Trent Richardson Gets Cut
Trent Richardson might be the biggest bust in recent memory. QBs get all the love and it’s hard to understate the whale that was JaMarcus Russell for recent busts but I think Trent might have an argument. Everybody thought highly of him, many saw him as the next Peterson. Even the few people who recognized that he played behind a great line still thought he’d be great. The Browns traded up to get him at #3, swapping places with the Vikings to get him ahead of Tampa.
He wasn’t awful his first year but he certainly wasn’t what we expected him to be. There were injuries that kept him off the field for a lot of his first season. Then the Browns traded him. I remember laughing at the Browns being the Browns, trading a first round #3 overall pick to the Colts for what would presumably be a later first round pick than what they used to get Trent. Then it turned out to be one of the Browns smartest moves this decade and Indy looked foolish for picking him up, as Trent sucked. His first carry in the playoffs against the Chiefs was a fumble. He spent most of the season stuck behind Donald Brown.
Last year he couldn’t even beat out old glass ankles Ahmad Bradshaw. I love Bradshaw to death but there’s no way a #3 overall pick should be easily the lesser choice on a broken old RB like Bradshaw is. When Bradshaw inevitably got hurt, Trent managed a whole game and a half before getting benched for some 6th round dude named Dan Herron. He didn’t play in the playoffs because he didn’t inform the team of a family emergency he skipped town for.
The Colts cut him and he got snatched up by the rebuilding Raiders, who greatly struggled with the run last season. He got 600K guaranteed money for it. He got released yesterday. According to their website, as of time of this writing, there are still 6 RBs on the Raiders roster. That number will shrink by next week. Trent wasn’t even on the bubble.
His NFL tenure is marred by jokes and screenshots of him having literally no vision and missing gaping holes, and not being the hard hitting monster he was at Bama. All the criticism we laid at Eddie Lacy coming out (He just played behind a great line!) that dropped him into round 2 turned out to be the criticism we should have laid at Richardson’s feet, as Lacy is actually as advertised.
Trent might get picked up soon by somebody, but really, it looks like he’s toast. You don’t get cut from a RB roster like the Raiders current one if you have promise. I think he’s the biggest bust in the past 5 years. I think he belongs in the discussion for the last decade.
Will Trent Richardson ever get good vision?
Find out in the next episode of…THE DRAW PLAY!
Seriously, the Colts run game last year was uninspiring, and Richardson didn’t help any.
It would be hilarious if he ended up back with the RB-needy Browns.
JaMarcus is the biggest bust ever, IMHO. Leaf is remembered because he gets compared to Manning, but Leaf was the second pick. JaMarcus was #1. Trent definitely belongs in the discussion for the biggest one in the last few years, but I’d also like to float the name Aaron Curry.
Number 4 overall pick (by Seattle) and in the discussion for the #1 spot, Aaron Curry was supposed to be the safest pick in the draft. He was the highest linebacker drafted in 9 years and got the most guaranteed money to a non-QB rookie in NFL history. He was traded after two years (for a seventh and a conditional) and out of the league in four. Take this with a grain of salt, because I’m a Seahawks fan, but I think Curry belongs in the discussions for biggest bust in recent memory.
Aaron Curry is an excellent choice for biggest bust and has quite the argument as well
I’m still sticking with Tony Mandarich being the biggest bust of all time.
I’d like to suggest Vernon Gholston. Guy had a $9 million clause in his contract if he was able to get one sack, one forced fumble, or one fumble recovery and still couldn’t show up on the stat sheet.
As a Chargers fan… Leaf. Always Leaf.
Never Forget.
as far as busts go, don’t forget Dion Jordan. I wish I could
That whole draft class was a shitshow so who cares anyway
Lane Johnson was right after that. I’d bet the Dolphins would kill for him to be their LT right now.
Dion Johnson belongs in Canada. Cameron Wake came from Canada. Dion Jordan is the biggest example of Jeff Ireland’s draft blunders. Cameron Wake was the last big move by the big tuna (he retired as gm after the 2009 season, but he left by getting Miami EarthWake)
You would be wrong. The Dolphins would not want Lane Johnson over Branden Albert at left tackle, considering that he is a right tackle. Jason Peters is Philly’s left tackle. And while it’s true that Johnson is good at his position, the Dolphins have a good right tackle themselves who did a somewhat decent job manning the blindside (Ja’Wuan James).
Could of had Ezekial Ansah. He’s doing very well in Detroit
Would Ansah be starting over Wake and Vernon in Miami though?
