WESTFIELD, Ind. — The Indianapolis Colts will start rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson in Saturday’s preseason opener at Buffalo, Coach Shane Steichen announced Thursday.
Richardson, the fourth overall pick in April’s draft, has been working primarily with the starters over the past week and has shown glimpses of the raw talent that intrigued the team.
Because Richardson only started one college season at Florida, it was unclear how quickly the Colts would push the 21-year-old into action.
Richardson has been battling veteran Gardner Minshew for the No. 1 spot on the depth chart, but Steichen already knows what Minshew can do since both worked together in Philadelphia each of the past two seasons. Steichen said he wants to see what Richardson can do with the Colts’ starters on game day.
49ERS: Chief executive Jed York is being sued over accusations of insider trading related to his role on the board of an online educational company.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that two shareholder lawsuits have been filed against York and other directors of Santa Clara-based Chegg Inc.
The suits allege that York and other directors of Chegg hid the company’s role in helping college students cheat on online exams during the pandemic.
The company’s revenues and stock price fell sharply once colleges resumed in-person testing and students couldn’t use Chegg to cheat, according to the lawsuits.
The suits also accuse York, Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig and other company executives of illegal insider trading for selling Chegg stock before investors were told about the extent of the cheating scandal. The suits claim York made $1.4 million in profit on the sale of 20,000 shares “at artificially inflated prices.”
A Chegg spokesman told the Chronicle that the “suits are without merit and Chegg is vigorously defending itself.”
TV: The NFL is making additional moves to reach more fans with direct-to-consumer offerings.
The league announced that NFL Network and NFL RedZone will be available on “NFL+,” the streaming service the league launched last year.
Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s Chief Media and Business Officer, said offering both channels direct to consumer is something that has been in the league plans for awhile.
According to Nielsen’s cable estimates, NFL Network is available to 51.1 million customers, which is the most for a network run by a professional league or college conference. NFL RedZone has also gained increased distribution the past couple of years as the league has renewed its carriage agreements with cable, satellite and streaming providers.
PANTHERS: Coach Frank Reich informed his players that nearly all should expect to play in Saturday’s preseason home opener against the New York Jets.
Reich said its largely because the Panthers have new coaches, new schemes and several new players. They need to get prepared for the start of the regular season, which begins with two straight games against NFC South division foes.
“We just feel like we’re at a different stage,” than other teams, Reich said. “A lot of teams won’t play their starters in the preseason. We’ve talked as a team from the very beginning and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna play in the preseason.’ … We’ve got to get ready to go.”
Meanwhile, the Jets plan to rest 18-year veteran Aaron Rodgers, and Coach Robert Saleh was non-committal on if the other starters will play in their second preseason game, saying only “we’ll see.”
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