young quarterback, and he deserves a bit of leeway as a No. 1 pick.

Then, to have Ryan Tannehill, a free agent who lost his job to a rookie last year, ahead of Richardson in a different tier is even more questionable.

And while Simms expressed some slight hope on the podcast that Richardson can develop, he still had far more concerns that the Colts have to micromanage his every move.

It’s valid to have questions about Richardson and where he ranks compared to other quarterbacks. But the fact that he scored nine touchdowns in four games shows he has incredible upside in both phases of the game.

It was also clear before his injury that he progressing at a high rate when it came to processing post snap.

His 0.03 EPA per dropback ranked 23rd among quarterbacks with at least 80 pass attempts in 2023. That was tied with Joe Burrow and just below Kyler Murray (0.04), Justin Herbert (0.05) and Trevor Lawrence (0.05).

It’s a shame Richardson’s rookie season was cut so short, and we’ll see if Simms is right about where the young quarterback should be ranked.