NFL Draft week is here! A time for your favorite team to try to set itself on the right course for the next few seasons. And, of course, there's a little luck when it comes to drafting the right player.
For those players, it's their future NFL home. With the stakes so high, all of the top prospects spend the months between the end of their college seasons and the NFL Draft in intense preparation. These players train to excel at the NFL Combine and at their pro days to ultimately get drafted by an NFL team.
In order to get there, there are surely some NFL pre-draft rituals and superstitions that come into play.
Take Anthony Richardson. The Florida quarterback didn't put up monstrous numbers in college. He started one season for a middling Gators team, completing 176 of 327 passes for 2,549 yards, 17 passing TDs and 9 interceptions. He added 654 rushing yards and 9 TDs on the ground.
Despite the average production, NFL scouts are hugely intrigued by Richardson's measurables. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and 244 pounds with a big arm and elite speed. His workouts were seen a "special" albeit taking place in gym shorts, but lots of scouts are now enamored by the QB's upside.
Richardson's pre-draft ritual was his training, which started in earnest last November after opting out for Florida's bowl game. He embarked on a three-month daily program with QB gurus Will Hewlett and Denny Thompson at the Tork Sports Performance facility in St. Augustine, Florida. They have worked with several top QBs in recent years, and had one of the best success stories of all time in 2022 as they prepped "Mr. Irrelevant" himself, Brock Purdy, for last year's NFL Draft.
Richardson not only did four on-field throwing sessions each week for three months, but also worked extensively with strength and conditioning coaches, speed and performance specialists, as well as trainers and nutritionists. His daily rituals surely changed from his days as the Gators' QB.
This pre-draft training seems to have paid off as Richardson had an other-worldly showing at the NFL Combine. He ran a 4.43 40-yard dash and set a record for QB prospects with a 40.5-inch vertical leap. Then, at his Florida Pro Day, he wowed scouts with his throwing ability.
Richardson will likely get drafted as a top-10 pick -- something you can bet on at the best sports betting sites in the U.S.
Bryce Young has gone through similar pre-draft rituals, but seemingly had a different task since leaving Alabama to prep for the NFL Draft. The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner has everything NFL scouts look for skills-wise to go along with some of the best college production of all time. However, standing at just 5 feet 10 inches tall, he is seen as "small" for an NFL QB.
Young trained at Adam Dedeaux's 3DQB program, which concentrates on four core quarterback training foundations: functional strength and conditioning, mechanics and motion analysis, mental and emotional management skills, and nutrition. Among the mentors there was Drew Brees, perhaps the greatest small QB of all time. The rituals Young went through there have set him up to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming 2023 NFL Draft.
Some players have rituals, more like superstitions, that have nothing to do with the play on the field. A current top NFL cornerback apparently ate McDonald's daily to bulk up for his NFL Combine weigh-in. Others sleep, or at least nap in hyperbaric chambers, to raise their oxygen levels. Some even play the Madden video game as the team they hope to be drafted by.
No matter what pre-draft rituals these athletes partake in, if they work, who are we to argue?
