In the eight games since the Colts shipped a first-round draft pick to Cleveland for running back Trent Richardson, they’ve gotten a whopping 96 carries for 272 yards worth of production out of him. Does that sound like it’s worth a first-round pick to you?
Colts coach Chuck Pagano admits that 2.8 yards a carry isn’t what he was hoping for from Richardson, but Pagano claims that Richardson isn’t doing anything wrong. Instead, Pagano thinks Richardson has just had some bad luck, although Pagano can’t quite explain why it keeps happening.
“I don’t know if he’s snake bit, I don’t know what the heck is going on,” Pagano said. “We’ll get it fixed. We’ll get the holes there. He’s making the right reads, he’s doing all the right things, he knows what to do. He played great without the ball, protection-wise, those things. His numbers are going to come. I’m not concerned about that.”
Pagano said that Richardson hasn’t always had holes to run through, and you can’t blame him for that.
“You look at Trent’s runs, for whatever reason, there’s penetration, a guy is pulling and falls down,” Pagano said. “There’s a guy in the backfield waiting there. He had some really good runs, plays that he made in space, screens, things like that he does a great job with. That’s going to come.”
Asked if the Colts have any buyer’s remorse for the Richardson trade, Pagano answered, “Absolutely not.” That’s a little hard to believe, as it becomes clearer and clearer that they’ve given up next year’s first-round pick for a running back who isn’t as good as the one they already had on the roster, Donald Brown.
