The Anthony Richardson Thread

[brownie man]

He’ll probably be the most polarizing player in the draft. 
 

Kid reminds me of Cam Newton in some ways, Mahomes, Josh Allen, Caleb Williams. 
 

I think he’s on that talent level, but he’s raw. He’s going to have to sit. 
 

Detroit is the sneaky team I think will draft him. They can afford to have him sit and develop him. They’re going to have a top 8 pick most likely and I could definitely see them drafting him. 
 

What’s the communities general thoughts on Richardson? 

[jrry32]

He's a hand grenade. Could be a lethal weapon to use against your opponents. Could blow up in your face. As a UF fan, I was not happy with him this year, and his tendency to fall apart mentally when dealing with adversity would scare the hell out of me if I was the team drafting him.

[Daniel]

5 hours ago, brownie man said:

What’s the communities general thoughts on Richardson? 

Hard to say where he goes in the draft.  If the NFL really is drinking the Levis Kool-aid, then he may not go in the first.  I'd be uncomfortable spending a first round pick on him, but the upside is tremendous, and he's very young and early in his playing career.  A team like the Jets taking him would be throwing away the pick.  But a team with a QB developer taking him would be a great grab.

NFL teams have been really, really inconsistent on how they value raw, upside QBs in the last few years.  Jordan Love was a first, and then Zach Wilson and Trey Lance went 2 and 3, but then last year, Malik Willis only went in the mid third, despite the QB class being awful.

I think Richardson goes much higher than Willis, but I don't know if a team moves back up into the first for him.

[Scoundrel]

Lions would be great. Someone who could actually lead Jameson Williams on the deep ball

[Mox]

I think he sucks. 

Which means he's probably going to pan out.

[HerbertGOAT]

He's ridiculously good when he doesn't suck.

I wouldn't draft him. But I have much more faith in him than Will Levis.

[tyler735]

As some have mentioned, I’d take him over Levis, but I wouldn’t touch him as an early 1st round pick. I initially thought he was going to have to make a position change at the next level (he still might), but as the season went on he did show some improvement.
 

Wish he would have gone back another year to keep getting valuable game time to potentially take that next step as a passer. As it stands, I think the highest he “should” go is late first (only because of the value of a 5th year option), but I’d say he is more of a day 2 prospect with what he has shown so far. 

[tyler735]

1 hour ago, Scoundrel said:

Lions would be great. Someone who could actually lead Jameson Williams on the deep ball

The Lions are an interesting team right now. They have an abundance of draft capital, have a solid core of young talent, and a QB that has shown he can be a fringe top 10 guy at times in his career. They also have been playing really well as of late. I get the appeal of taking a QB, but wouldn’t be shocked if they grabbed some studs on the defensive side of the ball and kept Goff as their starter (if these next few games go well).

[Scoundrel]

2 minutes ago, tyler735 said:

The Lions are an interesting team right now. They have an abundance of draft capital, have a solid core of young talent, and a QB that has shown he can be a fringe top 10 guy at times in his career. They also have been playing really well as of late. I get the appeal of taking a QB, but wouldn’t be shocked if they grabbed some studs on the defensive side of the ball and kept Goff as their starter (if these next few games go well).

This is more just for me selfishly as a Jameson Williams dynasty owner. He dusted DJ Reed yesterday (may have gotten away with a push off) and Goff under threw the ball and it was a pass deflection instead of what should have been an easy TD.

[armsteeld]

What are his strengths? What are his weaknesses? What scheme best fits him? In terms of accuracy, where does he struggle? How is his pocket awareness? Does he play within the system? These are some questions I'd like for you guys to answer. Thanks!

[Superduperman]

I still think he made a bad decision coming out. even if the gets drafted high, his chances of having a NFL career are less, imo, than if he stayed for more time to develop.

I wouldn't be totally against the Lions taking him with their lower second-round pick from Minnesota. Before that would be a mistake and I don't think the Lions will do it.

