Anthony Richardson Player's Tribune article: "Dear NFL GM's"

See below. Care to elaborate?

 

That's not a question, though. Me elaborating won't change the trajectory of this discussion, the narratives for each Gator player are already set in stone and there's no changing them.

 

What?

OK, you got me, you didn't ask a question. But clearly you're alluding to something other than what I suggested. If your theory is different than mine, I would love to hear it.

 

We’ve had plenty of winning records with QBs way

He was good, not great. He has the potential to be an All Pro. So on that basis he underachieved. That is fair to say. But we shouldn’t blame the underachievement on made up character flaws. There are tangible things. AR is inexperienced. AR is inconsistent on short passes. Napiers passing offense is antiquated. Those things are real. Saying “he didn’t try” is just made up.

 

We’ve had players that overachieved, stayed longer, and won. Of course the staying longer is at part a function of not being major NFL material.

I don’t expect AR to be loved. He was our 2nd best QB in 14 years in an era of awful QB play, he started 1 year, was just “good” and won nothing. He won’t be in Gator lore. But that doesn’t mean we should personally attack the guy.

In a different world he starts 2 years with a better team around him…the experience helps hit his potential, and we win a title.

Unfortunately we had a checked out Mullen and an awful team around him.

 

AR is gifted athletically. He's NOT a QB. Yes, he's occupied the position, but doing so does not make a QB. Save me the great game stats. Great QB's have horrible games and horrible QB's sometimes succeed despite themselves.

 

So then you think your guy, Hooker, should be drafted higher than AR?

 

I agree. I'm just explaining why many opinions and criticisms of Richardson are justified. Trying to defend AR by comparing him to Trask or Tebow or whoever is silly. "Fans wouldn't say THAT about Tebow!" Yeah, no shit they wouldn't.

 

Tebow won the heisman as a true sophmores and he wasn’t an nfl qb so much. we would’ve had a winning record if he just beat Vanderbilt and Kentucky and that’s still nothing to brag about at all winning eight games at Florida is a failure. I realize it’s not his fault that our defense was terrible but we still should’ve been able to win a couple more games.
I don’t really count the 30th ranked quarterback in college as a good quarterback. That’s an average SEC quarterback so I would say he’s play on the field was average., not bad not good.

 

AR singlehandedly lost the UK game. He threw two interceptions that were horrific.

 

My guys play in orange and blue. I'm 80% Gators and 20% Volunteer.
I've never cheered against my Gators against ANYONE!

Having said that, yes I'd draft Hooker over AR. In fact, I'd not draft AR. In my opinion, AR has BUST written all over him. For perspective, I said the same thing about Heath Shuler back in 1993.

 

If not for Hookers injury, I’d say his floor is already much higher.

 

Well, bless your heart then because I admit I couldn't do it. I tend to agree with your assessment of AR but I'm almost positive we'll be proven wrong on April 27th. BTW, not that I wouldn't draft him but it would be Round 2.

I agree with this about the floor but from what I've read they look as much, if not more, at the ceiling (which I don't see how can be measured with just a single year as a starter). As between the first 2 this year they're looking at the floor but after that it's the ceiling? LOL!

 

It really hurts to say this....but man if John Reaves had just been able to stay off the nose candy

 

Problem is how many players did we have that were top 30-40 at their position?

On O: AR, Torrence, the combined RBs, and who? You can debate the entire OL being top 30. WRs and TEs won’t remotely close

On D: Dexter then who else? Maybe a couple guys are close

So while AR wasn’t good enough he wasn’t close to our main problems. It’s a lot tougher to go from top 30-40 to top 5 then 100th to 30th.

 

Ceiling is far more important….and even more at QB. A decent floor can lock you in QB purgatory.

AR being great or a bust is a strong proposition for a team as the odds of being “stuck” is low

Hooker may have a capable backup floor vs AR being out of the league in 3 years…but any team can sign a capable backup at anytime.

 

The people who initially invoked Trask and Tebow’s name in this thread and in other threads about AR don’t do it to defend AR. I mean, how many different times do we need to be reminded that AR isn’t Tebow or Trask

 

Not many. Yet for some reason, folks are absolutely flabbergasted that a team that was painfully average at just about every position only managed to win 6 games.

 

We sucked and we weren’t even ranked. The team as a whole was just bad. He was definitely one of our best players but we were historically bad.

 

Hooker is definitely not locked into being a backup. The kid has a shot to be good.