Anthony Richardson: NFL's Most Feared Wild Card? | Yahoo Fantasy Forecast

uh who I was going to make the the headline here because Anthony Richardson played the first five drives in week three I would say mixed bag performance overall some uh you know like I said I've been unplugged a little bit the last few weeks but you know checking in on Twitter every now and again the hyper analyzation of Anthony everything Anthony Richardson does um makes me think two things one my god do we need the real games to get here and two we do it's it's going to be a long year of just a lot of Anthony Richardson talk uh so that should be interesting but just what was the what was your reaction Beyond everyone's big reaction on social media to what we saw from Anthony Richardson and the way that Colts offense flowed my big reaction to everyone's big reaction is what the hell did everyone expect Anthony Richardson's Mo I mean we have all been watching the same player right we did all watch the same College film then we watched I know we didn't get a lot last year but I that means you should have all watched him so you know what he is again not a timec consuming activity people it not unfortunately no it wasn't and the thing is when you look at Richardson and where he goes in drafts we've all already acknowledge this this is why he goes two to three rounds after Josh Allen and Jaylen Herz he has the same rushing upside maybe even higher than those two guys but we don't know what he's going to be as far as a passer and we're assuming it's probably not going to be good I mean I've got him projected for like 3,300 yards and playing 16 games so I mean I don't think he's going to be a great passer now could he surprise us and if he does because like that would suddenly unlock you know this quarterback one overall uh you know upside but I think we just need to be realistic why are we double counting this we already knew this I was in a draft that night Haron a $300 draft me and Mr Ian hardit we were Drafting and Anthony Richardson just falling like a rock we drafted him in round eight we didn't had think we hadn't taken a quarterback we didn't go Elite quarterback in the draft we're like okay thank you fantasy gues like we all knew Anthony Richardson was not going to be an elite passer come on of course like this is going to be a work in progress um at at the best he good throw too by the way like I mean 100% and which was which was the case when he played last year like there was some polariz he's not a he is not a consistently accurate player will he become a consistently accurate player maybe I think generally the league and quarterback coaches have a more Progressive and open-minded view of accuracy than they did 10 years ago you know and I think a lot of that is Josh Allen I also think some of that is Pat Mahomes where he is a more accurate player Jaylen Herz all of these guys are more accurate right now than they were in college and I think and for Josh Allen like the first few years of his career the first few times we saw Jaylen Herz Mahomes is hard to compare to anybody and I shouldn't even just bring up his name but you get the point like we can evolve as as how accurate these guys are and everything but we don't know that that's going to happen we don't know that Anthony Richardson is going to do that that's why he kind of goes in this Middle Ground of the QB ons where yeah if he hits he's going to hit really big but even if he doesn't hit as a passer he's still G to give you fantasy value like that that's just the reality of who he is as a player' I think we've seen 21 quarterbacks since 2011 have at least 100 rushing attempts and not reach 3500 yards passing so basically they weren't good as passers right they finished on average as the qb8 I mean if you run as much as an guys you've seen taes Hill play right some of you remember Tim TBO these guys were top 10 quarterbacks in points per game when they get on the field Anthony Richardson's a better quarterback than either one of those I'm G to tell you that right now exactly and one of the reasons that I have been again open-minded to the idea that Richardson could surprise us as a passer and again so the bar is low because it's not it's he's not been a great you know from a production standpoint from a consistent accuracy standpoint he's just not been a great passer so far but one of the reasons I've thought that he could surprise us is that I like the ecosystem that he is in I like Michael Pitman I like Josh dson he's healthy I like I Shane Steen I think is one of the top five play callers in the league they have an offensive line that surprised us last year and this offseason they drafted a guy named ad I Mitchell who is I just I just thought he was the perfect player to drop into that receiver core for multiple reasons he's a guy Dwayne that you highlighted in your week three preseason recap as kind of like potentially a stock up guy you wrote that Adonai Mitchell Garner 86% route participation rate 22% Target share and 21% air air yard share with Richardson this preseason and what I think has been really interesting about him Dwayne is that he has moved into the slot a little bit with Josh DS out but in two receiver sets you noted this as well he's bumped Alec Pierce to the bench which I think was always goingon to happen that that part I totally get but the fact that they view Richardson the Indianapolis Colts view Richardson as a guy who's not just this George Pickins perimeter X receiver you know running goes and and curls and and Corner routes and stuff that I think is really encouraging if you're looking at him as an upside flyer late in drafts absolutely like so when you look at Mitchell it's encouraging any time a team is willing to move someone around the formation that means they're grasping the Playbook and it also means that the coaches right are doing a good job of balancing things out so that the player can expand and do the things right that are going to make them successful on the field I think I think some coaches are guilty and Andy Reed can even do this like he'll go in and throw the whole Playbook at some of these guys it's like hey learn every position and they're like whoa and they just