He makes excuses, and it's usually pretty easy to back up excuses with some facts, unless you're just delusional. But the excuses don't change the fact that nothing happened to Trent that doesn't come with being a big boy in the National Football League. He wasn't blacklisted; he faced challenges that apparently he couldn't overcome. But that's as much his fault as it is the Browns.
One simple question - what has Trent done to help his career since the trade?
What will do him good at this point? He's basically been deemed a "bust" by three teams. I don't fault the Colts or Raiders, because I believe that his confidence and trust may have been irreparably shattered by the Browns infidelity. There's nothing irrational about blaming the Browns. Can you argue that taking a player very early, putting him into an offense that ranked 31st out of 32 teams in rushing the prior season at a 3.7 ypc average, giving him more carries (267) than the leading two rushers combined (249) from the prior season, getting approximately the same ypc average (3.6) with three times the TD production (10 TDs vs. 3 TDs), and then giving up on him in the second game of his second season is rational? Reasonable?
I remember the entire episode and it wasn't presented to the world as Indianapolis chooses with their first draft pick -- Trent Richardson. It was presented as "another running back BUST from Alabama to join Glen Coffee and Mark Ingram" because at that time people did consider Ingram to be a BUST. The Browns fans were ecstatic to have another high draft pick since they considered their two gunslingers from the Big12 (Weeden and McCoy) as busts. Indianapolis' fanbase was split on whether he was worth it -- half said that it would "help the passing game" to have a legitimate running game and half saying that the pick could have been saved for better value. Some pointed to Donald Brown's statistics and argued that he was a better back while some said that the team seemed to purposely block better for him. Who knows what gets into the locker room, but there were some hints that there might have been some division within the team over the RB position.
At Cleveland, Richardson was the Brown's baby -- fresh from the stork and full of promise (for fans not named Jim Brown). When he got to Indy, he was basically an outside contractor brought in to meet a need and when you are the #3 pick tossed to the next team, you are either a savior or "the first round ego with seventh round production".
Excuse the TAB character craziness here.
Mark Ingram first year stats:
GP Carries Yards Avg. Long TD 1st Dwns FUM
[TABLE="width: 512"]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 10
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 122
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 474
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 3.9
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 35
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 5
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 30
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 64"] 1
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Trent Richardson first year stats:
GP Carries Yards Avg. Long TD 1st Dwns FUM
[TABLE="width: 512"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]15
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]267
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]950
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]3.6
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]32
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]11
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]36
[/TD]
[TD="width: 64, align: right"]3
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
I'm looking at these numbers and one doesn't scream BUST and one scream KEEP HIM ANOTHER 3 YEARS, but yet that's what happened. Mark was blessed with the opportunity to grow into the role and Trent was blessed with the OLine from the 31st ranked rushing team in 2011. Then his stats are compared to backs that are taking less than half the punishment with the inquisition "why aren't you equaling their production on a higher scale proportional to the increased number of carries?" Because, we know that pounding the ball on 3rd and short always gets the same yardage as a carry on 1st and 10 or 2nd and 6, right?
It's history now. The Browns got basically the same YPC production from a single back that they got with two backs the previous season, but tripled TD production. It was basically the same offensive line, shell game at QB, I assume that they had receivers on the roster although I can't remember any names, and they got similar production from one guy compared with two. That spells B-U-S-T to anyone who's listening, I suppose. Listening for an opportunity to correct their QB problem? Maybe. I am still trying to find where Trent is at fault here.
C'mon guys. It is apparently as obvious as my nose in front of my face since you all say that I'm just too emotionally involved with Trent. I want to see the fault. Please. Don't allow me to continue to suffer as Trent's collegiate message board emotional blanket. I really do want to see what he did wrong to be unceremoniously dumped with foster parents in a new city and called a "bust". Am I ever going to be informed or just continued to be labeled as that poor, emotional soul who can't let it go?
