Asim
Richards.
Asim
Richards.
North Carolina· 6'4"· 309 lb
"Richards allowed three sacks on more than a thousand senior snaps at left tackle and still fell to the fifth round, because the anchor was NFL-caliber and the recovery quickness never was."Pre-draft read
A four-year left tackle in a spread, tempo-heavy Carolina offense, Richards was a length-and-grip pass protector. He set with a patient, quiet kick, used a 34-inch arm to meet rushers early and won with hand strength — once he latched, the rep was over, and he allowed only three sacks on 1,049 senior snaps.
The secondary trait was play strength in the run game. On zone he came to balance before contact, pivoted and shielded to create lanes, and on angle drives he could uproot a defensive lineman when his hat placement was right. He was heavier-footed than the tape's basketball background suggested when redirecting, and the athletic ceiling was solid rather than special. The signature was the anchor: bull rushers simply did not move him.
Outside- and wide-zone rushing offense that lets its tackles work on angles and reach defenders instead of setting on an island every snap
Year 1: sixth lineman and emergency swing tackle across both sides. Ceiling: a decade-long depth starter who can hold either tackle spot for a stretch of games.
A deep-drop, seven-step passing game that leaves him alone against wide-nine speed rushers, where the flat set and slow refit turn into pressure on the quarterback's blind side.
Several evaluators wanted him at guard, where the length and grip would matter more than the recovery quickness; he has stayed at tackle in the NFL.
Asim Richards NFL Draft Tape | North Carolina OT
Left tackle cut-up showing the patient kick set, early hand placement and anchor against power.
North Carolina OL Asim Richards in 10 Plays
Technique-focused breakdown of his grip strength, pass-set mechanics and refit issues.
NFL Draft: Cowboys select LT Asim Richards UNC — All-22 film vs Notre Dame
All-22 study of a single full game against Notre Dame, run and pass reps at left tackle.
A three-star recruit out of Philadelphia who arrived at Chapel Hill as a converted defensive end and left as a 38-game starter at left tackle. Richards's football identity was reliability with length: a thick, powerful blindside protector who won with grip strength and anchor rather than foot quickness, and who never gave a rep away.
He played in nine games as a true freshman in 2019, then started 11 of 12 in 2020, all 13 in 2021 and all 14 as a senior in 2022, when he took third-team All-ACC honors and surrendered three sacks across 1,049 snaps for a top-20 national offense. The signature trait was the anchor against power. The flags were mechanical: he was slow to refit once beaten, stepped under himself redirecting against inside counters, and worked flat against wide alignments, which put him on the ground more than a starting NFL tackle can afford.
The board saw a Senior Bowl invitee with tackle-guard flex, a fifth-round grade and a projection that most evaluators pointed inside, where the length and grip would matter more than the recovery quickness. Dallas taking him 169th was a swing-tackle bet with a possible guard conversion attached — the right price for the profile.
- 01
Anchor against power
He sat down bull rushes with real sand in his lower half, and Carolina's blindside stayed clean against SEC- and ACC-caliber power rushers all senior year.
- 02
Grip strength
Once his hands landed inside, rushers could not disengage; the latch turned edge speed into a stalled rep and produced only three sacks allowed in 2022.
- 03
Length in pass sets
A 34-inch arm let him meet rushers early in the set, keeping his chest clean and forcing defenders to go around instead of through him.
- 04
Starting volume
He started 38 of his last 39 games in the ACC at left tackle, four full seasons of tape against real edge competition with no missed-time gaps.
- 05
Zone run blocking
He came to balance before contact on the move, then pivoted and shielded, which is exactly how a wide-zone scheme wants a tackle to open the alley.
- 01
Recovery quickness
When he was beaten off the snap, he was slow to refit and re-leverage, scrambling late in the rep instead of resetting hands and regaining position.
- 02
Redirect footwork
He lagged and stepped under himself power-stepping to cut off inside counters, which is the exact move NFL edges use against long tackles.
- 03
Wide-alignment sets
He worked too flat against wide rushers, creating a short corner and giving speed a direct line to the quarterback's back shoulder.
- 04
Testing profile
A 5.16 forty and a 7.76 three-cone put him near the bottom of the tackle class athletically, which capped the projection to swing or guard.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | North Carolina | 9 |
| 2020 | North Carolina | 12 |
| 2021 | North Carolina | 13 |
| 2022 | North Carolina | 14 |
| Career | — | 48 |
Games and starts come from the official North Carolina Athletics bio, season by season: nine games as a true freshman in 2019, 11 starts in 12 games in 2020, 13 starts in 2021 and 14 starts in 2022 (1,049 snaps at left tackle, three sacks allowed, third-team All-ACC). The season sums reconcile with UNC's career line of 48 games and 38 starts, and with head coach Mack Brown's public note that he started 38 of his last 39 games. Offensive linemen have no box-score categories on cfbstats.com, so no statistical fields beyond games and starts are recorded.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Fifth-round tackle who sticks as a roster-lock depth piece and starts a handful of games a year when injuries hit.
Long, powerful swing tackle who built a long career as a trusted fill-in starter on both sides of the line.
Tackle whose recovery and redirect issues force a guard conversion that never fully takes hold.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Dallas kept him as a developmental swing lineman and never rushed him. As a rookie in 2023 he dressed for eight games with no starts, mostly on the jumbo and special-teams package. In 2024 he played 13 games and made his first NFL start, filling in at tackle for the injured Tyler Guyton. In August 2025, after penalty issues in the preseason and losing the swing-tackle competition, Dallas traded him to New Orleans for a 2028 sixth-round pick. With the Saints he had his best year: 15 games and four starts at right tackle, giving them functional depth on both edges. Three seasons in, he sits at 36 games and five starts.
Honest verdict: this is what pick 169 is supposed to buy. He was never going to out-athlete NFL edges, and he has not — the recovery quickness and redirect issues the board flagged still show when he is on an island. But the anchor and the grip travel, he is trusted enough to start when a line breaks, and he has held an NFL roster spot for four straight years across two organizations. A useful swing tackle from the fifth round is a neutral-to-positive outcome, not a hit and nowhere near a miss.