Florida football: Panther’s HC wants to take Richardson first overall

Florida football’s Anthony Richardson has gotten a lot of buzz throughout his process of getting ready for the NFL Draft. His performance at the NFL Combine only solidified that and showed that he’s one of the best athletes at QB to ever come through the draft.

Then, at Florida’s pro day, he got to show off his arm a bit more, including hurling the ball into the ceiling of the Gators’ practice facility.

You know, because he can.

Richardson got a bad draw in terms of when he decided to move on to the NFL because he has to share the class with Bryce Young and CJ Stroud, who for a long time have been 1-2 on just about every draft board.

But there’s been a new development as we get closer to the NFL Draft that may favor Anthony Richardson’s odds of going number one overall this year.

The Carolina Panthers have long been the team that has been mocked to take Richardson by many experts. But that was mainly when Carolina had the 9th pick. Since they traded with Chicago to get the top pick, there’s still some talk of AR, but now the favorites are Young and Stroud.

There is still hope for Richardson, however. Frank Reich, the Panthers’ head coach, is very high on Anthony’s talent. In fact, he’s Reich’s “QB of choice”.

If it was solely up to Reich, Richardson would be the pick. He loves the upside of Richardson and the type of player that he could be in the next few years, and it’s hard to blame him.

Anthony is an alien, and he can transform any offense he gets to play in.

But sadly, that isn’t how drafting works. The majority of the Panthers organization is favoring CJ Stroud to be the pick when the time comes.

But, there’s still hope. We’ve seen plenty of surprises on draft night, and maybe Reich can convince a few others in the draft room to take a chance.

Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.