Trent Richardson to Colts

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Gotta give the Browns credit here, I think they made a great call on this trade. And if Hoyer doesn't go down with the ACL I think they have a chance to contend for the AFC North title. Bengals are picking it up, but I still don't think anyone in that division is head and shoulders over another team.

The Browns lost nothing in the deal. Their output is equal to that of when they had Richardson and they are using a guy with two bionic knees, off the street. That isn't saying too much, considering the output is still near the bottom of the league, but that says more about Richardson than the Browns.

[f16harm]

Don't be surprised if Josh Gordon is gone very soon. Cleveland just signed Brian Tyms from Miami's practice squad.

[JeremyHight]

the more he is discussed the more i feel bad for the guy. its not his fault that Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur over rated this guys talents and drafted him #3. Its obvious they had no clue what they were doing and if he was drafted in the 3rd round like he should have been, it wouldnt be a discussion

Many people had him rated very highly. The problem isn't the Browns, it was that people rated a running back so highly. I simply do not think a running back is worth the first round pick any more in the NFL. Even Doug Martin, a guy who had success in his first season, is out for the season very early in his career and he was another first round pick.

Running backs have far too many risks to take in the first round.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Running back isn't so much a position filled with "risks" that make them not worthy of a first round pick...its just that their position and production can be matched with much less investment.

Runners drafted very high tend to be a very high percentage pick...I did some research on it a few years back for a post I made somewhere on the internet, but in summary, RBs taken very high (top 10 or so) yielded the highest percentage of Hall of Famers and Pro Bowlers...unfortunately, the more modern you get (post 2000's) the less these picks yielded true success. Adrian Peterson is awesome...he's not a player in even his greatest season, that would yield anything more than a mediocre team.

In reality, its just better to pass on a running back and take another position when you're picking in the first round...in every draft, there are plenty of runners that can be more than serviceable. There are a ton of busts at running back once you get into Round 2, 3, and 4...but regardless, still some good backs. There are also plenty of undrafted guys every year that make a team. In most years recently, you are just as likely to find a contributing runner in the last 100 picks as you are the first 100 picks. Perhaps not the high end running back, but having a high end running back doesn't yield more wins anyway.

[dave]

Agree with Larry. Picking a running back in the top 15 these days is like buying chocolate in the land of chocolate like Homer Simpson. What's the point.

Today's NFL puts the franchise RB on the backburner.

Not saying I agree with this, but it is the reality.

Spread, pistol, read option ... the old I-formation with 50% runs is dead.

[BigBucs]

Alfred Morris was drafted in the 6th(?) last year and was 2nd in the league in rushing. Meanwhile we got Doug at 31 and he is out for the season

[Tailback U]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9906866/the-browns-had-good-sense-trade-rb-trent-richardson-making-indy-problem

Colts will regret Richardson trade


Just over a month ago, the sky was supposedly falling in Cleveland.

That's because the Browns had traded running back Trent Richardson, the third overall selection in the 2012 NFL draft, to the Indianapolis Colts in a move that many deemed sheer lunacy. The belief at the time was that Cleveland was giving up its best offensive weapon, a player who should be the bedrock of the franchise.

Now the only criticisms that can be heard are coming from Indianapolis, where Richardson remains the disappointing talent the Browns had the good sense to deal.

It's not that Richardson is a bad player. It's just that he's not an exceptional one.

He has yet to gain more than 60 yards in any of his five games with the Colts. He's had 75 carries during that time and produced all of 228 yards, which is a worse yards-per-attempt average than he generated in his first two games with Cleveland this season (3.04 compared to 3.39). Richardson scored the first two touchdowns of his season while in Indianapolis, but more people likely recall his critical fumble late in the Colts' upset win over Denver on Oct. 20.

As much as optimists in Indianapolis preach the importance of patience when faced with these facts, it's becoming hard to see the upside in a player who was supposed to be special and cost the Colts a first-round pick.

"We were getting killed when we made that deal, but now people are seeing the same things we saw in him," one Browns source said. "There is a lot to like about Trent. He's solid, dependable, hard-working. The problem is that he's not explosive."

That final indictment is the biggest reason Colts fans should be concerned about their new franchise running back moving forward. Richardson has logged 373 carries in his two-year career. Only 20 of those rushing attempts have ended in a run longer than 10 yards, which ranks him 32nd among all running backs since the start of the 2012 season. Richardson also has failed to be the perfect counterpart to quarterback Andrew Luck on a team that was hoping to balance its offense with a dominant power-running component.

