I just wanted to say I appreciate the thread and Casting Couch bringing this guy up for discussion. I am interested to learn more about him, and hope someone who has watched all or some of the Southern Miss games in recent years might share their observations/opinions about him.
I did watch
Mike Thomas's game cut ups, (4 games) and I watched some of their defensive players, but I haven't watched their RBs. I do see them a bit of them in the cut ups, Ito Smith stands out more than RIchard does in the cuts ups that are focusing on Thomas (who has some good blocks at times) not these guys. In the LA Tech game they mention Richard scoring earlier in the game but that isn't part of the cut up. I only saw one rushing attempt of his in the cuts ups which was not impressive.
I think anyone invested or interested in being invested in Murray and Washington should want to know about these players competition. I also think any player who gets some positive buzz during training camp is worth a closer look.
If Richard does well in preseason games, then he might show up later on at some point, even if he does not make the Raiders final roster. Maybe a team in need of RB depth picks him up or takes him off the Raiders practice squad, and if that happens, it would be good to know some things about Richard to help inform your decisions, about if you should pick this guy up or what to expect of him if he does get some playing time at some point.
Based on the information I have right now I still see Washington as the better prospect. Washington has weaknesses in his game that Richard may not however. For example if Richard is good in pass protection, that could be an area where he might be better than Washington. Washington has kind of an upright running style that I think needs improvement, it is possible that Richard runs with better pad level than Washington does. I have no way to know this as I have not seen enough of Richard to compare them.
I was reading a fluff piece about Richard the other day where they are talking about a friendship he made with one of the other Raiders players. He talks about seeing himself as an asset as a receiving option. That is what Washington is good at too, and likely better than Richard is. Based on the receiving stats Ito Smith was a more efficient player than Richard as well, which suggests that Smith may be better in pass protection, as part of earning more reception opportunity.
I looked to see if Richard was ranked in the top 300
consensus ranking for 2016 rookie prospects. He wasn't.
24 RB are ranked in the top 300. Not sure how much further Richard is on this list. Those are just the 2016 rookie prospects, there are many very good RB already in the league.
In doing a google search I find there have been many articles written about Richard recently. I cam across
this post by Matt Waldman, that hopefully addresses some of the questions we have, such as can RIchard pass block and so on. I have not watched this yet.
It is hard for me to imagine this player being worth a roster spot in leagues with 300 or less offensive players, but I am open to that possibility if he keeps doing good things in practice and shines in preseason games.