Bob Kravitz

bob.kravitz@indystar.com

ANDERSON – To be charitable, Trent Richardson's first year with the Indianapolis Colts was a small disaster. He was on his third offensive coordinator in two years, his third playbook, and a shoulder injury late in the season left him tethered to the bench, getting just four carries in the post-season.

His head was swimming, and by the time he came up for air and figured out where he was supposed to run and when, the shoulder reduced him to a well-paid observer.

This, then, is a make-or-break season for Richardson, who was brought here to play the same role Edgerrin James once played for Peyton Manning. There will be no excuses or explanations this time around, no talk of unfamiliarity with the scheme or his teammates. The shoulder, which required off-season surgery, is healed. And he spent the summer immersed in the playbook.

"All I did in the offseason was read the playbook,'' Richardson said. Then he smiled. "And take the kids to Disney."

This is the season when the questions will be answered: Is he capable of being the 950-yard back and the weapon he was in Cleveland his rookie year or ... is he just not that good?

Let's be honest: We didn't see much of anything from Richardson last year. Didn't see the burst. Didn't see the speed. Didn't see the power. Didn't see the instincts. And Richardson knows it. He's never hid from the fact that last season was a monumental disappointment. He has remained accessible and accountable from the moment he arrived in Indianapolis in exchange for a first-round pick.

But it's put up or shut up time.

And he knows it.

"When you don't know exactly what you want to do or what your Plan B is, your whole mindset is on executing Plan A and you lose some of your instincts,'' Richardson said Thursday at training camp. "I was so focused on being coached, doing exactly what the coaches said, it comes a time when your football IQ has to take over and I never progressed to that point. I was still trying to learn the system, learn what everybody else was doing and trying to be a second set of eyes for the quarterback.

"Now, I've been around the team and got a chance to be part of a unit. My timing was so off last year with the offensive line, with the quarterback, even with certain handoffs. My timing was sooo far off. But with the offseason, the spring time, learning everything, everything went well.''

Was that really the problem, or was Richardson just over-rated coming out of the University of Alabama, chosen third overall in the draft?

The failure to comprehend the playbook makes sense to me in the short term — like, for a couple of weeks — but it doesn't explain his season-long malaise. It's not like reading James Joyce's "Ulysses," especially for a running back, whose options are limited when he's running the football. Backs have been running plays on zone or man blocking schemes since time immemorial.

For now, though, the organizational take on Richardson is that he didn't know what he was doing or why one season ago. And now he does.

"It was basically survival at first for him, a lot of memorization," Chuck Pagano said Thursday. "Now he has a better understanding scheme wise, why we're calling things, how we run plays, having a better feel for the guys he's playing with. He's obviously in a lot better place than he's been in quite a while."

The good news is, the Colts are deep and blessed at the running back spot. All three men vying for carries have started in the NFL — Vick Ballard (Colts), Richardson (Browns) and Ahmad Bradshaw (Giants). Depth is especially necessary at that spot given the rash of injuries that always seem to beset that spot.

It will be compelling theater, then, to see how it all plays out. In his perfect universe, Richardson would be the primary ball-carrier and get occasional help from Ballard and Bradshaw, but if it's running-back-by-committee, so be it. Richardson just wants to be on the field with a chance to re-start his career.

"We've got a great stable of backs who've played at a high level in this league," Pagano said. "Would we like one bell cow? Yeah. But through the course of camp, it's going to shake itself out."

The one thing the Colts cannot do is try to justify the expenditure of a first-rounder for Richardson by force-feeding him into the lineup. If he produces, great. If he continues to struggle like he did one year ago, the Colts have got to swallow hard and attach him to the bench while acknowledging the deal was a mistake. Stubbornness, especially at the quarterback position, helped bring down the Polian regime. Ryan Grigson and Pagano have got to be able to maintain an open mind.

If Bradshaw and/or Ballard are the demonstrably better backs, they need to get the lion's share of the carries.

At this point, the Colts are looking for some delayed gratification from Richardson. Failing that, Grigson's deal will be remembered as the biggest folly of his early tenure in Indianapolis.

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or email bob.kravitz@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BKravitz.