Richardson has no answers for Colts benching
Sheldon Richardson is not a happy man.
The Jets defensive lineman barely played in the second half of Monday night’s blowout loss to the Colts, and he’s yet to receive an explanation for the benching.
Todd Bowles and defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers both said this week that Richardson’s reduced snap count was simply the result of game planning. But both coaches are also in agreement that Richardson is one of the best players on the Jets roster.
It doesn’t add up. Why would a coaching staff formulate a scheme that kept one of its elite defensive players off the field? It’s a question the 26-yearold Richardson is struggling to answer.
“Not my call,” a miffed Richardson said Thursday afternoon in the Jets locker room. “When my number’s called, I’m out there. Simple as that. Can’t complain about it.”
Richardson, who played 44 of the possible 73 snaps against Indy, then backed off and started refusing to answer questions about Monday’s game.
Did Bowles and Rodgers use different packages in the second half that didn’t include him?
“No comment,” Richardson said.
Is he surprised at how little he played in the second half?
“No comment,” Richardson said.
Does the benching make sense to him?
“No comment,” Richardson said.
In defense of the coaching staff, Richardson is having the worst statistical season of his career. He has just 1.5 sacks through 11 games. Last season, Richardson totaled five sacks in 11 games after missing the first four contests of the year due to suspension.
There’s no avoiding the lack of production. But it’s important to note that Richardson moved around to multiple different positions early in the season due to injury, including outside and inside linebacker.
His versatility, ironically, ended up limiting his production through the first third of the season. But Richardson has played predominantly defensive end, his natural position, over the past five games (though he still shifts positions periodically).
“I don’t care about stats,” Richardson said. “That’s for y’all to write about and glorify people about. I’ve been asked to play linebacker, asked to do a lot of stuff on this team, some of the trash work on it. I don’t get a lot of stats, so it just is what it is.”
Bowles acknowledged that Richardson has been “doing some dirty-work stuff,” including drawing double teams in the running game, which frees up the inside linebackers to make plays. Rodgers, meanwhile, said he’s “happy” with Richardson’s play. The problem is, front offices care about stats when negotiating. And Richardson has one more year — a fifth-year rookie option — left on his contract.
So does Richardson think executives will appreciate his “dirty work” when he’s advocating for a new deal? “No comment,” he said. Either way, if the coaches are content — or even pleased — with Richardson’s play, why wasn’t he on the field in the second half Monday night?
Here was what Bowles provided: “Well, the way the game went and the lead got, and the way we had it packaged, and we were short to begin with (Steve) McLendon down, and we had a lot of people getting gassed in the first half and little things come up. We had some different things going in the second half. And as you call the game, you don’t really look at who’s in the game. I don’t, for a certain degree. But to a game plan, we had it set for certain people to be in certain things. And this game, he just wasn’t on the field as much.”