Florida Football: Anthony Richardson enters mix for No. 1 overall pick in 2023 NFL draft

A new name is starting to enter the mix for the No. 1 overall pick and it’s Florida football quarterback Anthony Richardson. 

The race for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft is heating up and former Florida football quarterback Anthony Richardson is entering the mix.

Chicago landed the No. 1 pick on the last day of the NFL season when the Houston Texans went for two late in a game and knocked themselves out of the No. 1 spot.

With Justin Fields already on the roster, the consensus is that the Bears aren’t going to take a quarterback, which most of the time, means a trade is on the horizon.

We have seen a number of trades projected in the 2023 NFL draft and in the most recent projection from On3.com, Anthony Richardson of Florida Football is the No. 1 pick.

Anthony Richardson to the Colts?

On3.com has the Colts making a trade with the Bears to take the former Florida football quarterback. He’s been projected in the first round and you can see why. Richardson is 6-foot-4, 236 pounds and he’s a dangerous dual-threat option.

Richardson ran for over 600 yards last season for Florida football and averaged more than seven yards per attempt. He’s also got a big arm. He can make any throw, so the talent is there but he’s raw, and projecting him as the No. 1 pick might be a bit of a reach.

Richardson has only attempted 393 passes in this college career and his career completion percentage is 54.7. Richardson averaged 7.9 yards per attempt and you can see him being a threat as a runner, which is valuable in the NFL.

But in his first season as a full-time starter, which was 2022, the Florida football signal-caller completed just 53 percent of his passes last season.

Bryce Young and CJ Stroud have also been talked about as potential No 1 overall picks, as well as Alabama pass rusher Will Anderson. He’s probably the most proven player in the draft. Yet, that was Aidan Hutchinson a year ago and he went No. 2.

I’m sure the bears would love to come away with Anderson or Jalen Carter but I have a hard time seeing a team trading up to draft Richardson No.1. It only takes one team to fall in love though and there’s no doubt that Richardson is a top-5 talent at the game’s most important position so as we get closer to draft day, his value is sure to continue to go up.