Nick Saban Talks Up Bryce Young, Appears To Troll Anthony Richardson

Published|Updated

Nobody has had a better seat to watch Bryce Young develop as a quarterback than Nick Saban. While he may be a bit biased seeing as how he coached him at Alabama, Saban isn't concerned about Young's height and is doing his best to get that message across to teams around the NFL.

Young officially measured 5-foot-10 & 1/8 inches at the NFL Combine last week. On the flip side of that, Florida's Anthony Richardson is 6-foot-4 and shooting up draft boards as he looks exactly like what a successful QB should look like.

Saban, like everyone else, is hearing all the negative noise about Young and the praise for Richardson and made it clear that he doesn't agree with the perception out there.

“We’ve all seen the 6-4, 225-pound guy that can throw it like a bazooka, but he can’t make the choices and decisions, he can’t distribute the ball, he can’t throw it accurately,” Saban said, according to AL.com. “So who’s the better bet? I’m going on history, production, performance and Bryce Young’s done it about as well as anybody.”

Anthony Richards put on a clinic at the NFL Combine. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

The Alabama head coach didn't mention Richardson by name, but there isn't another 6-foot-4 quarterback prospect getting more praise than the former Gator.

OutKick's Dan Zaksheske has Richardson being drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders with the seventh overall pick with Young landing with the Houston Texans at No. 2 overall.

READ: OUTKICK NFL MOCK DRAFT 3.0: BEARS TRADE DOWN TWICE, FOUR QBS TAKEN IN FIRST 7 PICKS

"No one tested better among quarterbacks at the Combine than Anthony Richardson," Zasksheske said of Richardson. "I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing. But the Raiders have a history of falling in love for speed and athleticism. There’s no question Richardson has a boatload of both."

The 2023 NFL Draft will get underway from Kansas City on April 27.

Tags
Written by

Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.