I know you can argue that he played when he shouldn’t have, but I will always say RG3 is thr biggest bust. He was supposed to be a sure thing like Andrew Luck, a once in a generation talent. They traded away their entire future to get him. A guy as talented as he was supposed to be shouldn’t be limited after recovering from injuries like he is.
Of course physically he’s fine now, but now he doesn’t even know how to play football anymore. You could put Luck out there with a walker and he’d still win a few games.
I legitimately don’t think he’s been physically fine since he first hurt his knee.
It’s hard to call a guy a bust when he did win ROY & take the team to a playoff game. It’s not his fault that Shanahan wanted to play chicken with his bum knee.
RG3 at least got his team a playoff run before falling apart.
RG3 is a bust but he’s not the same level. He managed to be a great player his first year, then mismanagement and his own hubris turned him into what he is today. He’ll never be the biggest bust simply because he actually was great for a small portion of time and got to the playoffs.
RG3 is kind of like Vince Young if you ask me. He was hyped and all but then his career imploded due to a lot of factors…
Did Trent fumble his beard in panel 8?
Even though Trent Richardson has been absolutely dreadful, I don’t think he’s comparable to Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russel, only because he did have *some* success on the Browns. He rushed for 950 yards and 11 tds in his first year on the Browns, which is much more than what Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus did for their respective teams. I haven’t seen Richardson play though, so those stats may (and probably) not tell the whole story. My point being, Richardson actually contributed for a small amount of time, which is something you can’t say for other busts.
Richardson probably wins the biggest bust award since running backs are such fungible assets. Heck, after Richardson, there was a two year drought where no RB was worth a 1st round pick, and there’s plenty of productive runners who fell, compared to productive players at other positions. When you’re drafting a running back in the top 3, the expectation is that he’s going to give you 8 years of Pro Bowl caliber production considering how comparatively easy it is to find solid running back play.
Trent is a bust, no doubt, but I don’t think he can hold a candle to FatMarcus still, given that Trent was at least on the rookie scale, as opposed to being able to demand a gigantic payday that cripples his team for the future.
I feel bad for RGIII, because as much as he sure seems to be a tool I really think he was grossly mismanaged by the Shanaclan and hasn’t been the same since.
I agree! RG3 wasn’t always utilized as much as he could have been, among other issues with him
People can be harsh critics. Yeah, he wasn’t close to NFL elite or even NFL average at running the football. And yes, he was a waste of the 3rd overall pick and any money subsequent teams paid to add him to the roster. But lets not forget the truly important addition he had to the NFL and society as a whole: his mildly impressive (or so I hear) sex tape.
I would say that both Sanchez and Tebow were both pretty big busts in a way, as Sanchez was picked #5 overall and only had 2 great seasons before slipping into mediocrity in his 3rd and completely missing his 4th, and then getting cut. He’s been an average QB for the Eagles and is now a backup to No-Knees Bradford.
Tebow was late first round (#25) but he was still a first rounder. He was ok in his first season but insanely overhyped due to late-game heroics and that finish from the Steelers-Broncos wild card game. He was then traded because of Peyton Manning, did nothing with the Jets, got cut from the Patriots in Training Camp, and left the NFL for a while before the Eagles signed him, where he’s now a backup along with Sanchez.
Leaf and Russell are still the biggest busts ever though.
Just FYI Dave Amari and Trent were never on the same team, Trent left after the 2011 season and Amari arrived for the 2012 season. Still I enjoyed your stuff!
I wouldn’t call Tebow a bust. He actually won games and got to the second round of the playoffs in his only extended period of starting. He gets results but a lot of people just don’t want to give him a chance as a starter because he “just can’t throw”.
I’ve always felt sorry for the guy – he wasn’t bad, he was just fragile – but Jake Locker I think is underrated in terms of how big a bust he was, mainly because the following players were all taken within ten picks of him:
Tyron Smith
JJ Watt
Robert Quinn
Ryan Kerrigan
The biggest bust to me though will always be Mandarich, just because he was surrounded by amazing talent. Sanders, Thomas, Deion, Atwater, Rison, just to name a few prominent players from that year’s draft.
EXCUSE ME>>> some sixth round dude named dan Herron?? starting tailback for THE OSU buckeyes. played for cincy, indy, and buffalo. produces everywhere he goes. trent and dan played college ball about the same time. so I disagree. on paper, dan herron has far out produced trent Richardson. and dan herron is far from some sixth round dude. c’mon man!