drown right away you know now some of them get it and they figure it out and that's kind of Reed style we're not going to question anyy Reed a great freaking schemer right and he's got Patrick Mahomes like we just love that whole offense but I'm with you on Shane styken I really like this I think it's also nice to see like if you get ad an i Mitchell even just for some plays in the slot getting potential mismatches with linebackers and safeties having to deal with this man and his speed and his athleticism and his size is going to be problematic for defenses so I think once you get Josh DS back though and he primarily becomes your slot guy and to your point if ad Mitchell can be more than someone just running these go routes and you can be working him in route Concepts in combination with either Pitman or Josh DS because they really don't have tight ends that they're going to prioritize you know they don't really prioritize the backs in the passing game so I think a lot of it's going to go through these three guys I think that there's a lot of upside here and I my argument is like look guys why are we taking him so much later than lad makoni okay we yes we know Justin Herbert's a better quarterback than Anthony Richardson right now we're no debating that but it is Jim Harbaugh it is a situation where we know they might run the ball as much as any team that doesn't have a scrambling quarterback the scrambling quarterbacks are always going to bring those teams even further down in the in the passes cuz dropbacks turn into scrambles right that's going to happen with the Colts but when you look at the Chargers for not having a scramble a quarterback it won't surprise me like if they're they're in the bottom 10 in pass attempts maybe it won't be as some Extreme as what some people say but the Chargers passing attempts are coming down and lad makoni hasn't been playing in two wide receiver sets this preseason now that doesn't mean that's a lock but they like bigger they like bigger wide receivers on the field to block in the Run game well what does lad makon not have size so my only point is like look I could easily see a scenario here where ad Mitchell outscores lab makoni this year and this guy's going four or five rounds later in fantasy drafts I moved him up inside my top 120 this weekend after just reviewing everything for the preseason with Mitchell he's the kind of upside swing I want to take we don't know what's going to happen for the season but I feel really good that I get a player with upside that's going to be on the field week one two and three and I get to find out what they're worth and if I hit great if I don't I still made the right kind of Swing to try to get that upside onto my team yeah and most importantly at least in my opinion most importantly to this lad makoni ad Mitchell comparison that you're making here I had these guys graded and ranked in the same tier as prospects like it's not as if that and I I think makoni was more disgusted maybe and and probably more he the better rout Runner of the two but yeah yeah yeah like I think he was he was the he's a better route Runner I think he was a cleaner Prospect from a film evaluation standpoint but I really like ad Mitchell I thought he had the skills to to definitely win out as a perimeter receiver at The X the ceiling skills but also like you know when he first was starting to get slot receiver reps I had a lot of people ask me well you know does that really make sense and the whole thing it's like you definitely saw him mostly only do X receiver stuff last year at Texas which is why I think like his you know per route metrics his you know team context metrics were lower because he was playing with a volatile quarterback and he was mostly running vertical routes as an ex receiver but from a movement skills standpoint I do think he can win those one-on-one slot receiver matchups in a way that like if I'm not saying ad Mitchell's gonna become CD lamb but in a similar way to CD lamb that yeah CD Lamb's A Better Man Press coverage beater than the vast majority of players that have his type of deployment and that allows him to have these you know just layup catches for Dak Prescott I mean nobody like fewer connections were more electric than Dak Prescott and cidd lamb on slant routes from the slot especially against these man coverage looks and I think the Colts can maybe see that in a similar way with Mitchell and all of this comes back to Anthony Richardson and like how do we make this guy more consistently accurate give him guys that can separate and get open which I do think ad Mitchell can so um he's definitely a player that I've given a bump up to uh I'm still a huge do Josh DS guy another player that I graded in this same tier as Prospect I like Downs too yeah like it's just it's a really interesting offense which is why I think I think people sometimes get twisted though like they'll be like well how can they all succeed we're not saying they're all going to succeed it it might only be one we don't have these guys all ranked as top 30 players exactly and and the point being is that sometimes we just have to have a little humility and be willing to mix up like which one we would draft like it might be Josh DS that hits it might be Ed Mitchell that hits it might be those two guys that hit and Michael Pitman takes a step back we really don't know for sure how it's going to work out but what we do know is we like both Josh DS and AD Mitchell and we think they're going to get playing time early in the season and right now ad Mitchell's the healthier guy so I think he has the better shot week one to shoot out of a cannon whereas Josh DS is probably still going to be like 80 90% coming back from a high ankle sprain so when that stuff all gets mixed together I'm like okay I'm going to lean to ad Mitchell doesn't mean I like him more than Josh DS like long term but if I'm just trying to figure out what's going on and have one guy that might be a shooting star out of the gate I think ad Mitchell's like the chip that I placed down yeah um I'm a sicko and I will definitely be dialed into that Colts week one game against the Texans trying to just see with this offense with Anthony Richards