Even if he has the smarts of Ed Reed, he is a shadow of Reed athletically.
So are the majority of NFL safeties, but that doesn't make them worthless. In fact, there's a serious shortage of quality safeties, and if Richards is even half-decent, that's more than most teams can say.
I think the majority of fans would agree that Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Devin McCourty, Tashaun Gipson, and Eric Weddle fit in everyone's top 10 somewhere. Then who are the next 5 safeties? Maybe Antoine Bethea? Probably put Harrison Smith or Glover Quin there over the potential of Eric Berry and Eric Reid, but they belong in the conversation. Some put TJ Ward high based on rep but he certainly didn't play like it last season. But whatever order and selection, the lists more or less look something like that.
That means maybe 1/3 of the league can say they have an above-average safety, with Seattle being the only team with two quality guys. If Richards ends up even as the 50th-best safety in the league, he'd be a starter on many teams.
Did you know Sergio Brown started 8 ****ING GAMES for the Colts? Ex-Patriot James Ihedigbo started 13 games for the Lions after starting 16 for the Ravens the year before? The NFC East Champ Cowboys started someone named Barry Church the entire season. Mike Mitchell started every game for the Steelers. The Ravens started a combination of Darian Stewart, Matt Elam, and Will Hill...Elam is the only guy there I've heard of, and he's been a bit of a bust since being drafted. And these are some of the the PLAYOFF teams. I'm not even going to look at whatever was going on in Jacksonville or Tennessee or Tampa.
In fact, you can tell the state of safeties in the game because Brandon Meriweather just got a contract for the Redskins. Seriously.
So if Jordan only develops into an okay safety, he'd still be an upgrade on a looooooooooooot of teams. Just because he's not going to be a 1st-ballot HOFer doesn't mean he has no value.