Rushing touchdowns are a very misleading statistic. Tolbert in 2010 had 735 yards (4.0 YPC) and 11 touchdowns. Would you consider him to have had an impressive season? They are entirely dependent on if that team is willing to give you a bunch of opportunities in the redzone. Scoring from 5 yards or so out truly shouldn't be that difficult so to me, Richardson scoring 11 touchdowns doesn't mean much of all to me. It is only 1 less than Peterson's amount last year yet I have my doubts that you would consider Richardson as good as getting the ball into the endzone as Peterson is. It is entirely dependent on opportunity. Richardson was afforded that and he is solid in short yardage, sure. But it isn't that impressive to me.
We can ignore or not ignore stats. If we don't ignore it, it doesn't matter because his numbers are still quite poor. If we do ignore it, we have a running back with horrendous burst and vision. The reason Richardson doesn't get to the second level is because he lacks the change of direction or vision to do so, at least not consistently. No different than Mark Ingram, two products of the Alabama offensive line.
It most certainly is robbery. Indianapolis could be getting equal production from a third round running back. Just from this draft, we have Eddie Lacy and Giovani Bernard from the second round outproducing Richardson. Backs aren't that difficult to find. I said it on the other forum. And these days, you do not spend or trade a first round pick for a mediocre back like Richardson who is as dependent on his offensive line as you are making it out to be. Cleveland basically traded away a below average running back for a first round pick. That is robbery no matter how you slice it.
So the fault really is on Pep Hamilton and the offensive line but of course blaming Trent Richardson is the popular thing to do when you don't analyze the game and just pay attention to yellow journalism.
Then why does Donald Brown routinely look better than Richardson whenever he runs the ball when they are running behind the same offensive line with the same offensive coordinator?
I am watching the games. And I have watched Richardson. I said the same thing about Richardson even before he put on an Indianapolis uniform and even before a trade to them was announced. Richardson last year was a below average running back. It isn't the OC or the blocking. Are they good? No. But neither is Richardson.
And if Richardson is this dependent on everyone around him, is he
truly worth a first round pick?