4 teams that could trade up for Anthony Richardson in the 2023 NFL Draft

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.

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.

2. Carolina Panthers

One of the teams that is just extremely well-equipped to draft a quarterback right now is the Carolina Panthers. Why are the Panthers so perfectly set up to do so this offseason? Simply put, they have built a coaching staff that a young QB would be blessed to step into.

Frank Reich is the team’s head coach. He hired Jim Caldwell as a senior assistant. He also hired Josh McCown as the team’s quarterbacks coach. He hired Thomas Brown from the Rams as his offensive coordinator and Duce Staley as his assistant head coach/running backs coach.

This Carolina situation is almost foolproof when you’re talking about a young quarterback stepping in. Someone is going to be able to step in there, learn from some of the best teachers at the position in the game today, and thrive in the long term.

The Panthers also have a very aggressive general manager in Scott Fitterer who understands the position his team is currently in. I think the Panthers are a team where Richardson could also play sooner rather than later. Some teams might view him as a 2-3 year investment in terms of getting on the field, but I think they have the type of offensive line and resources to upgrade skill positions that Richardson could thrive right away in this situation.

Carolina traded Christian McCaffrey last year, so they have some extra draft capital. They will have to dip into next year’s draft pool as well as potentially some more after that in order to get a guy like Richardson because you’re not getting him if you sit at pick no. 9 overall in all likelihood.

3. Atlanta Falcons

The time has almost come for Atlanta Falcons GM Terry Fontenot and head coach Arthur Smith to make a bold move at the quarterback position. The Falcons took Desmond Ridder in the 2022 NFL Draft, and we saw some decent things from him at the end of the 2022 season, but would what we saw from Ridder prevent the Falcons from potentially taking a shot on a guy like Anthony Richardson?

I’m not so sure about that.

Atlanta is in a unique position to potentially move up to get Anthony Richardson because they have an offense that is already really set up for him to have early success. Arthur Smith put together an offense last year for Marcus Mariota to succeed. Although that didn’t end up working out, the Falcons had a top-10 offense at certain points in the season and certainly overachieved based on our expectations going into last year, especially offensively.

Atlanta has to get into a position where they are committed to the development of a quarterback. They aren’t in on the Derek Carr sweepstakes. You don’t hear anything about the Falcons trying to make a play for Aaron Rodgers. They aren’t connected to really any free agent quarterback out there.

Well, I take that back. They are often connected to Lamar Jackson. But is that a pipe dream or is that actually realistic?

I think everyone understands that Terry Fontenot is going to set his sights on one of the QBs in this year’s class if he can’t get Lamar, which is honestly going to be super risky. He may wish he was in a position this year to actually punt to 2024 where he might have a great shot at Caleb Williams or Drake Maye. Should Fontenot trade prime 2024 and 2025 NFL Draft real estate so he can get Richardson when his team might land a high enough pick to get one of those guys?

Again, it’s very risky, but Richardson is a wildly talented player. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to attach your name to him as your QB of the future. Given their situation, though, Richardson would have to play right away for the Falcons. Is this the best fit for him? The tough part about that question is that the answer might be yes, but for the Falcons, the timing might not be right.

4. Washington Commanders

I wanted to take a look at a team that is a little bit deeper on the 2023 NFL Draft board that could try to make a bold move to land Anthony Richardson. One team that has been a bit quiet this offseason is the Washington Commanders. The message coming out of Washington has been that Sam Howell will enter the offseason program as the team’s QB1.

I can’t fault the Commanders for being impressed with what Howell brings to the table, but did Eric Bieniemy leave the Kansas City Chiefs to coach an offense featuring Sam Howell? I mean, it’s not like Howell went out in the last month of last season and absolutely tore it up. He got one start. This wasn’t a Brock Purdy type of situation in the back half of last season where Howell went out there and just played so well that no one can deny he’s deserving of the starting job.

A lot of people liked Sam Howell coming out of North Carolina. I get it. But the NFL didn’t like Howell enough to the point that he was selected in the fifth round. Even if the Commanders were surprised he fell to that spot, they also passed on him until that point.

That tells you what you need to know.

It’s fun to think that Howell, a fifth-round pick, could end up as the starter for the Commanders this coming season, but let’s be real here. This is a team that needs a big spark at the position, and they have a chance this offseason to go out and get one of the most dynamic playmakers to come along since they drafted RG3 back in the 2012 class. We all saw how that ended up, and I’m not saying the situations are the same, but RG3 had a similarly stellar Combine workout.

The Commanders have two great receivers in Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson locked in for the future. They have good overall skill players, a very good defense, and they have one of the top offensive minds in the game in Eric Bieniemy at the helm of that side of the ball.

Why not go after a big-time player like Richardson?