NFL General Manager: Cincinnati Would Be "Scary" With Running Back Trent Richardson

If we raise the idea that the Cincinnati Bengals could and should draft Trent Richardson in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft, despite personal reservations of selecting a running back that early, it might be the last thing we ever do on this site. That being said if the Cincinnati Bengals do draft Richardson during April's NFL Draft, one NFL general manager remarked at the NFL Combine that Richardson could put "Cincinnati's young offense over the top, calling it 'scary'," writes Carlos Holmes with the Dayton Daily News.

Cedric Benson will become a free agent on March 13, leaving a gap for a bell cow that could sustain 20 carries or more during a game. However as Mike pointed out earlier this morning, Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden wants a running-back-by-committee rushing offense, leaving one to speculate if it's even worth selecting a running back in the first round only to limit his carries in split-fashion with Bernard Scott.

We'll file this under speculative reasoning. Though Richardson would offer Cincinnati a quality running back to balance the team's overall offense, we're not exactly sure if a 20-plus carry running back is the direction this team wants.

And it's not lost on us that Gruden could simply be BS'ing anyone that will listen to throw off the scent of obsessive observationalists trying to choreograph the draft, tricksing everyone like Hobbits while keeping their true intentions hidden.