I'll let you know right now. I'm not emotional at all. I'm an engineer. I look at numbers and make judgement accordingly. If you (impersonal you, as if I were addressing a Programmable Logic Controller, since you could be misconstrued as an emotional attachment to my audience) aren't producing reasonably within the proper context, then I have no problem with shutting you down. If Trent was given a reasonable chance at success before being given up for adoption, I have no problem with that. If that's the case, I IMPLORE YOU to show me the numbers that justify it. I haven't seen anything yet that tells me that his production wasn't cutting muster. I have seen where a lot of people apparently made comparisons between him and "that running back couple of years ago" and then decided that he was obviously targeted for premature retirement and decided to take preemptive action. If that is the case, then I have no problem with someone saying, "Yes, that is the case." I do have a problem with someone prejudging someone, taking preemptive action, and then saying that the person so prejudged was deserving of that preemptive action unless they can prove to me that the person had done something to justify the action. If anyone calls me emotional again, I will hack your account and replace all of your images with Kristi Malzahn.
Now, give me some metrics of culpability for Trent Richardson, preferably in metric units.
So first I'm too emotionally attached and now stats are overhyped? Unfortunately, in the game of football, performance is measured by statistics. The fantasy leagues are run on statistics. No one says the day after their fantasy RB underperforms, "I'm sure there was a good reason. Stats aren't everything."
Here's the thing about ratios, the quantity of the ratio is dependent on both the output and the input. Here's where your stats are overhyped point is perhaps valid: the THREAT of a rushing attack is it's real value in a passing-heavy team. There are plenty of carries given in a game that are intended to influence how the defense deploys itself. If the defense does not fear your ability to run the ball, they drop their safety into coverage to mitigate the passing threat. If they do, however, fear your ability to run the ball they will put the safety "into the box" bringing him up behind the LBs to be the stop-gap and that typically forces single-coverage onto some poor DB. I don't know how many times I have heard someone bemoan, "another run up the middle... why do they keep doing that, " and then see a play-action pass deep on a subsequent play once the offense has effectively manipulated the numbers into their favor for a particular shot. The running back often, VERY OFTEN, doesn't get anything out of those carries, but if he has the ability to occasionally bust a long run, the defense MUST respect that possibility and protect against it.
Like I said, when he went to Indy, most of the talk was about how his presence would help the passing game by forcing the defenses to keep their safety in check on most plays. This is his value to a passing team and he also had the ability to pass protect and run screens. In 2011, the Browns passing offense ranked 30th in net yards/attempt while in 2012, it improved to 25th. In 2013, it fell back to 27th and then it improved to 16th last season with a three-headed rushing attack. A running back on a team that primarily passes has to put the team goals ahead of his own and take a lot of punishment on inside plays that don't net a lot of yards, but keep the defense from playing only the pass. This appears to be how Trent was being used and I would think that he knew it. Then the stats are turned against you when it is convenient to do so.
Clearly, you're not emotional about this at all.
I'm not emotional about Trent being let go. I'm emotional because obviously I cannot explain this simple -- SIMPLE TO ME ANYWAY -- premise adequately.
If I'm driving at 55 mph down A street and an externally-invoked event (deer runs into the path of your car) occurs which affects my car and I am no longer going 55 mph after the event and I turn down B and C streets and still cannot reach 55 mph again, I do not say, "My car failed. The event obviously was not to blame because I have driven down three different streets and still my car won't accelerate back to 55 mph.
"The car was driving fine until this event, but if you drive down three different streets and cannot resume 55 mph, something is wrong with the car and the event that affected my car and preceded this degradation in performance must not be at fault because the car was driving fine before the event and other cars have driven by at 55 mph and while they have not been impacted by the same event as my car, since they are working fine, the fault must lie with my car."
CAR(property: condition: fine) --> EVENT(DEER runs into CAR) --> CAR (property: condition: degraded) --> ACTION(CAR changes STREET) ---> CAR (property: condition: degraded) --> ACTION (CAR changes STREET) --> CAR(property: condition: no longer working)
YOUR ANALYSIS: CAR is at FAULT, DEER is not at FAULT because CAR(property: condition: fine) on STREET A before DEER, CAR(property: condition: degraded) ON STREET A after DEER, CAR (property: condition: degraded) on STREET B after DEER, CAR(property: condition: degraded) on STREET C after DEER
Can anyone see why I get frustrated?
