NCAA Prospects: Is Trent Richardson the Best Player in the Draft?

There has been quite a bit of speculation over the past few weeks leading up to the NFL Draft about who the best NCAA Football player is who will be entering this year's draft.  Many people have different opinions and quite a few of the thoughts seem to end up with the names Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III, but one player who some are overlooking is the top rated running back in Trent Richardson.  While Richardson won't last past the fifth pick almost surely (to either the Cleveland Browns or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, both who need a running back badly), many people feel that drafting a running back with a top pick will almost certainly not happen any time soon.  So while Richardson may be the fifth player off the board, the question is, is he the best player in the entire draft though?

To put it simply, Trent Richardson is a game changer.  He's quick, strong, motivated, and he's going to make whichever team gets him VERY happy in the very first season.  It's obviously tough for a running back to succeed in the early part of their careers, but Richardson has proven during his pre-draft workouts that he has all the skill and talent in the world to be a game changer.  Obviously, Richardson isn't going to make the Browns the favorites to win the AFC North just because they draft him, but neither would adding Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III either.

The reason why I feel that Richardson is the best player in the entire draft is because of the long term.  There are a lot of strong running back's in the NFL, but Richardson has the talent and dedication to the game that you almost never see from players.  His highlight film looks like a combination of an incredibly strong power back, mixed with a player who can outrun and juke any defender that gets in his way.

If you remember back to when the Detroit Lions drafted Jahvid Best, Jim Schwartz said he fell in love with his game film and watching him just blow away defenders.  Best has the chance to be a solid running back, but Richardson can do all of that plus some, and he's definitely going to prove that he is the best running back out of Bama in the past two years (sorry Mark Ingram).  Ingram has some serious work to do, and I think that Richardson will outperform not only Ingram this year, but quite a few running backs this year.