Anthony Richardson: Would Seahawks have drafted him?

Is it plausible that the Seahawks would have drafted Anthony Richardson, as reports keeping saying? Seaside Joe 1621

In not news, the Seattle Seahawks did not draft Anthony Richardson. That’s it for today’s not news. Now I’ll send it over to Seaside Joe with today’s what if report.

Thanks, Joe.

“What if the Seahawks did draft Anthony Richardson? Now to Jazz, with Wednesday’s somehow.”

“I’m reporting live from Renton and somehow we are talking about Anthony Richardson again.”

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The “nots” and the “what ifs” aren’t the stories that I like to usually cover for Seaside Joe, but Mike Florio said something that caught my attention during Tuesday’s Rich Eisen appearance. In what could be “old news news”, Florio mentions that he kept hearing before the draft that Seattle would have absolutely selected Richardson if he had gotten by the Indianapolis Colts.

“He said ‘I’d (Colts GM Chris Ballard) rather be wrong about having him bust on my team…than pass on him and have him become a superstar.’ And I really do think the Seahawks would have taken him at number five if he’d have been there, I really do believe that. I was hearing that before the draft.”

Whenever I analyze reports like this from “media personalities”, be it Florio or Colin Cowherd or any of these polarizing figures, I always focus on the message and consider the truth in that alone. Don’t analyze the messenger.

For you longer-time subscribers, you know how skeptical I was of messengers in the 2022 offseason popping up every few weeks to share another rumor about Baker Mayfield, but I still start with the rumor and work my way backwards. Forget “Florio’s a hack, he just wants attention, etc.” and let the rumors speak for themselves.

All rumors are worth the amount of verifiable evidence that they contain.

Going back to Mayfield, “The Seahawks traded Russell Wilson” was verifiable. “The Seahawks need to trade for a new starting quarterback” turned out to be the most relevantly false piece of information contained in all subsequent rumors that followed the Geno Smith signing. Pete Carroll never wanted to add competition for Geno other than Drew Lock and that was enough to debunk all rumors.

Now let’s work backwards to Anthony Richardson and the draft.

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Is it plausible that Mike Florio had credible information about Seattle’s draft intentions?

Yes, to me it is plausible because that statement is so generic…it has so many possible scenarios that could lead to it being true. I mean, there’s a non-zero chance that John Schneider’s dentist had credible information that he wasn’t supposed to share.

Florio is in a position where he could be involved in “information exchanges” with people in the NFL and though it could be 100% not true that the Seahawks ever intended to draft Richardson, I wouldn’t say that somebody telling Florio that nugget is IMPLAUSIBLE.

In my opinion, people tend to call reporters “liars” when they don’t like the report, not so much when they don’t trust the person. If Florio reported that he’s heard from blue chip free agents that “the Seahawks are the team that they all want to play for” would that information be as discredited as something like this?

I separate personal preferences from whether or not a rumor is “true”. I was never crossing my fingers that the Seahawks would draft Richardson, but it doesn’t mean that they weren’t considering it. My feelings in this matter are meaningless.

Is it plausible that the Seahawks wanted to draft Richardson?

Sure. If Anthony Richardson was enticing enough to go fourth overall to the Colts, it wouldn’t have been a reach for him to go fifth overall.

Seattle’s quarterback room is a much different situation than the one that Richardson is currently navigating in Indianapolis. In a competition against former Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew, a mixed bag of training camp practices could go either way for Richardson: Head coach Shane Steichen could choose to start Richardson in Week 1 against Jacksonville and throw him to the Jaguars to learn football on the job.

Or he could choose to start Minshew in Week 1 and sit Richardson until…Week 3 probably?

I don’t think it’s as simple as saying that “the Colts have nothing to play for” because with their schedule and division, the playoffs aren’t out of the question. But I doubt that anything holds Richardson back from starting most of their games and that wouldn’t have been the case on the Seahawks.

That was my biggest cause for skepticism with regards to drafting Richardson. He wasn’t going to start over Geno Smith. He likely wasn’t going to be the backup over Drew Lock. Richardson would be the highest-paid QB3 in the league and in this training camp that we are currently experiencing he’d be…the ‘Holton Ahlers’ of the group?

Did the Seahawks look at the Trey Lance situation in San Francisco and think “Gotta get me some of that”?

Imagine the discourse in camp if every time Geno threw a PRACTICE interception, there was the fifth overall pick on the other side of the field launching bombs to Easop Winston. Of all the dynamics to intentionally create on your football team, having the third-string quarterback also be the most popular player with fans is certainly an intriguing choice. I’m just not so sure it’s the one you want to see playing out with the Seahawks.

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The other timeline is that like Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, there is a veteran starter in place who is ‘OK’ but by season’s end you know you trapped lightning in a bottle with your first round quarterback. I root for this to happen to Anthony Richardson.

But because Lamar won the Heisman (almost twice) and Mahomes sometimes doesn’t get enough credit for doing this:

I’m still skeptical that Richardson’s going to figure it out that quickly after doing this:

I hope that he does. I just don’t understand how he would have fit on the Seahawks because he definitely wouldn’t have been the starter and that makes it just as risky for him to be the backup. Then what if Geno plays so well that Pete doesn’t want to replace him in 2024? It’s not like Pete to have a Jay Leno-Conan O’Brian succession plan at any position, let alone quarterback. Geno would have to lose the job before his backup could compete for the job, and we’ve got no reason to suspect anything but confidence from Pete with Seattle’s quarterback so far.

But in the grand scheme of “don’t be an idiot while you’re trying to be smart”, if John Schneider really felt that the next Josh Allen was falling into his lap then maybe the Seahawks really would have made the pick and figured it out later. It’s not completely implausible.

As a side note, if the Seahawks drafted Anthony Richardson, it would also mean that they wouldn’t have Devon Witherspoon. Does that mean that Tre Brown would be competing against Coby Bryant to play nickel, leaving the door open for Michael Jackson to win the outside job without a fight?

I’m still very happy that Seattle left the top-five with Witherspoon, he should help the team immediately and he has a much higher floor.

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Is it possible that the Seahawks could have drafted Anthony Richardson?

Ah, the question we should have answered first! NO!

Sorry if I misled you, but the beauty of saying that the Seahawks “would have drafted AR-15” if you’re Florio is that we’ll never know. It’s extremely unlikely to me that there was anything that Seattle could have done to draft Richardson—even if they DESPERATELY wanted him.

The Panthers traded up to the top pick, so they weren’t moving down. I suppose the Seahawks could have traded up to one instead of Carolina, but maybe they just didn’t feel that strongly about any of the quarterbacks. The cost would have obviously been including another first round pick (which could have cost them the chance at Jaxon Smith-Njigba) and one of their best players, if we’re comparing it to the trade that happened.

The Texans picked C.J. Stroud, so they likely weren’t going to trade down.

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The Texans then traded up with the Arizona Cardinals for Will Anderson. Is it plausible that the Cardinals would have traded down with Seattle? It’s not impossible, but I think Arizona was happier to do that deal with Houston, get a future first round pick, and not let an NFC West rival get a quarterback who they would have wanted (in this scenario, that may not be true).

And finally, the Colts picked Richardson at four.

I don’t actually see a plausible avenue towards the Seattle Seahawks drafting any of the top-three quarterbacks.

Could they have wanted Richardson? I mean, they could have. We know for sure that in the last 14 years, the Seahawks have wanted hundreds of prospects who they didn’t get. It could be that they wanted Anthony Richardson.

I think it’s better for both parties that they didn’t get the chance.

Now over to Seaside Joe, with plugs.

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