Richardson could play Sunday…does it matter?

As a fantasy football guy, I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions this week about Cleveland Brown’s rookie RB Trent Richardson. He was a very high draft pick on a running back-needy team, so he figures to play a big role in Cleveland’s offense (or lack thereof) this season.

However, he’s a bit banged up right now and his status for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles is uncertain. Richardson had his knee scoped a few weeks ago and has been a question mark for the opener.

The latest is that Richardson returned to practice on Wednesday, which is great news. Although if you’re looking at NFL odds, I don’t know that this will make a huge difference on the outcome of the game.

It’s not that Richardson isn’t a good player. We have no idea how good he can be in the NFL. Maybe he’s the next Jim Brown (even though Jim Brown doesn’t think so). Maybe he’s the best player to ever step on a field.

But, my guess is that even if he does play, he’s not going to play much. The guy is coming off of surgery and the Browns’ coaches would be morons to give this guy a heavy load this early in the season. So while he certainly might play this week, I would get him out of my fantasy lineup.