Eight weeks after sending their first-round pick in 2014 to the Browns for running back Trent Richardson, the Colts claim they’d do it all over again.
That’s what an unnamed Colts source told Ian Rapoport of the Network The Colts Partially Own.
This one would be news only if the Colts were to admit they screwed up just as badly as the Browns did by trading up from No. 4 to No. 3 in the 2012 draft to take Richardson in the first place. And they did.
Despite any excuses made for Richardson’s 2.8 yards per carry average since arriving in Indy (and 0.4 against the Rams on Sunday), if Richardson were the kind of running back that justified giving up a first-round pick in an era that he seen the position become greatly devalued with plenty of quality running backs available in later rounds of the draft (and after the draft), he’d be performing like it.
Last year, the issue was durability. This year, the issue is ineffectiveness. Next year, who knows what the problem will be?
But the excuses will persist and the Colts will continue to claim they don’t regret giving up their first-round draft pick for Richardson and there’s no reason for them to ever admit that which everyone else eventually will figure out, unless and until Richardson becomes Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, or Adrian Peterson.