Joe Lull of CBS Cleveland wrote a truly outstanding article about the TRich trade. I've found another guy who thinks with his brain! He says the Browns aren't any worse without TRich.
He does a great job of making his own case for this (for anybody with an open mind), but I can add a few things:
Norv Turner is from the Don "Air" Coryell coaching tree, and uses his own version of the same principles.
Because Turner had Emmitt Smith early, and Ladanian Tomlinson late, it came to be percieved that a great running back was important for his scheme to work.
Bullcrap. A number one, consistant deep threat reciever is (except for the quarterback) the most important piece.
The running back has more success because of this scary coverage-commanding reciever.
Though it's more pronounced in the Turner offense, this isn't unique to his system. It's a well-known "duh" principle applicable to every scheme.
This season, we see Ray Rice being stifled like TRich was, because the Ravens lost their deep threat. Pittsburgh doesn't really have very good backs, but they're good enough--if Big Ben had a deep threat.
Those of you who thought that Norv Turner was in Nirvana about Trent Richardson were delusional. He was really happy about Josh Gordon, though! With Josh Gordon and a good deep passer, he can take an average running back and get at least 3.5 yards per-carry.
Without Gordon, Richardson got stuffed. Not his fault.
Trent Richardson is a great talent. He would probably get an extra half yard per carry, or something...which isn't important.
NFL Radio has turned into Black Helicopter central. Boy, the whole team must be thinking "maybe I'm next", and "How can we win without Trent?"
Listen: If a player thinks a running back was that important, he's not smart enough for this team anyway. D'Qwell Jackson might sweat a little, but only because he's past 30. Greg Little? Oh you know he's nervous!
Well, one guy who isn't worrying about that is Jordon Cameron. He's the second most important part of the Turner offense. The deep threat (Gordon) goes deep outside, and the slot or wing TE (Cameron) runs intermediate-to-deep between the hash marks.
The TE takes bigger would-be run-stoppers with him, and the combination sometimes forces soft umbrella coverage. Gordon will open the deep middle up for Cameron, who will create more running lanes and space for the running backs.
Cinci vs. Pitt: Cinci runs a West Coast, but this is still instructive. Pitt's corners were woefully overmatched by AJ Green, so they sort of conceded. They played five to seven yards back, to make sure he couldn't blow their doors off vertically.
Dalton and Green took it, all day. Dalton kept hitting Green for six to nine yards. It was second and three or four all day, but the Steelers still couldn't count on a run, and Green was still there, keeping a cornerback deep and hesitant.
Without Green or somebody like him, they couldn't be nearly as effective DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
This is why if Brian Hoyer can just get close with Gordon early in the Vikings game, the Browns' running back committee will run all over them.
Everybody everywhere has written Hoyer off. Well, he was a terrific college quarterback, but as Gil Brandt said, "sometimes he's throw just the craziest passes...to nobody. To the other team."
What if he doesn't do that any more, after all this time in the NFL, especially with Belichick and Brady? It's downright ignorant to make declarative statements about any quarterback who hasn't seen real action and has been learning for some time.
You never know. I'll bet on him...just, you know--I need 7:2 odds, ok?
By the way, Adrian Peterson is the new Jim Brown. He's really just all that.
So where's the Superbowl ring?
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