Fantasy Football Week 16 Start or Sit: Trent Richardson

If you’ve been starting Trent Richardson for any surmountable time this season, you’ve probably been living in 2012, Richardson’s rookie season as a top 10 running back. But like the Indianapolis Colts are starting to realize, he’s not worth the draft picks they traded for him last season and he’s not even close to the value of starting.

All that’s keeping Richardson as a possible starter is his potential to score, which he’s done three times this season — squandering his potential almost every other week. As an owner of Richardson, you probably expected to see an increase in his production once Ahmad Bradshaw was placed on IR, giving Richardson some more opportunities to be a third-down back and get those extra scores Bradshaw thrived off of. But sadly, he’s yet to exhibit any of that and it’s not changing this week against the Dallas Cowboys.

Over the last three weeks, Richardson has yet to top 40 yards rushing and has only done so once in the last six weeks. He’s been averaging just 3.4 yards per carry this season. Combine that with his split carries with Dan Herron, and it’s no wonder that Richardson is struggling to pull out even four points in a game.

However, if we were to know how many carries Richardson would receive, it’d be easier to tell you there’s reason to start him. In the six games he’s received over 20 carries, Richardson has scored on three occasions and has scored at least seven points each week. But he’s not likely to reach that mark this week with his middling recent performances and Herron starting to separate himself.

Unless you really buy into how poor the Cowboys are defending at home and that for some reason the Colts will hand it off to Richardson more than Herron, don’t start Richardson this week. He’ll likely pick up about 30 yards rushing and has very little chance to pick up six points from scoring.