Oakland Raiders: Trent Richardson Release No Surprise

By Jonathan George | Sep 1, 2015

On Monday the Oakland Raiders announced their first round of cuts in an attempt to get down to 75 players by the Tuesday deadline. Not surprisingly, per Bill Williamson of ESPN.com, one of those cuts was running back Trent Richardson. Richardson registered 5 carries for only 19 yards against mostly back up and third stringers in Sunday night’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals, a final sign that he was not destined to be on the roster after the first round of cuts.

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If anyone were to be honest about Richardson’s situation, they would probably admit that once he missed a bunch of time at the start of training camp he was pretty far behind the eight-ball and would need some very good production in the first few games to make the team. Via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk back in February, the talk surrounding Richardson was not positive.

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Rumors swirled around him being overweight at the start of Raiders camp, an issue he had when he was with the Colts.

When general manager Reggie McKenzie brought Richardson in, it was with the hope he would earn a role as either the second-string running back or even possibly as the starter if he excelled. But McKenzie knew what kind of baggage Richardson brought with him, and signed him to a low contract number that was very team friendly. Despite being cut Richardson will make about $600,000 in guaranteed salary; a pretty small gamble in the contract world of the NFL.

Richardson has two of the worst things you can have when it comes to trying to make a team: a recent history of low production, and a recent history of work ethic concerns.

Beyond being late to camp with what was allegedly an illness issue, Richardson showed some struggles right away in the running game. Videos showing him missing a huge hole on a carry against the Rams in the first preseason game went viral; In all fairness, it appeared Richardson was just trying to follow the play design, but you would hope that an NFL quality running back would notice a five foot plus wide hole and be able to quickly deviate from the planned run.

It didn’t get much better against Minnesota either. Richardson only managed to rush for 5 yards on 5 carries; it doesn’t take a mathematician to see that only adds up to a yard a carry.

In all, Richardson ended up carrying the ball a total of 15 times for 42 yards and no scores. He needed to be able to show a lot more than he did to stick around, and the fact that the Raiders didn’t wait until the final 53-man roster cuts to release Richardson shows the coaches and management didn’t expect him to get any better.

So what’s next for Richardson and his NFL career?

It’s probably too early to say he is done as a pro football rusher, but he would need a special circumstance to get back onto a team anytime soon. Most likely, either the Raiders or someone else that runs a similar scheme would need to have a rash of injuries for Richardson to catch on somewhere. Richardson has two of the worst things you can have when it comes to trying to make a team: a recent history of low production, and a recent history of work ethic concerns.

Time will tell what’s next for Trent Richardson, but he is done with the Oakland Raiders. Anyone that has watched him since he was signed can’t really be surprised either.

Next: Raiders: If...And....But For 2015

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