New Cleveland Browns coach Rob Chudzinski and coordinator Norv Turner are counting on Trent Richardson to be the foundation of their offense. It has to be unsettling that the talented tailback was back in the trainers' room again for Browns OTAs on Thursday.
Chudzinski announced Thursday that Richardson will miss next week's OTAs and potentially the mandatory full-team minicamp June 4-6 due to a strained leg muscle. The injury is to a lower-leg muscle in Richardson's shin, according to ESPNCleveland.com.
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"It's just something precautionary," Chudzinski said. "We'll just take it day by day."
Browns fans never had the opportunity to see a healthy Richardson last season. Between offseason and preseason knee surgeries and multiple broken ribs sustained in Week 6, the closest the No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft came to recapturing his Alabama form was a 128-yard performance in a Week 5 near-upset of the New York Giants.
The Browns don't seem to be concerned about the recent leg injury at this point. Richardson insisted that his knee and ribs were "100 percent" recovered at April's voluntary minicamp. As long as his shin muscle heals by preseason action, we finally will see if a healthy and explosive Richardson is capable of carrying the Browns offense.
Follow Chris Wesseling on Twitter @ChrisWesseling.