For many football fans, the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine was your first real exposure to Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson. For the last handful of months, maybe you’ve been hearing a ton about Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s CJ Stroud, and probably even Kentucky’s Will Levis. That’s not exactly a problem, but after watching the Combine, isn’t it crazy how Anthony Richardson has flown under the radar?
Richardson absolutely blew up the Combine, Cam Newton style. As a matter of fact, as legendary as Cam Newton’s 2011 Combine workout was at the QB position, Richardson’s was even better. If you tuned into the 2023 Combine, you witnessed the best QB workout you may ever see at the position.
Anthony Richardson might’ve set the standard for the RAS (@mathbomb). pic.twitter.com/wcqcpaYq69
— uSTADIUM App (@uSTADIUM) March 4, 2023
It really doesn’t matter what position group you would throw Richardson in here — this workout is elite. It’s not just a great workout for the QB position. The reality here is, if your favorite NFL team loved Anthony Richardson, they weren’t overly surprised by this workout. Impressed? You would have to not have a pulse to not be impressed by the workout. But when you watch Richardson play the game, you see these unreal traits in action.
Richardson has been in the first round and in the top 10 of our 2023 NFL mock draft predictions for quite some time now. As we get closer to the 2023 NFL Draft, teams will undoubtedly be jockeying for his services. How this QB frenzy plays out remains to be seen, but let’s take a look at teams that could covet Richardson and move up in this year’s draft to get him.
4 teams to trade up for Anthony Richardson in the 2023 NFL Draft
1. Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a very interesting team that could sneak into this QB mix here in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Seattle is sort of playing with house money here, and in a variety of ways. First of all, they got a much better 2022 season out of Geno Smith than they could have possibly imagined. He won the 2022 NFL Comeback Player of the Year award after helping lead Seattle to the playoffs.
Second, Seattle owns the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft thanks to last year’s blockbuster Russell Wilson trade. They own the 5th pick, 20th pick, 38th pick, and 53rd pick. If anyone has the ammunition to entice the Chicago Bears to trade off that no. 1 overall pick, it would be Seattle, right? I say the Bears because I doubt the Texans are moving out of the 2nd spot, and the Arizona Cardinals probably aren’t going to help out a division rival at the game’s most important position.
The Seahawks could franchise tag Geno Smith or get a 2-3 year deal done with him to minimize their long-term financial hit while giving Richardson the time he needs to continue to develop as a player. We know he’s a freak athlete, but the Seahawks are equipped to set him up for some long-term success with the way they run the ball so effectively.