Jump to content

Anthony Richardson is the best pro QB prospect in college football right now regardless of class...


VanS

Recommended Posts

And I don't think it's even close.

No player has jumped off the screen to start this college football season in my eyes more than Florida Redshirt Freshman QB Anthony Richardson.  I could care less about his eye popping numbers thus far.  Ya'll know I'm all about a prospect's physical tools.  And this guy passes the eye test like no other.  I was having a hard time thinking of a proper NFL comp for him.  At first I thought of Cam Newton (like everyone else).  But Richardson's passing mechanics honestly look more refined than Cam's when he was at Auburn.  Then the perfect comp hit me.

Anthony Richardson = Daunte Culpepper 

He has similar size and athleticism to Culpepper.  And more importantly they have similar throwing mechanics and arm talent.  Hopefully Richardson can stay healthy and fulfill the superstar potential Culpepper flashed.

Anthony Richardson should be the 1st overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's impossible to deny the talent. He's a freak of nature. We'll see how he looks as a passer when forced to do more and how he grows. He certainly has the potential to be the #1 overall pick. I just hope Mullen starts him when he's healthy. But I'm not really liking the Daunte Culpepper comparison. Richardson is a better runner than Culpepper was. What's really crazy is that he has been top 5 in the NCAA in max speed (measured by mph) in each of the first two weeks.

He runs like Cam Newton. It's hard to offer a passing comparison right now because of how little he's thrown the ball.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mullen makes some head scratching decisions re: qbs.  Trask was having a Heisman worthy campaign last year, yet Mullen would still insert Jones for the odd series.  I didn’t agree with it, but I could at least understand the logic of inserting a much more mobile qb as a change-up for defenses to worry about.

This year, it makes zero sense.  Jones doesn’t do a single thing better than Richardson. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Richardson could be fun to watch but he did all of that against a pretty awful USF team.  Will see what Richardson does against the best defense in college football this week with or without Will Anderson.

 

Speaking of Will Anderson, based on how dominating he has looked he might be up for that top spot in 2023, and behind him are Bryan Bresee, Bijan Robinson, Michael Mayer, and Bryce Young.  Could also throw DJ Uiagalelei, Eli Ricks and Myles Murphy in that mix as well.  Bryce Young to me has been wildly impressive with his quickness and solid footwork in the pocket, decisive accurate throws.  Looks like a different player than he did last year.

 

PS Dante Culpepper sucked as a pro, he was a walking turnover and honestly a pretty damn big disappointment.  So not sure he is the bar for anything, he is tied for most fumbles in a single season in NFL history and in 82 games for the Vikings fumbled 81 times.  

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

PS Dante Culpepper sucked as a pro, he was a walking turnover and honestly a pretty damn big disappointment.  So not sure he is the bar for anything, he is tied for most fumbles in a single season in NFL history and in 82 games for the Vikings fumbled 81 times.

bzaflp0rp3bmcdh6noxn.gif

Edited by THE DUKE
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Richardson could be fun to watch but he did all of that against a pretty awful USF team. 

Doesn't change the freakishness of what he was doing. Same thing with the FAU game. He's a monster athletic talent. The question is the passing side of the game. But he has at least shown a strong arm, touch, and some deep accuracy.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, jrry32 said:

It's impossible to deny the talent. He's a freak of nature. We'll see how he looks as a passer when forced to do more and how he grows. He certainly has the potential to be the #1 overall pick. I just hope Mullen starts him when he's healthy. But I'm not really liking the Daunte Culpepper comparison. Richardson is a better runner than Culpepper was. What's really crazy is that he has been top 5 in the NCAA in max speed (measured by mph) in each of the first two weeks.

He runs like Cam Newton. It's hard to offer a passing comparison right now because of how little he's thrown the ball.

Go and look up Culpepper's testing numbers at the combine.   At 255 lbs he ran 4.52 in the 40 with a 39 inch vertical leap.  You'll be hard-pressed to find freakier testing numbers in NFL history at the QB position.  Just because Culpepper didn't run much in the NFL doesn't mean he couldn't.   He just had Moss and Cris Carter to throw to.  Then he got hurt which robbed him of his peak ability. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Ozzy said:

PS Dante Culpepper sucked as a pro, he was a walking turnover and honestly a pretty damn big disappointment.  So not sure he is the bar for anything, he is tied for most fumbles in a single season in NFL history and in 82 games for the Vikings fumbled 81 times.  

