Anthony Richardson Made A Mockery Of The NFL Combine In A Truly Mind-Blowing Performance

Anthony Richardson will be the best pure athlete at the quarterback position as soon as he enters the NFL. Anyone who witnessed the former Florida Gators signal-caller blow up the Combine on Saturday would agree that's not a hot take.Earlier this week, we saw Richardson take the podium and describe himself as follows:

I'll be damned. At least in terms of raw athletic profile, Richardson backed that up in Indy. Those freaky physical tools may very well drive Richardson to become an improbable No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. 

When you look at the other QBs in this class, Will Levis is the closest to Richardson in terms of height-weight measurables, arm talent and running ability. I'd take Richardson over him based on far more upside as a dual-threat playmaker and superior pocket awareness.

Then you have CJ Stroud. Being surrounded by such gifted wide receivers at Ohio State clouds his evaluation. He struggles making plays off-schedule and, in my opinion, has the ceiling of a rich man's Dak Prescott. Not a bad fate, but Stroud's hypothetical peak is nowhere near what Richardson's is.

Finally, last but not least, Bryce Young. A historically small QB. Would you rather roll the dice on Young's 5-10 slight frame holding up over the course of time, or bank on Richardson's durability? Some teams will lean Richardson because of size alone.

And maybe because at his best he can, you know, make throws like these back-to-back dimes that traveled an easy 60 yards in the air:

When you stack up like this to a former No. 1 overall pick in Cam Newton, well, maybe you deserve to hear your name called first on draft day, too:

And a longtime NFL GM actually thinks Richardson is a better pure thrower than Cam when the latter was coming out of Auburn:

Whether you agree with that take or not is really not the point. For that to even be debatable is a testament to how much talent teams will be working with when they acquire Richardson.

Massive surprise: Ian Rapoport is reporting that Richardson's stock is uppppppp:

Footwork is the big flaw in Richardson's game right now. If he can clean that up, his accuracy should improve by quite a lot. The upper half of his throwing mechanics look natural and effortless. It's effortless power. Some argue that Richardson's inexperience hurts his draft stock. 

In my opinion, Richardson is more impressionable and coachable because he started for only one year in an adverse situation. He knows there's a ways to go before he's a finished product. Once Richardson's lower half gets even marginally better, though, he should improve his passing precision by leaps and bounds.

How do you pass on this guy? 

You have to think the Colts and new coach Shane Steichen are looking at Richardson and thinking what could be.

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