Trent Richardson is insatiable

Big Helmet Tap to BamaHammer.com for unearthing this gem of a story about former Alabama RB Trent Richardson’s drive to succeed in the Cleveland Browns’ rookie training camp.

For Richardson, perception of greatness isn’t enough. He also takes the recent criticism of former Browns’ great Jim Brown to heart, knowing that if he’s going to be compared to one of the most beloved players in Cleveland’s storied football history, he’s got work to do.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t already impressed his teammates, or shown them what he showed his former teammates in Tuscaloosa.

 

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“Jim Brown is an icon and you can always look up to him. He is one of the best at what he did and what we still do in this game. To be compared to him and to be on the same team, it’s big for me. For him to say [I’m ordinary], that’s big for me, too, because it tells me I’ve still gotta work, and I haven’t proved anything yet. I haven’t stepped a foot on the football field in a game, so I’ve still got a lot to prove.”

Richardson doesn’t seem the least bit ordinary to his new teammates or coaches, who got to work with him for the first time this weekend. It’s difficult to judge a running back when players aren’t practicing in pads and hitting, but Richardson still left quite an impression.

“Just look at him,” said quarterback Brandon Weeden, whom the Browns drafted 22nd overall. “Whatever he is – 5-10, 275 pounds and he’s 2 percent body fat – he’s a freak. He’s got a special ability when the ball’s in his hands. You can tell when you hand it to him, he takes it from you. He runs hard, and I’m really anxious to see him when he puts the pads on.”

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Ok, Richardson really isn’t 275 lbs of human freight train. It just feels like it when you’re trying to tackle him or get off of one his blocks. Assuming—heroically, of course—that the Browns can assemble a decent offensive line for Richardson and Weeden to work behind, it’s only a matter of time before Browns’ highlight reels begin to start looking a lot like this one:

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Will the Richardson pick pay off for Cleveland?

The Birmingham News’ Will Grant weighs in with a popular opinion among sportswriters, citing a well worn mantra that a change in offensive philosophy in the NFL has made the tailback position almost irrelevant. Grant goes out of his way to note Trent Richardson’s abilities. No one disputes that Richardson was by far the best player at his position. Indeed, most observers recognize that Richardson may be the best tailback to come along in a very long time.

He joins an offensive team that will be led by either former Texas quarterback Colt McCoy or former Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden. Both players came from pass happy spread attacks.

The game of football is cyclical. Over the last decade, the argument made by Grant et al is valid. Teams have been putting more emphasis on the quarterback and the passing game, and teams that have taken running backs in the first round haven’t set the world on fire.

Go ten or more years back however, and you find the likes of Shaun Alexander, Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith, featured backs that lit up box scores with 1,000+ yard seasons. Defenses had to adjust and build units designed to stop the run.

Offenses adjusted right back, defeating run-stopping defenses with multiple wide formations. Ten years ago, third and one was almost always a running down. Now, an inside trap on third and one would be considered “trickeration.”

Defenses are adjusting again, with greater emphasis being placed on pressuring the quarterback and shutting down the corners. Teams are drafting defensive players suited for that purpose and you saw it in the 2012 draft. There’s a premium on pass rushers and shutdown corners. Interior linemen and inside linebackers are coveted too, but not like they were when defenses had to account for bowling balls like Smith and Sanders.

Could we be entering a new era? Surely, offensive wizards in the NFL aren’t going to let their defensive counterparts get the best of them. They’re going to adjust again, and the best way to defeat a pass-stopping defense is to run the football more.

It’s way to early to tell if Richardson’s physical gifts and abilities will make him such a special talent that the Browns’ pick was a no-brainer. It’s also too early to know whether the Browns are in the midst of a subtle philosophical adjustment that begins to swing the pendulum back to the Neanderball days.

If they are, the Browns made the right pick. Richardson is the product of an offensive system that runs right over you, and no one did it better than he and Alabama in winning two national championships. If they aren’t, and the Browns intend to go with the current flow of slinging the ball all over the field, the only beneficiary of Cleveland’s big bet will be Richardson and his family.

Whether this pick pays for the Browns or not, it’s sure going to pay Trent well.

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