With the first part of free agency over and most of the high-end players signed, the NFL will mostly turn its focus to the 2023 NFL draft. The Seattle Seahawks have already filled some position needs in free agency, at least in the short term, but have great draft capital that with the right picks could make the team a contender in the NFC for many years. But the question that looms largest for Seattle in the draft is what to do with pick number 5 overall.
Seattle has several options, of course. They could trade down, maybe with the Las Vegas Raiders at number 7, and pick up more draft picks. Seattle could stay at pick number 5 and choose one of several potentially high-end defensive players likely still available, such as Jalen Carter, Tyree Wilson, or Will Anderson.
Or Seattle could do the very Seahawks-y thing of taking a player they don’t truly need but could be the most athletic imposing player at the position that is most important. That might be Florida’s quarterback Anthony Richardson. While there is some good about Richardson, there are many concerns as well. Here are some pros and cons.
Pro No. 1: Anthony Richardson is a physical freak the Seahawks have time to groom
Seattle re-signed Geno Smith for a reason this offseason: Smith was really good in 2022 and should be again in 2023. On a roster that is getting younger all the time having a voice in the locker room like Smith’s while he is also the leader on the field offensively is invaluable. One way to upset the chemistry of a talented roster is to have too much inexperience at important positions.
Still, building toward long-term success in the future also means getting a young quarterback who will grow along with the rest of the team. Smith isn’t old (he’s 32 years old), but there is a question about whether he can replicate what he did in 2022 in 2023, and 2024, and so on. Adding Richardson, who is still raw and shouldn’t be expected to step in right away and lead a team, now while Smith is still under contract might be wise if Seattle wants a quarterback in this draft. Smith could help teach Richardson.
Smith’s contract is structured in such a way that Seattle has a bit of an out after 2023. Smith would account for $17.4 million in dead cap but Seattle could spread that out over a couple of years. By 2024, Richardson could be ready to step in and play. Whether he is actually good enough to be a starter in the NFL we wouldn’t know right away.
Con No 1: Seahawks should be concerned about Richardson’s accuracy
There is little doubt that if you were playing parking lot football and Richardson showed up and asked to play that he should be the first pick of either team. Richardson is going to be faster, jump higher, and have more quickness than anyone else you are playing with most likely. But in the NFL most players are physically gifted enough and coaches scheme well enough to limit a quarterback with raw skills but no polish.
It’s worse if a quarterback can’t throw straight. Richardson has issues more on intermediate passes and that’s a bad problem. It could be he was taught poor technique at Florida and his college team just allowed Richardson’s natural abilities to try to help them win games instead of the school actually developing the player. But whatever reason Florida had for under-coaching Richardson, they certainly didn’t do him any favors in getting him ready for the NFL. But that’s not the job of the Florida coach, to get a player ready for the NFL. But other coaches (Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia) seem capable of it.
Richardson can already be used in wild cat designs if an NFL team wishes, but if he were to come in right away then a team would be better off being extremely conservative and not letting Richardson throw too much. Of course, Richardson has a big enough arm to throw deep with ease so maybe if he fakes a run enough he could hit DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett deep once or twice in a game. But that is in a perfect world, of course.
The worries about Richardson’s accuracy (he only completed 53.8 percent of his passes in 2022 which was his only season in college as a full-time starter) won’t go away that soon. A player can be taught better technique but there is no way to know if Richardson has the talent to be an accurate passer. So taking Richardson at pick number 5 overall is taking a huge chance on a player that may or may not work out when the Seahawks might need to take a player at a different position who is a safer bet to help sooner and long-term.
Con No. 2: Seahawks have greater needs than a quarterback
Con 1 for Anthony Richardson leads me to con 2. While Anthony Richardson might end up being a Hall of Famer one day and win multiple Super Bowls (Note: I am only writing that as I don’t think the Seahawks should choose Richardson and am trying to jinx Richardson in some odd way, though he seems like a good guy and so I wish him the best wherever he turns up), Seattle simply has other needs they can address in the 2023 draft other than at quarterback. Seattle needs to, and I believe they are, build up the talent on the entire roster and not just at one position.
The way the draft is shaping up, at least three of the teams ahead of the Seahawks in the draft – the Colts, the Panthers, and the Texans – are likely to take quarterbacks. Richardson could even be gone before pick number 5, though I feel like Kentucky’s Will Levis will be chosen before Richardson. But because three teams currently ahead of Seattle are going to take a quarterback then Seattle should have a choice of a player like Jalen Carter, Tyree Wilson, or Will Anderson. Wilson and Anderson, especially, should be too much to pass on.
Think about a Seahawks defense in 2023 that will have newly added Dre’Mont Jones and Jarran Reed to go along with edge rushers Uchenna Nwosu and Darrell Taylor (perhaps an even more productive Boye Mafe in his second season) and then add Wilson or Anderson to that mix? Seattle would be getting a bit closer to a mid-2010s level instead of the awfulness of the last several seasons. But add Richardson only to backup Smith for a year or two and the team misses out on Wilson or Anderson.