Richardson position switch has precedent

A number of NFL success stories offer a blueprint to redemption.

Aug 23, 2025

*Colts QB Anthony Richardson: A massively talented player who at times looked overwhelmed by the pro game.*

Anthony Richardson’s NFL career appears to be on the wrong side of a crossroads after Indianapolis coaches named Daniel Jones as the Colts’ starting quarterback earlier this week.

The staff at Hall of Football can’t say we were caught off guard by the former first-round pick’s demotion — we questioned Richardson’s ability to run an NFL offense well before the 2023 draft, when Indy selected him No. 4 overall.

His backers fell in love with his strong arm and high-wattage athleticism, and the former Florida Gator occasionally exhibited an immense playmaking potential. But to succeed as a QB in the NFL requires a feel for the position that Richardson clearly lacked, in part because he started so few games in college. The Colts’ coaches and front office now recognize a “drowning” player’s limitations too.

Still, the young quarterback’s undeniable physical gifts, even after injuries in his first two years, should be mostly intact. And that fact presents him with an opportunity that former quarterbacks past and present have capitalized on: switching positions.

Most press coverage following Richardson’s benching talked about possible landing spots where he can resurrect his career as a quarterback, but few if any have discussed him lining up somewhere else on the field. Hall of Football’s venerable commander in chief wrote earlier this week about the Colts’ woeful QB situation, and he’s skeptical that such a move would work, especially given the player’s injury history. There’s also the question of whether the Colts, another team or Richardson himself are willing to make such a change.

But, as suggested, a successful position switch from quarterback would hardly be unprecedented. What follows is a rundown of former QBs who found a career path in the NFL that did not start behind center. Though almost all such transitions happen(ed) before entering the pros, Richardson is just 24, and if he is so physically talented, why not have him take on a different role to make better use of those endowments? A pass-catching H-back or a tight end-WR hybrid? Line him up wide as a red-zone threat? Move him to edge-rusher and watch him become the next Dwight Free— ok, ok.

Think it as extending a branch to a drowning man.

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Terrelle Pryor

*Something about the No. 2 uni is a curse for Raider QBs. Terrell Pryor before he moved to Cleveland and to wide receiver.*

Pryor stands alone as a player who successfully made the position switch after starting his NFL career as a quarterback. Selected by the Raiders in the third round of 2011 supplemental draft, the former Ohio State star started nine games at QB for Oakland during the 2013 season, posting a 3-6 record and throwing seven TDs against 11 interceptions. His highlight as a Raider came not throwing the football: Pryor’s 93-yard TD run on the first play of a Week 8 game against Pittsburgh still ranks as the longest ever by an NFL quarterback. (It’s also the longest TD run by any Raider.)

Released by Oakland in 2014, Pryor signed with the Browns in 2015. Very late in that season, he switched to wide receiver, then broke out at his new position the following year with 77 catches for 1,007 yards and seven TDs. (He posted three 100-yard days that season, including 101 receiving yards against the Jets, beating All-Pro corner Darrelle Revis a handful of times.)

That success was short lived; Pryor played wide receiver for another four years, totaling just 52 catches and five touchdowns. But his value for this discussion is as a trailblazer for Richardson, a model for someone who can enjoy success after failing as an NFL signal-caller.

Marlin Briscoe

We said above that Pryor was the only NFL player to start his career as a quarterback before switching to another position. He did, however, have a predecessor in the AFL.

Marlin Briscoe was a Denver Broncos’ receiver/cornerback at the start of his rookie season in 1968, but relieved injured Denver quarterbacks in Week 3. A week later, against Cincinnati, he became the first Black quarterback to start a professional football game. In five starts that season, he threw 14 touchdown passes and for nearly 1,600 yards.

*Briscoe’s tenure as Denver QB had historical significance.*

The following year, Briscoe lobbied to be the quarterback and requested his release once he learned that Denver had other ideas. He wound up in Buffalo, but the Bills had veteran Jack Kemp locked in as their signal-caller.

So began Briscoe’s career as a wideout — and a pretty good one. He posted a 1,000-yard season for the Bills in 1970 and won Super Bowl titles with the Dolphins in 1972 and ‘73.

Freddie Solomon

Solomon is fondly remembered by 49ers fans as a speedy, elusive receiver and two-time Super Bowl champion. But before he emerged as a borderline Pro Bowl-caliber wideout, Solomon was a dynamic college quarterback at the University of Tampa in the mid-1970s, where he rushed for 39 career touchdowns and threw for 11. He won Offensive Player of the Game in the 1974 East-West Shrine Game, before which he told a certain Hall of Football writer of his ambition to be the “Black Joe Namath.”

The Dolphins drafted Solomon in the second round of the ‘75 draft, and for two seasons he flashed big-play abilities as a punt returner and spot receiver. Miami traded him to San Francisco for star running back Delvin Williams — the 49ers had recently traded for an aging O.J. Simpson — but Solomon flopped as much as he flourished in his first year with his new team. Four dropped passes in a game against St. Louis seemed to mark his days in San Francisco, but the arrival the following season (1979) of head coach Bill Walsh transformed both the franchise and Solomon’s fortunes. Solomon finished a stellar NFL receiver career with 371 receptions and 48 total TDs, including six postseason scoring catches.

