Anthony Richardson’s N.F.L. Draft Status Is Up in the Air
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Anthony Richardson chuckled as the football puttered to the ground.
He had launched a high-arcing pass near the end of the University of Florida’s pro day, a March workout in front of scouts from all 32 N.F.L. teams, but the ball crashed into the ceiling of the practice facility instead of into his receiver’s arms. The heave may have missed its target, but it displayed Richardson’s powerful arm during the job audition.
“You always have to find joy and happiness in every situation, so I just wanted to joke and laugh about it,” Richardson, 20, said in phone interview this month.
The display encapsulated the scouting report on Richardson, who is projected as a top-10 selection in the N.F.L. draft: jaw-dropping talent, erratically deployed. The combination earned him the dreaded “project” label, a euphemism scouts dole out to athletic quarterbacks who are expected to need help discerning how to lead an N.F.L. offense.
The label has dogged quarterbacks before, players who, like Richardson, exhibited intriguing talent but whose college careers did not quite inspire scouts’ confidence that they would immediately be successful as pros. Trey Lance fielded questions about quality of competition and lack of starts before the San Francisco 49ers made him the third quarterback selected in the 2021 draft. Malik Willis faced similar scrutiny coming out of Liberty in 2022, when he slipped to the third-round pick of the Tennessee Titans.
Source: The New York Times
