When Browns running back Trent Richardson was at Alabama, his feats of strength were legendary: Richardson bench pressed 475 pounds in the Crimson Tide weight room, and he wanted to do more but the coaching staff wouldn’t let him try. But Browns strength and conditioning coach Kent Johnston says Richardson’s strength isn’t limited to lifting weights.
“You know that old term, country-boy strong? He is country-boy strong,” Johnston told the Canton Repository. “Trent’s the type of guy who, if he never touched a weight, he’d be a strong man. But he has really enhanced that by the work he put in at Alabama.”
Johnston says that Richardson has the natural athletic ability to be a great player, and Johnston sees his own job as being more about helping Richardson to stay healthy than about doing anything to make him any stronger than he already is.
“He has a strength and power ratio right now that can allow him to be elite, physically,” Johnston said. “I want him to maintain that, and I would like to work on things that can help him stay durable.”
Johnston is just the latest in a line of Browns coaches to be amazed by Richardson’s talent. If Richardson stays durable, the Browns should have an elite running back for years to come.