@ MIN
vs. CIN
vs. BUF
vs. DET
@ GB
@ KC
vs. BAL
@ CIN
vs. PIT
vs. JAC
@ NE
vs. CHI
@ NYJ
@ PIT
Every team on their schedule except Jacksonville is clearly better than the Browns. Home games against Buffalo, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh might be close, but I don’t see Cleveland winning more than two of those. The Jets might self-destruct before week 16, but they’ve defied expectations so far this season. The season finale is going to have both teams playing for pride, and I’m going to go with the team with Super Bowl veterans over the team that quit in week 2. When are the Browns going to win all these games?
I realize Indy was most likely the only team willing to give up a 1st Round pick, but its not going to be a high pick, and will most likely be in the 21-26 pick range. The trade is good for Indy, and pretty meh for Cleveland.
I don’t how they sell this move to their season ticket holders. I could see this having a detrimental affect going forward. How do you ask a fanbase to throw down the cash on 10 homegames, and then give up on the season this early? I know they would really need to wow me in FA and the draft to even consider renewing next year.
Cleveland won this trade. Brilliant move. A steal. Kudos to their front office. If I’m a Browns fan (and I do root for longsuffering fanbases), I’m thrilled.
You can piss and moan all you want about about how they’re “giving up” on the season, but the Browns were going nowhere this year. You know it, I know it, they know it. All that matters is building a team that will contend at some point in the future.
Drafting Richardson was a mistake to begin with; given the way the modern NFL game is played, RBs are not all that essential. You should only be taking a RB in the first round if you are a team that’s set at the more important positions, or if you think the back is truly great. The Browns have many, many needs to fill, QB being the obvious one, and based on evidence so far, Richardson is very probably not a great back.
There are 10 other RBs in the last 20 yearswho had 200 carries as a rookie and posted less than 3.8 yards per tote. Two went on to great careers (Tomlinson and Ricky Williams). The other eight were various shades of “just a guy,” and several were first-round busts.
AFAIK, all the advanced-metrics agree: Richardson was somewhere between “adequate” and “pretty good” as a rookie. You can say he was playing injured … but that’s a sword that cuts both ways.
The new regime gets a chance to swap out an OK player, who has upside but also injury history, for a mid-first-round pick? Great, great deal.
Hell, yes it is. Next year, the 2nd pick likely equates to either the best pass-rushing prospect in years, or your choice of Bridgewater or Boyd. By the 10th pick, you’re asking yourself if it’s a reach to grab Brett Hundley this high, or if you should trade back.
Given that “not blowing the season” equates to “we went 5-11 instead of 2-14,” I’ll make that swap everytime.
This season is already sold. Next year you sell Teddy Bridgewater.
Last year Richardson was playing with broken ribs, but he lacked some of the sort of skills that make NFL runners great. He came to a stop behind the line of scrimmage way too frequently, waiting for wide open holes that don’t happen every play on the NFL level. He sought out contact unnecessarily. He lacked top end change of direction or burst. On the plus side, he was extremely tough, hard to take down, and broke a decent amount of tackles through strength. He was better in space, especially on swing passes.
It’s hard to say how much the bad offensive line play and lack of QB holds him back. But on the other hand - the truly great ones don’t matter. AP has Christian Ponder and nothing special on the O-line, and he makes it happen, so if Richardson were great and not just pretty good, he’d be productive anyway. I thought a lot of what held Richardson back last year was scheming and coaching… of course this year there are a bunch of guard injuries that result In atrocious guard play so it’s not the ideal situation. I’m not happy exactly, but if they finally fucking invest properly in a QB and not just try to scrimp by using that first round pick, I’ll be happy.
…Until you realize that the Browns other 2012 draft pick was Brandon Weeden, a widely criticized move at the time, and that the person in charge of all these pics next year is Mike Lombardi, the man you wouldn’t know was the smartest man in football unless you asked him. Browns are the Browns for a reason, and there’s no way they don’t screw this up, if they haven’t already.
(And I seriously think TR will flourish in Indy – he’s exactly what they needed to take the attention off Luck’s passing game.)
Banner and Lombardi were hired this year. Holmgren drafted Weeden.
Quite possible, and I was wrong to characterize it as Cleveland ripping off Indy; it could wind up being a win-win. But it was clearly the right move for Cleveland.
“I believe the safest pick in the draft—beyond Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III—is Alabama running back Trent Richardson. He’s a blue-chip player and has all the skills to quickly establish himself as a top-five player at his position. Forget the nonsense about not taking backs early—everyone would love the chance to get this guy.”
—Mike Lombardi, current Cleveland GM and former NFL.com columnist and NFL Network analyst, writing on NFL.com on April 23, 2012, three days before Richardson was picked third overall in the draft by the Browns.
Well, Lombardi probably knows more about him having seen him in NFL action and knowing what the coaches know behind the scenes. There were reasons for him not being great right off the bat - and some fairly good reasons - but the reality is that if you had no idea he was a top 5 pick, you wouldn’t think he was anything special. A first round draft pick is actually a really great return if you think he’s just a slightly better Cedric Benson.
Now Gordon, they’re trying to shop him and I will be fucking furious if he gets traded.
Maybe it’s a little premature but this is basically the best opportunity Richardson is going to get and he’s the same 3.5 ypc plodder he’s always been. Think of all the great RBs that were traded for less than a first round pick.