In his first year as a starter Culpepper was named 1st team All-Pro.  He threw for 3900 yards and 33 TDs.  Numbers that seem average today but were ELITE in the year 2000.  Sure he had a couple of down years after that but he rebounded nicely in 2003 and 2004 with back to back Pro Bowl seasons (including being named 2nd team All-Pro in 2004).  Then he had that devastating knee injury which made him a shell of his former self.  Go back and look up Peyton Manning and Tom Brady's numbers during that Era.  Culpepper compared very favorably to them.  Great QBs having down years statistically was more common back then.  So to me Culpepper not being elite in 2001 and 2002 doesn't take away from the fact he was elite in his 3 other seasons as a starter before the knee injury.

Daunte Culpepper was a GREAT QB when he was healthy.  It's just unfortunate he was only healthy for 5 seasons as a starter. 

Edited by VanS
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, VanS said:

Go and look up Culpepper's testing numbers at the combine.   At 255 lbs he ran 4.52 in the 40 with a 39 inch vertical leap.  You'll be hard-pressed to find freakier testing numbers in NFL history at the QB position.  Just because Culpepper didn't run much in the NFL doesn't mean he couldn't.   He just had Moss and Cris Carter to throw to.  Then he got hurt which robbed him of his peak ability. 

I'm not doubting that Culpepper tested well, but he wasn't a great runner in college and didn't do a ton of it in the NFL, outside of 2002. Richardson is a very natural runner, and it's going to be a big part of his game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

Nothing wrong with shooting your shot. It's a small sample, but he is a freak. 

I am fully in on the Anthony Richardson hype train, I just think it's a little early to proclaim he's the GOAT prospect when we have hardly seen him play. In the NCAA football thread I said this week could be a potential Heisman moment for him against Alabama.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, jrry32 said:

Doesn't change the freakishness of what he was doing. Same thing with the FAU game. He's a monster athletic talent. The question is the passing side of the game. But he has at least shown a strong arm, touch, and some deep accuracy.

Promise is one thing but to me he has to show a hell of a lot more before I call him the #1 pick in the 2023 draft.  Will see how he looks against the #1 defense in college football this weekend like I said.  

 

7 hours ago, VanS said:

In his first year as a starter Culpepper was named 1st team All-Pro.  He threw for 3900 yards and 33 TDs.  Numbers that seem average today but were ELITE in the year 2000.  Sure he had a couple of down years after that but he rebounded nicely in 2003 and 2004 with back to back Pro Bowl seasons (including being named 2nd team All-Pro in 2004).  Then he had that devastating knee injury which made him a shell of his former self.  Go back and look up Peyton Manning and Tom Brady's numbers during that Era.  Culpepper compared very favorably to them.  Great QBs having down years statistically was more common back then.  So to me Culpepper not being elite in 2001 and 2002 doesn't take away from the fact he was elite in his 3 other seasons as a starter before the knee injury.

Daunte Culpepper was a GREAT QB when he was healthy.  It's just unfortunate he was only healthy for 5 seasons as a starter. 

He was a walking turnover, sure before teams knew how to handle him he was successful but once teams got the book on him he was far less effective.

 

Sure he had injuries but again he was a damn walking turnover, watch ever Viking game in his career, the dude made a crap ton of mistakes in the pocket and with the ball throwing.  Not sure if it was his little hands or what, but he got stripped all the time and honestly was not that great of a runner because he could not handle holding onto the ball when being tackled more often than not.

But sure he had success as a player but I would not call him a great QB at all and no way is he a Hall of Fame QB either.  He only had what 5 good years, yeah Josh Freeman had four solid years, three where anywhere from 3500 yards to 4000 yards passing.  No one now is calling him some great QB because it simply did not last same with Daunte.

 

But honestly Richardson would be lucky to have the slightly above average performance as a QB in the NFL for a short time Daunte had.  So yeah I need to see a hell of a lot more from him that is for sure.  TJ Finley is a big strong kid with a ton of athletic potential and upside as well, no one is calling him a #1 overall pick, and Finley has far more proven production in college than Richardson has, granted he was nothing great but so far same with Richardson outside of what he did against USF.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...