Todd McShay reveals Anthony Richardson film is 'driving him crazy'

Two of the most polarizing quarterbacks in the 2023 NFL Draft both come from the SEC East. Florida‘s Anthony Richardson and Kentucky‘s Will Levis will spark debate for the next two months before the final Thursday in April. Seemingly nobody has a similar opinion on either but especially Richardson.

Even the best in the business are struggling to complete the evaluation. ESPN’s Todd McShay said watching Richardson’s film is driving him crazy. Only being a starter for Florida this past season, Richardson shows completely different things throughout his 12 games played.

“He’s absolutely the most interesting player in the draft,” McShay said. “I promise you it’s driving me crazy, watching Utah tape, then a disaster against Kentucky, he’s 6’4″, 234 pounds, rifle for an arm, mobile as can be, all the potential in the world, and a really good guy that you want to root for, that everyone in the building loves… A good guy, the most physically talented, but he’s not ready. He’s just not there yet.”

McShay’s feelings on those two games are rightfully justified from a statistics standpoint alone.

Richardson completed 17 of 24 passes for 168 passing yards against Utah. He made incredible plays on the ground as well, rushing for 106 yards and three touchdowns on 11 attempts. Flip on the Kentucky film and you will find a 14 of 35 performance with no touchdowns and two interceptions, plus four rushing yards on six attempts.

Daniel Jeremiah compares Anthony Richardson to lottery ticket

Daniel Jeremiah is not the only one who sees Richardson as a complete wild card. In fact, the NFL Network analyst compared the Florida product to a lottery ticket, saying the payout would be immense if Richardson pans out.

But at the same time, teams who are looking for a quarterback right now may not be willing to take the risk of drafting Richardson in the first round.

“If you look at all these guys as having risks, I think of them as they’re all kind of lottery tickets, and if you pay the same price for all these lottery tickets, if his hits, you have the biggest payout,” Jeremiah said. “You gotta be able to redshirt him, I think, and you gotta have really good developers in place.

“But I’ve talked to a couple teams that aren’t the QB[-needy] teams, so they’re more straight-up honest with you, and they’re like, We want him as the second guy because we know the risk-reward could be so huge.”