[+] EnlargeTrent Richardson
AP Photo/AJ Mast
Trent Richardson has failed to impress in five games with the Colts, averaging a paltry 3.04 yards per carry, with just two touchdowns.
The Colts had the idealistic notion that Luck -- who threw 627 passes last season as a rookie -- would make life easier for Richardson. All of those Browns fans who balked at the trade believed that Richardson wasn't becoming a star in Cleveland because the team had nothing else around him. They didn't see a running back who rushed for 950 yards last season because that was the best he could do. They viewed Richardson as a promising talent who had the misfortune of facing eight- and nine-man fronts every time he lined up for the Browns.

Well, Richardson isn't seeing too many stacked boxes in Indianapolis these days. He's also not the only player in this league who has to deal with defenses designed to stop him. Minnesota's Adrian Peterson has seen that throughout his seven-year career, and he ran for 2,097 yards in 2012, less than a year after he underwent reconstructive surgery for a torn ACL. Jacksonville's Maurice Jones-Drew hasn't had much of a supporting cast around him, either. He wound up leading the league in rushing in 2011 with a career-high 1,606 yards.

The issue with Richardson is that he's mostly effective in situations where his team needs tough yards. As the Browns source said: "I saw him score on a 1-yard touchdown in his first game there (a 27-7 win over San Francisco) and the announcer said that was why the Colts traded for him. And all I could think was that play was right in Trent's wheelhouse. He'll make those plays for you all day. But when you need seven yards, he'll still get you three."

There already have been several theories offered as to why Richardson has continued to struggle on a better team. Some have suggested that he's trying too hard to make something happen. Others suspect he's overthinking things or simply struggling to fit in with a new offensive line. Those people still think of Richardson as the same talent he was touted to be after leaving Alabama. They don't want to believe they possibly could be wrong.

In reality, it's hard to think Alabama didn't make Richardson look better than he really was. He played with three offensive linemen in college who were selected in this year's draft – including first-round picks D.J. Fluker and Chance Warmack – and it's not like he's the first Crimson Tide runner to disappoint in the NFL. Richardson split time with Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram at Alabama. That would be the same Mark Ingram who has 1,107 career rushing yards since the New Orleans Saints selected him with the 28th overall pick in the 2011 draft.

The only defense Ingram has at this stage of his career is opportunity. The Saints have enough talent in their backfield -- with Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles in the mix -- one could argue that a crowded depth chart has factored into Ingram's lack of production. On the other hand, another former Alabama runner, Green Bay rookie Eddie Lacy, has gained 446 yards this season and launched himself into the early conversation for offensive rookie of the year honors. He's already proven what some scouts thought about him when he entered the draft -- that he could be better than both Ingram and Richardson in the long run.

The big question the Colts now face is whether Richardson can elevate his game in the second half of this season. Indianapolis already lost one huge offensive weapon when Pro Bowl wide receiver Reggie Wayne tore his ACL against Denver, so it's fair to assume the Colts will need more from their running game. If Richardson really does have star potential, this is the time to start showing it. But if what we've seen so far is any indication, nobody in Indianapolis should be raising their hopes too high.

I think it's safe to say that the Browns won this deal far and away. Pretty much what I've been saying the whole time - Richardson just isn't explosive enough to be a game changer.

It will be interesting to see how long he lasts in this league. He is a BenJarvus Green-Ellis type, so I think he will split carries for a long time, but his next contract is going to be pennies compared to this one.

[Glenbino]

I picked up Donald Brown to start at RB for me in FF this week because SF/DEN having the same BYE killed me.

So this is probably the week TRich goes for 230 and 5 scores

[Maynard]

Richardson has logged 373 carries in his two-year career. Only 20 of those rushing attempts have ended in a run longer than 10 yards,

says it all

[BigBucs]

I picked up Donald Brown to start at RB for me in FF this week because SF/DEN having the same BYE killed me.

So this is probably the week TRich goes for 230 and 5 scores

Hope so, Moreno is on a bye for me and most of my WRs are questionable or sucks.

[ThunderHorse]

Is jj watt hurt?

Because if he isn't. I think picking a colt RB, any for that matter, is a bad idea this week.

Indy has terrible guards and a shitty center. Fantasy wise look for Watt to blow some shit up.

[Influence]

I think I may have figured out the problem with Trent Richardson: the Colts have not yet accepted who he is.