[Ozzy]

There is the fact that Florida just lost to Oregon State 30-3, so that team is not very good and the weapons around him mostly the WR group is pretty awful, the TEs are average but maybe not even that at the RBs are just ok, the OL is just ok as well nothing great.  Compare that to say CJ Stroud who has 1st round picks at the WR group, OL group and the RB group.  Florida has no 1st round picks at any of those spots, maybe Torrance will be a 2nd rounder possibly but no way any receiver or TE or RB is a 1st round talent on that team.

So that does make Richardson look potentially worse than he is, if surrounded with more talent he could be a better player like any QB would be.  Sit him a year or two and he could be a very promising talent and in terms of being an athlete combined with arm strength, he is as good as anyone in the draft.

4 of the top 22 rushers in terms of yards in the NFL this year are QBs so running from the QB position is becoming increasingly important.  

[jrry32]

15 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

There is the fact that Florida just lost to Oregon State 30-3, so that team is not very good and the weapons around him mostly the WR group is pretty awful, the TEs are average but maybe not even that at the RBs are just ok, the OL is just ok as well nothing great.  Compare that to say CJ Stroud who has 1st round picks at the WR group, OL group and the RB group.  Florida has no 1st round picks at any of those spots, maybe Torrance will be a 2nd rounder possibly but no way any receiver or TE or RB is a 1st round talent on that team.

So that does make Richardson look potentially worse than he is, if surrounded with more talent he could be a better player like any QB would be.  Sit him a year or two and he could be a very promising talent and in terms of being an athlete combined with arm strength, he is as good as anyone in the draft.

4 of the top 22 rushers in terms of yards in the NFL this year are QBs so running from the QB position is becoming increasingly important.  

The TEs are terrible, the WRs are mediocre at best (Pearsall is the only good one, and he is a fringe draft pick), the OL was very good, and the HBs were very good. The Gators defense is terrible. The Gators got dusted by Oregon State because most of their top players sat the bowl game out and they had to start their third-string QB who was a complete disaster (which allowed Oregon State to stack the box and take away the running game). That all said, none of those deficiencies made Richardson's accuracy be so terribly erratic this year, nor did it make him into such a streaky player.

2 hours ago, armsteeld said:

What are his strengths? What are his weaknesses? What scheme best fits him? In terms of accuracy, where does he struggle? How is his pocket awareness? Does he play within the system? These are some questions I'd like for you guys to answer. Thanks!

6'4" 235+ with 4.5 speed, an absolute cannon for an arm, and good character are his strengths. His weaknesses are durability, consistency, accuracy, mental processing, situational awareness, and mental toughness. What scheme fits him best? Assuming he'll actually be willing to run more consistently in the NFL, an offense that will use his legs as a primary weapon (like Baltimore's or Chicago's do with their QBs). He struggles everywhere in terms of accuracy. It comes and go. He's particularly bad at throwing short in-breaking routes (due to a combination of a lack of touch and erratic ball placement). Pocket awareness is actually good. Does he play within the system? Maybe too much. He refused to improvise and run the way a guy like him should this year.

Edited December 19, 2022 by jrry32

[-Hope-]

On 12/19/2022 at 4:37 PM, jrry32 said:

He refused to improvise and run the way a guy like him should this year.

i only watched him i think 3 times this year but i was kind of shocked by this. there were of course highlights here and there, but idk, it felt like he should have been way better at creating behind the LOS than he was. is it him being coached a certain way, or is he just not that instinctual about it? watching the FSU game with jordan travis on the other side of the ball it was like night and day in that regard.

Edited December 21, 2022 by -Hope-

[jrry32]

19 minutes ago, -Hope- said:

i only watched him i think 3 times this year but i was kind of shocked by this. there were of course highlights here and there, but idk, it felt like he should have been way better at creating behind the LOS than he was. is it him being coached a certain way, or is he just not that instinctual about it? watching the FSU game with jordan travis on the other side of the ball it was like night and day in that regard.

I don't know. I've heard from some folks that the staff didn't want him getting injured. I heard from others that he was protecting himself for the NFL. All I know is he passed up a lot of open lanes this year to try and be a pocket passer. And he's not a pocket passer.