Trent Richardson

Browns GM Tom Heckert told PFT Live on Wednesday that, indeed, the Browns plan to make RB Trent Richardson the workhorse.

“I think it’s pretty safe to say we draft a guy third overall, he’s going to be the guy,” Heckert said. “But we do think we’re going to need extra backs. You know, last year going into the season we thought we’re in really good shape at running back with Peyton Hillis, Brandon Jackson, and Montario Hardesty and it turns out all three of them got nicked up. So, you know, we do think it’s a position where you better have a couple guys and, you know, we have obviously Brandon Jackson and Hardesty coming back both, so we think it’s going to be, from last year where it was probably a weak spot for us, we think it’s going to be a very, very big positive for us this year.”

Still, Heckert realizes that Richardson could be the next running back to get “nicked up.”

“I do think that’s probably one of the reason they don’t go up that high, but we thought he was such a special player, we thought it outweighed any, you know, hesitations about whether the running backs, how long they last, and all that stuff,” Heckert said. “You know, he scores a lot of touchdowns, we think he’s going to score a lot of touchdowns for us.”

Richardson is in line for a ton of touches, and his ADP has crept into the early 2nd round as a result. The Browns don't have a great offense, but Hillis finished with top 5 numbers in 2010 with similar talent around him, and Richardson is the better all around RB.