Anthony Richardson’s NFL Draft status is up in the air
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Anthony Richardson chuckled as the football clattered to the floor.
He had launched a high arc pass toward the end of the University of Florida’s pro day, a March workout for scouts from all 32 NFL teams, but the ball bounced off the ceiling of the practice facility instead of in his arms. recipient. The swell may have missed its mark, but it showed off Richardson’s powerful arm during the audition for the job.
“You always have to find joy and happiness in every situation, so I just wanted to joke about it and laugh about it,” 20-year-old Richardson said in a phone interview this month.
The display included the scouting report on Richardson, who is projected as a top-10 selection in the NFL draft: overwhelming talent, deployed erratically. The combination earned him the dreaded “project” label, a euphemism scouts dish out to athletic quarterbacks who are expected to need help determining how to lead an NFL offense.
The label has previously pursued quarterbacks, players who, like Richardson, displayed intriguing talent but whose college careers didn’t exactly inspire the scouts’ confidence that they would be immediately successful as pros. Trey Lance answered questions about the quality of the competition and lack of starts before the San Francisco 49ers made him the third quarterback selected in the 2021 draft. Malik Willis faced similar criticism when he came out of Liberty in 2022 when he slipped to the third round of the Tennessee Titans.
While the “project” label stuck to future Pro Bowl passers like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen in 2018, it may land on black quarterbacks more often.
“That kind of language inadvertently plays on an inhumane logic,” said Ben Carrington, a sports sociologist and professor at the University of Southern California. hampered by the racist beliefs of white team owners and coaches that they could not comprehend the technical elements of the position.
“It also kind of undermines the athletes’ freedom of choice to be in control of their own destiny,” he said.
Before being tested by an NFL defense, Richardson must first face that label.
“A lot of people say I have a ‘high ceiling,’ but if I don’t work at it, I won’t reach that ceiling,” said Richardson. “If I don’t put the work in, none of this matters.”
He finished his training with his signature backflipeffortlessly launching his six-foot frame into the air, as he had done during game-day warmups during his lone season as a Florida starter, completing only 53.8 percent of his passes as the Gators 6-7.
Prior to pro day, Richardson ran the 40-yard sprint in 4.43 seconds on the scouting combination—the fourth-fastest time recorded by a quarterback since 2006—and had the highest vertical jump (40.5 inches) since 2003, a further captivating NFL decision makers.
“There are plays and pitches all over the tape screaming best pick,” said Frank Reich, the Carolina Panthers coach, who is expected to take a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick. “Obviously his completion rate is lower than you want at this level. But I don’t get too discouraged by things like that. I see a lot of positives.”
A two-game spell last season exemplified the highs and lows of Richardson’s on-field performance to date.
After Florida’s 29-26 win against Utah in the season opener, the typically introverted Richardson smiled broadly as he discussed the win with reporters. His three rushing touchdowns, 274 total yards and acrobatic 2-point conversion – he pumped and spun past two defenders before throwing a pass into the end zone – Richardson excitedly answered their postgame questions in his signature low voice.
A week later, after Richardson threw two costly interceptions in Florida’s 26–16 loss to Kentucky, he approached the podium as if suppressed. He later told those closest to him that the drastic emotional swing between games affected his confidence.
“I didn’t realize how stressful it would be to be a starting quarterback for such a big college,” Richardson said in an interview. “I thought it would be like it always has been for me, like in high school or Little League, where I could handle it. But I realized I couldn’t do it alone.”
Richardson was a latecomer to high-pressure football, having flip-flopped at receiver and quarterback early in his freshman season at Eastside High School in Gainesville, having not had a winning season since 2008. to 6,266 total yards and 78 touchdowns during his high school career, but played in only one playoff game.
Richardson balanced football and basketball practice with caring for his brother, Corey Carter, 13, after school, while his mother, LaShawnda Cleare, juggled three jobs at times. Richardson rarely complained and said his mother’s situation instilled a strong work ethic in him.
Even then, Richardson’s dazzling talent caught the attention of coaches. He began training with Denny Thompson, a private quarterback coach, after Richardson’s high school coach marked the teen in 10th grade. Thompson said he only had to see Richardson throw three passes in a public park to know “here’s something special”.
But Thompson said he didn’t realize how much pressure Richardson had put on until after that loss to Kentucky. He then saw Richardson play catch with a group of kids in a parking lot at Gainesville’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, long after the cars had moved. The next day, the quarterback called Thompson to air. He apologized for his poor performance as he felt he had let down those who supported him.
