Pretty decent assessment of Anthony Richardson as an NFL prospect - the good and the bad.

There was nothing wrong with his protection this past year. He will not have the time to throw in the NFL that he had at UF.

 

Don't think that can ever be stated better.

 

There were 3-5 plays a game where he’d roll out and the edge would immediately be in his face

 

I’m not sure I’ve read where anyone thinks he goes in the third round. I wouldn’t pick him in the first round but I know a team will.

 

You don’t see it because he’s never done it. Teams are just hoping he can develop those skills which hardly ever happens.

 

Nfl is much quicker reads and those guys aren’t nearly as easy to get away from.

 

And? Make the read and throw the ball. Immediately would be less than 2 seconds…..if the D is bringing more than 5 you better know where to go with the ball quickly.

 

More like 3 to 5 times per series

 

Richardson will be a bust and I hate saying that because he's a great young man. If I had the power to do it, I would have a scoring system for scouts like Mel Kiper so that when the next AR says "Mel Kiper said I'm a 1st rounder", yet his track record shows he's wrong 70% of the time, that the player can choose to ignore Kiper. The fact is Kiper is wrong on almost all "project" players. For a team like Detroit to waste a precious 1st round pick on AR just means they will be picking the 1st player again next year. The best teams don't draft "project" players or else San Fran would pick AR. You won't see any of the top tier teams even look at AR until he's 3rd round. Look at Purdy, he was the last pick in the draft and he's a gem. That's why teams like San Fran are successful and why teams like Detroit couldn't beat UAB.

My worry is how inflated AR's head is getting until he sees the NFL defenses for the first time. He's too slow to read the defense, he's too slow in outrunning most of the NFL edge rushers, and worse, he's injury-prone.

 

It was instant. Untouched and AR would be rolling into him. Literally nothing he can do besides try to juke the guy out

it’s also why our running game was so effective

 

San Fran traded up and and used a high draft pick on Lance. Given where he was taken and what they gave up that is easily the biggest gamble on a project in decades

So bad example lol

 

I don't know what will happen with Richardson's career. It depends on his willingness to do the work.

He will be drafted very high, most likely top 10 of the first round.

Teams that have a QB need don't want to look back and say that they could have had this guy, especially if he turns into another Mahomes.

 

I'll add that the bitterness that many have here towards Richardson has everything to do with his immense physical talent.

We, as fans, were teased by this talent, but never got to enjoy team success with him.

So we are mad and hope he bombs, so we can say we told you so.

 

Well, he's got a good arm...

 

It's more than that. And frankly by the time he bombs, if he does, no one will remember who was a raving fanboy and who was a hater.
No one will remember who said what- we will be on to the next thing. That will be years away.

I could list a lot of reasons for the negativity, but the top one is simply he treated UF as a minor league team with no care toward us.
And obviously he let us down many times on the field- too many to name here.

The experts said he should stay another year, but he didn't. It was all about "take the money and run."
And my goodness- he could have at least played the bowl game like Bryce Young did, but he couldn't even be bothered to do that.
Especially once Kitna was out.

So there's many reasons- but the top one is his indifference to UF.

 

He needs this payday, because there is a high probability that there is nothing else behind it. (Although he could probably be a TE)

 

I haven't seen many rooting against him. I agree there is a strange disconnect between him and Gator fans and Distant Gator pointed out why above. I will never fault a kid for taking the money that is there. Life is hard. Money makes it easier despite the popular narrative that it doesn't. I haven't read or heard one bad thing about the kids character so I wish him success and hope he stays grounded regardless. I do feel some frustration in that he could benefit greatly by staying another year and that more proven players have made that decision for us as well as other teams in the past. Would have been nice to see the hometown kid bring some success to the orange and blue but oh well.

 

I hope the best for him. That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t see his ability as a qb. He’s a very gifted athlete trying to develop as an elite qb. I for the life of me saw no development this year for whatever reason. I’m surprised Hurts has gotten as good as he has. He still no Mahomes by any means but he is still getting better. Hurts was a better passer than AR though when he was at Bama the first year he played. It’s not hating on AR to not see him as a guy that can lead an offense. He’s simply not that guy yet.

 

Sorry, but this take is too harsh. While it is plausible, to me what he is afflicted with is "Kwame Brown Disease." He has some mad skills and a whole lot of "advisers" but not enough self awareness or grit. His play wasn't so much "but if I run, I may get hurt", it just that his innate skill only got him to one level whereas a Travis takes his game to another level. What he never did was to get pissed at what was happening and get determined to overcome it. Methinks that was THE reason why Mullen played Jones over him.

To me, his bad throws, his lack of recognizing what is in front of him defensively (see Hurts' play) are definitely red flags in the NFL, but his not taking things personally and striving to get to a higher level is damning as h_ll. NO ONE can survive in the NFL with that take. And it is triply so at the QB level.

The only thing that makes sense in what is happening is that his "advisers" have placed a HUGE bet that one or two GMs today are SO desperate for a buzz draft that they will sign him in Round 1 or 2. And then they live off his guaranteed money. We shall see whether that is where they are or they have finally gotten smarter.

 

This is why many of us defend AR. He obviously had a weaker than expected year in 2022.

Despite the people that ONLY look at passing stats it was still a good year given all his rushing. His total QBR was the highest out of any Florida QB since Tim Tebow (excluding Trask). So that puts him as the 2nd best QB in 13 years. It still isn't good enough but he wasn't close to the disaster people make it out to be.

Now I do get the "better in NFL than in college" gripe. It happens to a lot of schools though. We've just been lucky with it. But now it is starting to bite us. Even someone like Pierce will be a better pro than college player

But the real reason someone like myself defends AR is due to comments like "he treated UF as a minor league team with no care towards us". WTF is that about. Why the personal attacks? Is there ANY evidence of that? It isn't like he sat out with minor injuries. It isn't like he shied away from contact. He gave it his all. People mention that because 1) the NFL thinks he has potential 2) they wish he ran more. But his reads were actually quite good in the run game and he ran as much as ANY Napier QB has. Napier is far less of a running QB guy than Mullen.

When people (and this forum) allows open bashing of the character of a Gator player who only showed 100% love for his team and our fans then I certainly will stand up and defend him.