To understand who he is, they first need to grasp who he is not. He is not Arian Foster or Adrian Peterson. Take a look at these Foster highlights from the Texans’ playoff win against Cincinnati last season, or these Peterson highlights from the Vikings’ game against the Panthers a few weeks ago. Both are powerful, explosive backs who find holes between the tackles, hit them hard and burst into the secondary like cannonballs.
Richardson simply isn’t that sort of runner, despite the Colts’ efforts to shoehorn him into a similar role. Here are a few of his best plays: a screen against the Chargers, a 32-yard touchdown run when he was with the Browns and a 15-yard touchdown run with the Browns. On all three plays, Richardson got into space and made quick hesitation cuts that froze defenders.
Whereas Foster is a one-cut dynamo and Peterson might have the best acceleration in the NFL, Richardson’s best asset is his lateral quickness. He’s not the type of back who can blast through an A gap and pick up 40 yards.
That doesn’t mean he can’t be an elite running back. It just means he needs to be used differently. Lateral quickness doesn’t do him much good when he’s slamming into the middle of the line on carry after carry, particularly when the middle of that line consists of a rookie and two below-average players.
Yet of Richardson’s 71 carries with the Colts, 29 have been up the middle, per Pro-Football-Reference.com. Those 29 carries have gained just 79 yards, a 2.72 average.
Donald Brown, Richardson’s backup, is far more similar to Foster and Peterson (though he’s not nearly as good as them). On his 50-yard run in Jacksonville, Brown flashed the decisiveness and burst that make him a useful back. As he showed while carrying 11 times for 23 yards in the Broncos game, however, the whispers that Brown is significantly better than Richardson and ready for a featured role are off-base. He’s far more effective as a change of pace runner. But with his acceleration, he may be better suited to the interior runs that have mostly been going to Richardson.
Richardson’s style, meanwhile, seems to demand a role more like that of Reggie Bush in Detroit or Darren Sproles in New Orleans. Both teams run lots of plays that get the ball in their backs’ hands with some empty field in front of them and a chance to show off their moves.
ESPN’s Jeffri Chadiha wrote Thursday, in the 5,723rd “See? Trent Richardson sucks!” article to grace the Internet, that Richardson “remains the disappointing talent the Browns had the good sense to deal.” Most of the article is the same surface-level junk everyone has been saying, that Richardson has a low per-carry average and is never going to amount to anything. But Chadiha also drops a couple interesting quotes from an anonymous Browns source, who says: “There is a lot to like about Trent. He’s solid, dependable, hard-working. The problem is that he’s not explosive.” The source later adds this: ”I saw him score on a 1-yard touchdown in his first game there (a 27-7 win over San Francisco) and the announcer said that was why the Colts traded for him. And all I could think was that play was right in Trent’s wheelhouse. He’ll make those plays for you all day. But when you need seven yards, he’ll still get you three.”
For the types of runs in which the Colts have been using Richardson, that Browns source is absolutely right. Richardson is going to run for about three yards on most carries up the gut, because he doesn’t have the explosiveness of a Foster or Peterson (or even Brown).
But as he showed on that screen against the Chargers, when given space, Richardson is a nightmare to bring down. He’s strong enough to shed arm tackles and has a devastating juke move.
Moving forward, the Colts would do well to give Richardson more delayed handoffs, runs around the ends, screen passes and dumpoffs, while turning to Brown on more of their beloved interior power runs. Richardson has a long way to go to prove he was worth a first-round pick, but if used well, he could still turn into a top-knotch playmaker.

http://profootballnetworks.com/2013/11/02/using-trent-richardson-properly/

[ThunderHorse]

Pep Hamilton has already admitted he needs to reevaluate how Indy is making use of Richardson's skill set and talent.

http://www.faniq.com/blog/Colts-OC-looking-to-get-Trent-Richardson-in-space-more-often-Blog-72139

Indy has to be less predictable if they ever want to get this guy going. Watching Richardson you can tell he's not perfect, but if Indianapolis refuses to get the guy in space this trade looks even worse. You don't draft a short yardage back in the first round.

It will be interesting to see what they do tonight with Houston's defense. If Indy decides to continue hopelessly plugging Richardson behind McGlynn/Satele, Watt will probably have a career game.

[ThunderHorse]

http://profootballnetworks.com/2013/...dson-properly/

This was a head scratcher for me.

I understand (mostly) where the guy is coming from. But did he really just say Indy needs to use Brown in their power run game?

The Donald is quick, but he doesn't bang. At all...

[JeremyHight]

Any running back at the NFL level should be tough to take down in the open field. Lynch, Peterson, CJ2K, and even lesser backs like Bush, Rice, and his own teammate Brown are all hard to take down in open space. The difference is that they can actually get to open space, while Richardson cannot. This isn't college where space is plentiful, you have to get to it yourself with agility and vision. Richardson cannot do that.

I was thinking about this today while watching the games. How many teams would think of Richardson as an upgrade? I cannot think of many and there are plenty of 4th+ rounders that are starting in the league.