Result: Played 59 total snaps, gave up 2 pressures, and no sacks.
I know, I know, some want to blame him for a sack when Grier didn’t step up in the pocket like he should have. That sack is on Grier. Richards did exactly what he was supposed to do against a speed rush – push the rusher up field. Other times, Grier did step up in the pocket, and delivered the ball. Even PFF did not charge that sack to Richards; they charged it to Grier.
On the Jalen Tolbert TD, when playing against the Jaguars #1 defense, Richards completed a perfect switch with Matt Farniok, who played Left Guard, when the Jaguars tried to stunt, giving Grier enough time to complete the TD pass to Tolbert.
- 14 matchup against Travon Walker (pick #1 in the 2022 draft): 0 pressures allowed
- 9 matchups against K’Lavon Chaisson (pick #20 in the 2020 draft): 0 pressures allowed
Along with how other rookie draft picks are playing, such as Smith, Overshown, Scott, Vaughn and Brooks, that is 6 of the 8 draft picks that have shown out in the training camp or the preseason games. Schoonmaker is just now getting healthy, and he’s expected to win the TE2 position, which means he’ll start about 1/2 the games. That leaves only Fehoko as the draft pick that hasn’t popped. And he’s only playing behind Parsons, Lawrence, Armstrong, Williams, and Fowler, so maybe expecting him to pop in a group that already last year struck fear into the hearts of offensive coordinators league wide is expecting a bit much.
All in all, this is looking like a very solid draft class. And that doesn’t include TE John Stephens, who is making his own case for replacing 2nd year TE Peyton Hendershot as TE3.
