The popular thought – or at least the most often repeated proposition – as we close in on next week’s 2017 NFL Draft is to dispense with Sheldon Richardson, the 2013 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and a 2014 Pro Bowler, for compensation well below his original draft position.
Even for a team in rebuilding mode, there are more reasons to keep Richardson for the final year of his five-year contract than to treat him as an easily replaceable piece that Jets’ beat writers insist would net no more than a third-round pick.
Sure, Richardson was fined over $8K for mixing it up with a Green Bay Packer in the second game of 2014.