Everyone keeps saying he had a shoddy offensive line in Cleveland, and that was actually their strong point.
They had the fifth best line in the league in 2012. They has two studs (Joe Thomas and Alex Mack), a breakout rookie (Mitchell Schwartz), a solid vet (Greco), and only ONE lineman that graded below average on the year.
I don't think many of the people in this discussion truly follow professional football. You just assume the line was bad because of his numbers, when they actually graded out fifth.
Their preseason ranking was 14th, so they were even better than advertised.
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So the Cleveland Browns trading Trent Richardson is the sole reason he had worse stats than other RBs? That's what I took from your scenario.
That is possible. To think that that premise is impossible is to ascribe athletic success completely to physical attributes. Do you think that the public emasculation of a proud athlete would improve his performance?
Ok but would you rather have a runningback that started in nearly 16 games that had 150+ attempts with 500 yards and some change, or a rb that played in 4 or 5 games with 70 attempts and 400 yards. Those are roughly tr vs dan Herron's stats for the colts last year. Same team.
Also why are you so hard on the notion abou the browns getting rid of him. You are talking about a team with a horrible qb, an average oline, and that throws it close to 50% of the time trading a guy to a team that has an elite qb, a little below average oline, and throws it 80 to 90% of the time. That makes the browns a moot point. He went into a far better situation with the colts so really why does the browns situation even matter. Tr was in the position knowshawn Moreno was when Peyton came to Denver. Moreno finally hit 1k. Plus many here have outlined why the browns traded him and how his yards per carry really make his decline seem clear. It's not this big Glenn beck conspiracy. Blount has been with as many, if not more, teams than Trent but is still welcomed with open arms. Why??? Maybe ypc are better stats than total yards and Tds
I remember there was an interview with a prominent person that worked in the Browns GM office that gave some info on why the Browns traded him so soon. He stated that the Browns were trying to make him use better mechanics and see the field better in order to stay healthy and be productive past his rookie year, but they said Trent was either too slow to catch on or too hard headed to change. So instead of getting stuck with another Peyton Hillis situation the Browns were looking for a team that was desperate for a running back and would pay big to get what seemed to be a good one that was on the rise.
I think its time to say Trent is another Ron Dayne story in which he was great in college but a bust in the pros. I loved watching Trent at Alabama and hate to see his career turn out like this, but it seems like it isn't meant to be
i personally thought trent was about as sure a pick as there ever was going into the nfl, but he never seemed to be able to get a solid footing after he was traded by cleveland. I heard he was having trouble dealing with the people around him. It may have been his girlfriend or it may have been other people, but it seemed everyone wanted a piece of his big nfl payday. This situation appears to be similar to many other players who had trouble managing their money. I hope trent comes back, gets his degree and goes into coaching.
That didn't start until he started playing bad. It's not like people were bashing him before he got a NFL carry. People started bashing him when his production was bad.
Just to remind some folks. From earlier in the thread...

Originally Posted by 81usaf92![]()
I remember there was an interview with a prominent person that worked in the Browns GM office that gave some info on why the Browns traded him so soon. He stated that the Browns were trying to make him use better mechanics and see the field better in order to stay healthy and be productive past his rookie year, but they said Trent was either too slow to catch on or too hard headed to change. So instead of getting stuck with another Peyton Hillis situation the Browns were looking for a team that was desperate for a running back and would pay big to get what seemed to be a good one that was on the rise.
I think its time to say Trent is another Ron Dayne story in which he was great in college but a bust in the pros. I loved watching Trent at Alabama and hate to see his career turn out like this, but it seems like it isn't meant to be
Wow, you retorted yourself. That's TRULY AMAZING. So even before they traded him and while he was still -- allegedly -- their running back AND on the rise, they had decided that he was going to be a failure because someone else before him had been. I wonder what else those two people had in common? We know that they both had great offensive lines in front of them.
That's the way I like to run my business. I like tarot cards and Oujia for making key personnel decisions also.
When that "Fat Eddie Lacy" photo came out, the Browns told the Packers, "He'll never last. He's just too big."