What Experts Are Saying About Trent Richardson's Pro Day

Alabama running back Trent Richardson is widely considered the top running-back prospect in the 2012 draft class and a potential top 10 pick, and after missing the NFL scouting combine and Alabama's pro day while recovering from surgery to repair a sports hernia, Richardson was among the Crimson Tide standouts who worked out in front of NFL scouts and coaches on Thursday.

Reviews were generally positive regarding Richardson's performance at the workout, and as Alex Scarborough of ESPN reports, Richardson may be set to buck the recent trend that hasn't seen a running back selected in the top five picks of the NFL draft since the Oakland Raiders selected Darren McFadden fourth overall in 2008.

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After running an unofficial 4.49 40-yard dash and bench pressing 25 reps of 225 pounds at Thursday’s pro day, Richardson has set himself up to buck the trend of backs dropping in the draft. He’ll have a few more opportunities to wow NFL personnel with individual workouts set up with St. Louis, Cleveland and Tampa Bay -- the No. 4 through No. 6 picks in the draft. Richardson, who grew up in Pensacola, Fla., said he’d take great pride in being selected in the top five.

“It’s a blessing,” Richardson said of even being considered that high of a draft pick. “It ain’t nothing more than that. I can’t tell you how good it feels inside for myself to come where I came from.”

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ESPN's Merrill Hoge would seem to agree with Scarborough's assessment, and Hoge told the Pensacola News-Journal that he believes that Richardson stood apart from the other Alabama stars that worked out in Tuscaloosa on Thursday.

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"He is laterally and vertically dangerous with his feet," Hoge said. "In the NFL, to be special, to be that once-in-a-whatever type of talent, you have to have power, strength and lateral and vertical quickness. If you have that skill-set, you have a chance to be special.

"Well, guess what? And here's a BIG surprise — he has all that. Trent Richardson is the definition of strength, speed and rare, freakish power. That's why all these people are here. That's why these other great prospects have to take a backseat, because he's a high priority. Not many come along with what he's been blessed with."

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Richardson's 40-yard dash time wasn't overly impressive, but given that he's still not fully recovered from his injury, most teams will likely give the 2011 Doak Walker Award winner, who gained over 2,000 total yards last season, something of a pass on that account.

The highlight of Richardson's performance likely came during blocking drills, where as Doug Farrar of Yahoo! Sports points out, Richardson pancaked Cleveland Browns running backs coach (and former NFL back) Gary Brown with a punishing hit.

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The video went viral just as soon as Alabama's Thursday Pro Day let out -- running back Trent Richardson blocking with great authority three unfortunate souls holding pads during his workout on the 'Bama campus. The unsuspecting victims -- including Cleveland Browns running backs coach Gary Brown -- got a very close look at a 5-foot-9, 227-pound back who runs like the wind and hits the pads like a linebacker.

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Of course, as is usually the case, at least one pundit disagreed with the general consensus that Richardson performed well at his pro day, and it should come as no surprise that one of those dissenting opinions came from ESPN's Skip Bayless, who would probably disagree that a quarter is worth 25 cents if it meant he could get some face time on the Worldwide Leader.

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I laughed out LOUD over wows that Trent Richardson pushed down a coach holding a blocking pad. Oh, that clinches it. Move over, Emmitt.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) March 30, 2012"

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Trent Richardson will be a solid, unspectacular NFL back. Good character, work ethic. All muscle, not all that elusive. I'd take him 10-15.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) March 30, 2012"

Luckily, most NFL front-office personnel certainly know just as well as the majority of sports fans that Bayless is a braying nut, and given the interest that both the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have shown in Trent Richardson, it's looking more likely that Richardson will indeed be the first back taken in the top five since McFadden.

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