INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts insisted they were not giving up on quarterback Anthony Richardson when the former first-round pick was benched last week.

The franchise put action — or, in this case, inaction — behind its words at Tuesday’s NFL trading deadline.

Despite reportedly receiving several offers for the 22-year-old, Indianapolis made it clear Richardson was not available.

The private stance from the organization has been it failed Richardson by putting him on the field too soon, and the Colts now want to allow the quarterback to develop behind the scenes and away from the weekly pressure to perform on the field.

Publicly, they’ve continued to laud his tremendous potential.

“He’s working on improving a ton of different sort of areas,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said Tuesday during his weekly video conference call. “That’s the nature of being a young quarterback in this league is when you play ball, you find out different things to work on. You find out different areas of your game. He’s being diligent about working on those.

“Last week was a good week of work. He’s got to keep putting that work in. We’re able to do that within the practice structure. Getting reps, working individual, throwing the ball to the receivers, all the stuff that quarterbacks do. We’re working on all sorts of stuff. I don’t want to pinpoint one or two — sort of put anything out there. We’re just working on getting better — all of us. Anthony’s right there with us, and we’re working behind the scenes on that right now.”

Meanwhile, Joe Flacco remains the starter as the team focuses on making its first playoff appearance since 2020.

The postseason push did not start well last week with a 21-13 road loss against the Minnesota Vikings.

Flacco finished 16-of-27 for 179 yards with an interception and a fumble, and the offense failed to score a touchdown while compiling a season-low 227 yards.

Indianapolis (4-5) squares off against the Buffalo Bills (7-2), New York Jets (3-6) and Detroit Lions (7-1) over the next three weeks.

The Colts still believe Flacco’s wealth of experience gives them the best chance to win.

“Joe has played a bunch of good ball in this league for a long time,” Cooter said. “He’s delivered the ball in a bunch of different big spots, big areas, tough pockets — able to sort of push the ball down the field when needed, sort of press the edges of the defense and sort of work through progressions when asked for.

“So he’s been a really good quarterback in this league for a long time, sort of doing all those things, all those quarterback traits of finding those completions and creating explosives and all those type of things.”

Head coach Shane Steichen was non-committal last week when asked if he’d consider using both quarterbacks in games, with Richardson having a special package likely for short-yardage or goal-line situations.

Steichen just smiled and praised Richardson’s unique talents.

Flacco was the only quarterback who played at Minnesota, but the Indianapolis offense never reached the red zone — leaving the possibility at least potentially open ended.

“People have done it,” Cooter said of using a two-quarterback system. “It’s existed in the league, in college football, all that over the years. I mean, there’s a bunch of different ways to go play ball, so I can’t recall a certain experience I’ve had with it. So I don’t think I’d consider myself an expert in that category, but people have done it sort of different ways over the years.”

TRANSACTIONS

The Colts placed center Ryan Kelly on injured reserve Tuesday and claimed safety Darren Hall off waivers from the Arizona Cardinals.

Kelly has started seven games this year but has struggled with calf and neck injuries. Rookie Tanor Bortolini filled in for the other two starts and is likely to be called upon again with Kelly out for at least the next four weeks.

Indianapolis has surrendered eight combined sacks during its two-game losing streak, and the run game averaged just 3.6 yards on 19 carries against the Vikings’ second-ranked rushing defense.

Depending on the status of left tackle Bernhard Raimann (concussion), the Colts could start three rookies on the offensive line this week — Bortolini, right guard Dalton Tucker and left tackle Matt Goncalves.

Hall was a fourth-round pick by the Atlanta Falcons out of San Diego State in 2021.

The 24-year-old has 10 starts and 35 appearances over three seasons with the Falcons and Cardinals and was previously signed to the Colts’ practice squad last season.

He’s also played cornerback and special teams.