Trent Richardson's stint with the Oakland Raiders has not gotten off to the start the running back was hoping for. After a successful college career, the running back has two failed stints with the Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts under his belt as his professional football career is coming dangerously close to ending. While Latavius Murray is making his case to be the starting running back for the Raiders, Richardson continues to free fall down the depth chart.
With the first round of roster cuts coming, Richardson is a big risk to be on them. After an unimpressive run in the preseason, the running back has done very little to cement his spot with the team while others like Michael Dyer and Roy Helu push to be on the field more. Head coach Jack Del Rio told the media that Richardson needs to show a lot more if he is going to be on the team come 2015.
"He's got to earn it," Del Rio said, via SFGate.com. "He's got to be good enough as a backup. We've got to see some of the explosiveness that he had when he was a young man playing for the Crimson Tide there. He's got to have a role on special teams, and he's got to be able to help us win on Sundays. That's the challenge for him right now."
Helu and Dyer are pushing Richardson out of the way in the preseason. Both running backs are playing with a lot of confidence and earning the praise from teammates like Derek Carr. Del Rio noted he was particularly impressed with Dyer who came in as a rookie following a roller coaster college career. He is the main threat to Richardson and his Raiders' future and he certainly knows it.
"I feel like I got my confidence up because I was able to get into a rhythm and up to game speed," Dyer said, via the Washington Post. "Going from the first game to second game you try to build confidence and get the offense down. By the third game you should be able to have control of the game and play hard and fast."
Carr admitted that he was not happy with the offense after the preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals. They managed just nine yards on 13 carries rushing while the only support the quarterback could find was in Amari Cooper who showed impressive moves against Patrick Peterson. The result was 15 points on five field goals and an unhappy quarterback.
"There are still some things we have to clean up," Carr said, via CSN Bay Area. "There are still some things that are just that close (to being correct) with the whole offense. As an offense, we're pretty upset right now. We wanted to score a lot of points, and we felt like we left a lot out there. Honestly, we did."