Maybe he didn’t become the next Namath of any shade, but Solomon did have his moment behind an NFL center. In the final game of the 1978 season against Detroit, injuries forced Solomon to play quarterback. He completed 5 of 9 passes for 85 yards and rushed for another 42 (highlights of that performance can be seen at the :52 mark), consistently eluding Detroit pressure in what arguably was, for the SF fanbase, the single flicker of light in a god-awful 2-14 season.

Josh Cribbs

An eventual NFL special teams demon, Cribbs demonized college opponents as a record-setting quarterback at Kent State, where he established a slew of school records. Upon leaving college, Cribbs was one of only two NCAA quarterbacks ever to rush for 3,500-plus yards and throw for at least 7,000.

*Cribbs ranked as the AFC’s best return man of the 2000s.*

Cribbs went undrafted, but after signing with Cleveland in 2005, he became an instant success as a returner, setting a Browns' franchise mark with 1,094 total return yards and leading the NFL in kick return yardage. In 2007, the first of three Pro Bowl seasons, Cribbs recorded a 204-yard kick return day against division rival Pittsburgh, which included a remarkable Wallenda-esque tightrope TD of 100 yards. Later that season, he racked up 245 return yards in a Cleveland OT win against Baltimore.

All told, Cribbs amassed 13,488 career return yards, ranking third all-time in kickoff return yardage. His 11 return touchdowns rank third too. Cribbs also developed into a capable receiver, catching 41 passes and four TDs in 2011.

His prodigious return game nabbed Cribbs a spot on the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s, but a key rule change following the 2011 season — moving the kickoff line from the 30-yard-line to the 35 — put a damper on Cribbs’ output that no kick coverage team could. He recorded zero return touchdowns during the final three seasons of his career, which concluded after the 2015 season.

Julian Edelman

Something about playing quarterback at Kent State in the 2000s that prepares a player to thrive at other positions in the NFL. Edelman pretty much succeeded Cribbs as QB for the Golden Eagles, though, despite leading the team with 1,308 rushing yards his senior season (2008), his numbers were not nearly as spectacular.

But his NFL numbers certainly were. Taken by New England in the seventh round of the 2009 draft, the height-challenged Edelman succeeded Wes Welker as Tom Brady’s favorite slot receiver, totaling 620 career receptions and 36 touchdown catches during his 12 seasons with the Patriots.

Surprisingly, those numbers did not result in a single Pro Bowl selection. But Super Bowl and overall postseason performances landed Edelman in the pantheon of franchise greats. His 10-catch, 141-yard day won him the MVP for Super Bowl LII (a New England 13-3 win over the Rams), and his Mission Impossible-esque catch in the Patriots fabled comeback win over Atlanta in Super Bowl LI ranks as one of the Big Game’s most memorable moments.

*Unlike Edelman, Ethan Hunt would not have kept Brady’s pass from hitting the turf.*

Nolan Cromwell

Some view the free safety position as the quarterback of a defense. Few safeties gave weight to that notion better than Cromwell, a former Kansas Jayhawks QB who starred at safety with the Rams in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Want an idea as to how much college football offenses have changed over the last half century? As a junior in 1975, Cromwell earned honorable mention All-American honors with 20 completed passes and three TD throws — for the entire season. But those numbers dwarfed the 13 completions and one touchdown pass he posted as a senior.

*A field general on both sides of the ball: Cromwell made a seamless switch from productive college wishbone QB (left) to All-Pro safety.*

What Cromwell could do was run. Try 1,124 rushing yards and nine TDs in 1975, when he won Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year and led the Jayhawks to a Sun Bowl appearance. He was also an accomplished hurdler and sprinter. Combine elite athleticism with a quarterback’s vision of the game, and you had a star free safety in waiting.

Selected by Los Angeles in the second round of the 1977 draft, by his third year Cromwell had won the starting free safety spot on a Super Bowl team. His career reached a pinnacle in 1980 when he won league DPOY. A three-time first-team All-Pro, he finished his 11-year career with 37 interceptions, setting a franchise record with 671 interception return yards — a fitting mark for someone who once ran through defenses about as well as any QB in college football.

Antwaan Randle El

NFL fans remember Randle El as a quick, darting receiver and returner who was oh-so dangerous with the ball in his hands. College football followers remember El as a slithering, oh-so-lethal record-setting dual-threat quarterback at Indiana, whom Penn State coach Joe Paterno praised as “scary,” an “amazing athlete,” and “just the whole [Hoosier] offense.”

A special enough all-around athlete to play basketball for Indiana under Bob Knight, Randle El won Big Ten Freshman of the Year (1998), an eye-popping season punctuated by his performance against the University of Cincinnati, when he caught, rushed for and threw for a touchdown. He was the 2001 Big Ten MVP and finished his time in Bloomington as the first NCAA player both to pass and rush for at least 40 career touchdowns.

*Second nature: former Indiana QB Randle El uncorks his Super Bowl TD pass.*

As a pro, Randle El caught 371 career passes, splitting time with Pittsburgh (2002–05, 2010) and Washington (2006–09). With the latter, he posted three consecutive seasons of 50-plus receptions. But as a receiver, Randle El’s biggest NFL moment came as a Steeler passer, when he threw a 43-yard scoring strike to Hines Ward in Pittsburgh’s Super Bowl XL win over Seattle. In a game where starting QB Ben Roethlisberger threw for just 123 yards, Randle El’s TD toss was easily the team’s biggest passing play.