The Indianapolis Colts will open their 2023 NFL season in Week 1 by welcoming their AFC South rival, the Jacksonville Jaguars, to Lucas Oil Stadium on the league’s opening Sunday. There are several Colts trades that the team could make before then. Indianapolis could look for another pass rusher or add depth to the secondary. But the best move the team can make with Week 1 on the horizon is to help rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson and give him as many weapons as they can. That is why Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marquise Brown is the player to target for a last-minute Colts trade before Week 1 of the new season.

The Colts must trade for WR Marquise Brown before Week 1 of the upcoming season

Anthony Richardson is the future of the Colts franchise. If the No. 4 picks in the 2023 NFL Draft succeeds, the team could be in for another magical decade-plus-long run like it had with Peyton Manning. If he fails, the team is likely doomed for another half-decade (at least) of mediocrity, like they’ve been in since Andrew Luck shockingly retired on the eve of the Colts’ 2019 season.

Richardson’s training camp and the preseason have been a bit of a rollercoaster. He’s looked electric running the ball at times, and he’s moved the offense up and down the field in preseason games to score points.

That said, he’s also been wildly inaccurate and inconsistent. The former Florida Gators QB is 13-of-29 (44.8%) in his two Colts’ preseason games.

Part of that is just who Richardson is as a quarterback right now. He only started one season at Florida and is still a raw prospect who doesn’t understand and can’t execute some of the finer points of NFL quarterbacking yet. Another part may be his wide receiver group.

Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce, rookie second-round pick Josh Downs, Isaiah McKenzie, and Mike Strachan look like the final WRs on the team’s 53-man roster this season. Does this group strike fear in the heart of NFL defenses? No.

Pittman, Pierce, and Strachan are all big, intermediate targets who have potential, yet none of them showed they were ready for the WR1 spotlight last season. McKenzie is a small slot receiver who lost his job with the Buffalo Bills last season to an un-retiring Cole Beasley and Downs has a ton of promise as a high-volume possession guy.

What’s missing here? A player who can go deep and take the top off a defense. That’s where Cardinals wideout Marquise Brown comes in.

The Cardinals are wheeling and dealing recently, and that is showing that the team thinks it is out of the AFC West race this season, and is getting in position to just survive the campaign and hopefully get USC QB Caleb Williams next season.

In a matter of hours on Thursday, the team traded LB/S Isaiah Simmons to the New York Giants, offensive lineman Josh Jones to the Houston Texans, and brought in Cleveland Browns quarterback Joshua Dobbs. That last piece signals that Kyler Murray likely won’t be back from his knee injury any time soon.

The Cardinals don’t need Brown — who they gave the Ravens a first-round pick for in 2022 — and they should try to get something in return for him.

The former Oklahoma wideout is miscast as a No. 1 target, but he can get the job done in the right circumstances. He’s also a good straight-line route-runner who would excel as a deep threat on a team with a big, strong QB who can rocket the ball down the field to him.

Well, that team is Indianapolis, and that QB is Richardson. If he has a deep threat like Brown, it will open bigger windows underneath for his other talented pass-catchers, which should help with his accuracy. Also, as we’ve seen with somewhat inaccurate QBs like Lamar Jackson, chucking it downfield can sometimes be the best option.

Brown is on the fifth-year option of his first-round rookie deal, which will pay him $13.4 million this season, which isn’t terrible for the Colts in the 2023 season. He’s a free agent after this season, so ultimately, this is a low-risk, high-reward move for Indy.

If the Colts trade for Brown before Week 1 of the 2023 season, it would be a huge move to help their rookie signal-caller and could help them compete in the AFC South. With the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans in the division, it’s not out of the question for the Colts to put up a real fight, especially with the overall strength of their roster (Jonathan Taylor drama notwithstanding).