Paul Richardson agreed to sign with the Washington Redskins on Tuesday afternoon. He is exactly what the team needed on the offensive side of the ball.
There were a lot of complaints during the second day of the legal tampering period that the Washington Redskins were remaining too quiet. The free agent frenzy was absolute madness, with big names leaving old teams and going to new ones left and right. But the Redskins weren’t doing anything.
Except, they were. The team signed Paul Richardson to a five-year, $40 million contract with $20 million in guarantees. Richardson, a former Seahawks receiver, may not be a household name, but he’s coming off a career year. The former Colorado product is still young and possesses the skills that the Redskins so desperately needed to add to their offense.
With that said, let’s have a deeper dive into how Richardson will fit in the offense, and the perfect storm of events that lined him up as the top free agent. option for the Redskins.
Richardson’s best skill is his athletic ability.
Since coming into the NFL, Richardson was considered to be a great athlete. At the NFL Scouting Combine in 2014, the year he was drafted, Richardson ran the third fastest 40-yard dash at an even 4.4 second, trailing only Brandin Cooks and John Brown in that category. Given his 6-foot frame and the athletic ability he had shown on tape, Richardson was considered to be a potential speed receiver for the NFL level, but he has become more than that.
Richardson did have trouble staying on the field early in his career, as he suffered a torn ACL during the playoffs in his rookie year. Complications from that and a hamstring injury robbed him of most of the 2015 campaign, and it wasn’t until late in 2016 that he truly started to flourish.
Late in the 2016 season, Richardson ended up earning a bigger role in the offense after Tyler Lockett got hurt. Richardson performed admirably in his place, matching his athletic ability and making numerous great catches. His most famous one was this one-handed touchdown grab against the Detroit Lions in the playoffs that year.
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Many will point to Richardson’s speed as his greatest strength, and that certainly is one. However, in the wake of his ACL tear, Richardson has learned to play with more than just speed. Now, the more impressive parts of Richardson’s athletic arsenal are his quickness and body control. Richardson uses his quickness in routes to gain separation with sudden movements. This allows him to get to open space where he can make a catch and then utilize his speed to his advantage.
In terms of body control, Richardson is able to move his body in ways that allow only himself to catch the ball. He can contort his body in borderline unimaginable ways to toe-tap inbounds and get catches that other receivers may not be able to get. Also, the way he can move his arms and utilize his hands gives him a massive catch radius, thanks to his flexibility.
Richardson is more than just a speed receiver. He’s a true athlete on the field who can beat opposing defenders in multiple ways whether it’s with speed, body positioning, or just insane athletic ability. This is exactly what the team needs, and it’s what they were missing without DeSean Jackson. Think of Richardson as a better version of Jackson with similar skills, but better overall ability to get to contested balls. Or, at his ceiling, Richardson could be a poor man’s Odell Beckham Jr. But that may be a stretch.
Richardson should complement Jamison Crowder and Josh Doctson well.
Putting Richardson’s talent aside for a moment, it’s important to consider how well he works with the receivers the team already has in place. That would be slot man Jamison Crowder and former first rounder Josh Doctson.
On the surface, the fit seems almost too good to be true. The main thing that the offense was lacking last year was a true deep threat, and Richardson will give them that. And after a deeper dive, there’s little cause for alarm as to how they’ll fit together.
In the receiving corps, the team could ideally replicate what they had when Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson were around. Garcon served as the bigger, route running possession receiver while Jackson added athleticism to the group. Doctson and Richardson appear to be in place to take on these roles in 2018.
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I’ve spoken before about how Doctson should work on becoming a possession receiver. He flashed promise in his first full year in the league, but he doesn’t have the downfield ability to be a true No. 1 option. He’ll have to use his size and strength to his advantage and get good at battling for 50-50 balls or using a physical style to grind out yards. That’s entirely doable for the former TCU product.
Meanwhile, Richardson naturally would slide in as the semi-No. 1 option, but ideally, he and Doctson would form a 1A/1B type of receiving corps where both see a lot of targets. Richardson would work outside running downfield routes and using his suddenness to lose defenders and make big plays. He could replicate what Jackson offered and that would do a lot to take pressure off Doctson, who was treated as a No. 1 receiver by some opposing defenses last year.
As for Crowder, he just needs other options around him so opposing defenses don’t zero in on him. That happened too often last year, but with Richardson in the mix, teams won’t be able to treat Crowder as the most explosive threat on offense. And that will help Crowder out a great deal.
So overall, Richardson looks like a really good fit in the receiving corps for the team, which answers what should have been the biggest question about bringing him in.
Richardson came cheaper than other top options on the market, and he is just about as young as them.
Going into free agency, it was known that the Redskins had interest in both Allen Robinson and Paul Richardson. I had also speculated that Sammy Watkins, another young, dynamic speed receiver could be on their radar as well. When both Robinson and Watkins flew off the board in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Redskins were left with Richardson as their top choice.
That said, looking at the deals that Watkins and Robinson got, Richardson is comparatively a bargain. Watkins surprisingly received the most of the bunch, despite being injury prone throughout his career and not living up to expectations with the Los Angeles Rams. Watkins received $16 million per year for three years, and also got $30 million in guarantees. That’s a hefty sum to pay for him, considering his history of lower leg injuries and how that may impact his greatest skill: his speed.
As for Robinson, he came at a slight discount from Watkins’ value. He too signed a three-year deal, but his was only worth $42 million over the duration of the contract ($14 million per year). He received $25 million in guarantees. But here’s the catch with Robinson. He barely played in 2017 due to an ACL tear, so he may not be 100 percent in his first season back. Yes, he will have had a calendar year to heal, but it often takes an additional season for players to work back into playing shape. So, he comes with risk as well.
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Comparatively, Richardson received only $8 million a year, despite having a similar skill set to Watkins. There are two reasons why this lower number occurred. The first is that Richardson was signed to a five-year deal, so he was actually give comparable money to the other two receivers ($40 million overall) but he just gets it over a longer period.
The second is that Richardson only has one quality season under his belt. Richardson’s 44 catches, 703 yards, and six scores in 2017 were all career highs. So, he is a player on the rise, but he doesn’t have the same level of consistency or any sort of proven track record.
Still, the Redskins got a player that could be at least comparable to the other players mentioned at a fraction of the price. And also, Richardson isn’t much older than Watkins or Robinson. Richardson turns 26 in April while Watkins and Robinson each turn 25 in June and August respectively. That bodes well for the team’s decision makers and while Richardson may never turn into a true No. 1 guy, he can have a lot of success in Washington.
Overall
It’s clear that Richardson fit the mold of what the Redskins needed, and realistically, he was one of the few options who would have been in their price range. Sure, the team could have considered going for other options on the open market who might have been a little cheaper. Or they could have waited until the draft to resolve the issue.
But we live in a world where Ryan Grant left the Redskins to take a $29 million (!!!) deal from the Baltimore Ravens. And we also live in a world where the 2018 NFL Draft is weak at receiver. So, it looks like Paul Richardson was, in fact, the best option for what the Redskins needed. He should fit the offense very well and while they may be overpaying a bit for one year of production, it was a decision that the team had to make.
It seems likely that Jay Gruden and the Redskins offensive staff will try to feature Richardson in 2018. If he lives up to expectations and Doctson improves, then the Redskins receiving corps will look a lot different than they did during the 2017 season, where they had size, but no game-breaking ability.
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Richardson was a solid start to free agency. Now, it’s important to see what the team does next as they look to get back to the postseason in the post-Kirk Cousins era.