The controversial AR-15
Is Anthony Richardson a good bet in the NFL Draft?
Anthony Richardson’s initial stab at NIL branding didn’t go terribly well.
Anthony Richardson, #15 jersey, quarterback position, it was so easy but then it became untenable and he scrapped the AR-15 logo and brand.
We just live in different times. I remember back when Andrei Kirilinko would be referred to as AK-47, or “Kalashnikov,” and it wasn’t really a big deal. Dude was a skilled Russian playing basketball and “spraying” the box score with a dozen different counting stats. You’d think the AK-47 would also have been an unpopular tool given it’s status as the weapon of choice for terrorists and guerrilla fighters opposing the USA for decades.
However the AR-15 has an even more polluted brand due to it being the weapon of choice for American psychopaths when murdering some of the nation’s most vulnerable, our school age children. I’ll restrain myself from going off the rails here to write a meandering essay on psychopaths, the movie “Joker,” and school shootings. For our purposes it’s enough to say Richardson abandoned the brand because of the controversy. Just as well, given that accuracy isn’t the defining feature of his game.
Richardson’s NFL prospects aren’t as controversial as the AR-15 but they’ve proven to be pretty divisive as well.
His last year at Florida was not terribly impressive. I mean, he did some individually impressive things, but his overall numbers were “meh” and the team went 6-7 in Billy Napier’s inaugural season in the Swamp. I found his decision to go pro kind of strange at the time. In light of his combine numbers, it makes more sense…
That’s insane. Just for comparison’s sake, here’s how that compares to some of the other amazing athletes to play quarterback this century:
Of the nine quarterbacks listed above, four have been to the Super Bowl and all of the did so as a result of being utilized in schemes which made extensive use of their physical talents. Btw, I did have to leave out Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson who both declined to run at the combine but they’ve been pretty successful as well.
Is Richardson simply too big, too strong, too fast, too gifted to bust? Probably not, but it might feel like an awful risk for a lot of teams to pass on someone like this.
There are going to be some teams who’d have to stare deep into the mirror to make a choice on whether to try and trade up to take the most skilled quarterback in the draft, who’s only 5-foot-10, or to try and get the most outwardly impressive physical specimen the position has ever seen.
I’ve got thoughts on Richardson’s physical profile and how that plays into the evaluation, but we’re also going to do this by my checklist, appropriately nicknamed in the comments the other day as “the Boyd Grok Score.”
What sort of offense is he being asked to run?
Who are his key teammates that need to get the ball for them to win?
How well does the quarterback set up those teammates?
How do opponents try to stop the quarterback and his teammates?
Can the quarterback counter those attempts?
Let’s begin…