One mock draft has Seahawks taking surprising QB high in 2023

Depending on how well Drew Lock plays in 2022, the Seahawks might need to take a quarterback high in 2023. But Walter Football predicts a surprise pick high in the draft for Seattle.

At least one thing is fortunate for NFL teams, including the Seahawks, of course, in 2023: The quarterback class is a lot better than the one in the 2022 draft. While 12s can hope that Seattle isn’t so bad that they have the first or second overall pick, if most national pundits are correct Seattle is going to be bad enough to have a top-ten choice.

And a lot of the success of 2022 and what the Seahawks do in the 2023 draft lies with Drew Lock. He is young enough to be a starter in the NFL for 10 years to come. But he hasn’t been consistently good enough to prove he can even be a quality backup at this point.

But assuming Walter Football is correct, the Seahawks are going to choose fourth overall in next year’s draft and with that pick, they will take University of Florida QB Anthony Richardson. Richardson is still pretty much an unknown as far as what he can consistently do successfully on the field.

Seahawks will take QB Anthony Richardson fourth overall in 2023, per a Walter Football mock draft

There is little doubt that Richardson has great natural ability. His arm strength and athleticism are among the best in college football. But he certainly doesn’t have the game experience of C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young, to name two examples.

Richardson has been compared to Cam Newton because Richardson is big like Newton – Richardson is 6’4″ and 240 pounds – and can run as well as he throws. But Newton always struggled with maintaining accuracy and had questionable leadership skills at times.

The last two qualities are must-haves for an NFL quarterback and we simply don’t know Richardson is capable of being consistently good with either. It would be nice for Richardson to have a great year in 2022 and then go back to Florida in 2023 and repeat the performance or be even better.

For the Seahawks to take Richardson so high in the 2023 draft, even if Richardson has a great season in 2022, is taking a huge risk. That risk might not be worth making for a team that doesn’t want a two or three-year rebuild because even if Richardson is drafted in 2023, he might not be ready to be good until at least 2024.