“It hit me, ‘Wow, this guy plays for a lot of people,'” Thompson said. “He cares about a lot of people, especially the ones he trusts, and I think there was a lot of disappointment in himself.”
Richardson was recruited to Florida by Dan Mullen, who was fired as coach during the 2021 season, and Brian Johnson, the offensive coordinator, who joined the Philadelphia Eagles staff in 2021. Billy Napier took over as Florida’s coach in 2022, and he and Richardson embarked on a new offensive system that the quarterback said grew comfortable as the year progressed.
“I sometimes think from a quarterback’s perspective that you get too much credit and you get too much blame,” Napier said. “I think his experience was a bit of a microcosm of our team’s experience.”
Florida offensive lineman O’Cyrus Torrence said that despite the turmoil, Richardson was usually in good spirits in the locker room and commanded respect in the group.
“He never sounded nervous or anxious, he was just calm and moody, but he was assertive in what he said,” Torrence said.
With potentially six NFL teams needing quarterbacks at the top of this year’s draft, which kicks off Thursday in Kansas City, Mo. In December, he announced that he was leaving school.
Focusing on his football future, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to train at Thompson’s gym under another quarterback coach, Will Hewlett; Thompson; and Tom Gormely, an exercise scientist and owner of the Tork Sports Performance facility in nearby St. Augustine. Gormely focused on the aggregate test numbers of NFL quarterbacks similar in size and athleticism to Richardson — guys like Cam Newton and Jalen Hurts — and Richardson focused on improving his data.
Knowing that those numbers alone wouldn’t satisfy football executives whose jobs depend on successfully betting on a player’s insight, the coaches also had Richardson work on his accuracy with throwing sessions on at least four days a week. Together they tackled problematic aspects of his throwing motion – mainly balancing him on both feet when he throws and achieving proper alignment in his upper and lower body when his torso rotates.
The boredom made Richardson nervous at times. Hewlett recalled a day in January when Richardson worked breaking out routes from 40 to 60 feet. The quarterback’s hips and footwork were misaligned and the ball kept going wide of the target. from Richardson facial expression and discomfort showed he was annoyed, so Hewlett ended the session early.
Hewlett and Richardson had no previous working relationship, and the quarterback didn’t engage in much small talk during their early filming sessions. But two things helped Richardson trust the process.
First, Hewlett came to the next day’s session and helped Richardson with how to distribute his weight when he relapsed. It fixed the quarterback’s throws.
“From that point on, when it was time to make a correction, if it didn’t work right away, he was much more confident in fixing things,” Hewlett said.
Second, the team of trainers gave Richardson a warm-up routine that required him to make deep passes early because Gormely saw that once Richardson’s arm was loose, he would make short passes with less speed and more touch. Given his strength, they expected Richardson to overshoot a receiver during his daily practice, but they told him not to hesitate and to let go of his arm.
“We knew with that ball the goal was to get his arm to eat, and it happened to hit the top of the roof because it was too small for him,” Gormely said.
Richardson completed his formal draft preparation process after Florida’s pro day and spent April traversing the country visiting NFL team buyers at their facilities. Throughout the draft cycle, Richardson was considered one of the top four quarterbacks, along with Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s CJ Stroud, and Kentucky’s Will Levis. All four are expected to be chosen in the first round.
Each of those prospects is also determined by conjecture. At 5-10, Young’s height has raised questions about his effectiveness. Rumors that Stroud performed poorly on the league’s standardized cognitive test, the S2, have been circulating in recent weeks. Levis, 23, is marked for being older than the others.
Daniel Jeremiah, a former scout for the Eagles, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens and an analyst for NFL Network, said the idea that Richardson might be just scratching the surface of his potential would fuel teams’ interest in him.
“It’s like a lottery,” Jeremiah said in an interview. “It’s like, ‘Okay, let’s kind of swing up to the fences on the high top and see if we can do it.'”
But that philosophy can vary depending on the team’s championship and the staff’s relationship with the owner. Reich said at the owners’ meeting that each team values what it considers most important in a quarterback — such as size, college career or skills — and should factor it into its risk tolerance.
“Each team evaluates the same 10 things, but how do you evaluate those 10 things and, more importantly, how do you weigh those 10 things?” Reich said. “Every team is going to weigh that differently.”
However, Richardson is already beginning to show talent for exceeding expected trajectories.