Scouting Notebook: Colts' crowded backfield

Ahmad Bradshaw's strong performance at San Francisco (19 carries, 95 rushing yards, TD) is very bad for Trent Richardson owners and raises big questions about the trade, period. Why was this necessary? The teams with the highly drafted running backs rarely win, as I noted Sunday in the Wall Street Journal.

I thought in August that Andrew Luck wasn’t good enough in real life to be productive in fantasy but maybe the truth is that he (and the Colts) are too good. The sharps like Massey-Peabody.com had the Colts ranked very low, though, going into this week. So I can’t really see them creating a very uninspiring Aikman-like environment in Indianapolis. But the coaches clearly want to be run first and nothing that’s happened so far is going to change that. So Luck has to run for scores to be playable in most formats.

I can’t believe how the Browns just gave up on the season by trading the great Richardson. Good luck scoring now. Wait… What? Yeah, I’d play Josh Gordon now for sure. But I had no idea what a QB making his second start (Brian Hoyer) would do (321 passing yards, 3 TD, 3 INT). No one could.

Pierre Thomas is maybe best player to never get a real chance to be featured.

I like how the Saints had two receivers deep who could have shaken hands on the Robert Meachem touchdown. Drew Brees erases lots of mistakes.

Joique Bell is looking like really bad news for Reggie Bush owners. He’s the entire package. I can’t see Bush returning much more than low-end RB2 value in non-PPR leagues. In PPR, probably high-end RB2 (assuming he’s not going to be 100 percent for a while).

This is as bad a Sunday of Giants’ football since their fans were burning tickets outside of the stadium to protest Joe Pisarcik. Eli Manning getting sacked seven times is off the charts, and most of them were early.

One day, Tom Coughlin will realize that a back can’t run with both hands around the ball and that a fumble may not end life as we know it. The same coaches that blame their backs for fumbling credit their defense for forcing fumbles. They don’t coach defense and say, “Man, I hope the other team’s guys drop the ball today.”

David Wilson finally got into the end zone and did a backflip in an extended celebration before realizing that a hold took the score off the board. Wilson is so explosive that he's still a little explosive running like an idiot with both hands wrapped around the ball. Note Coughlin had him returning kickoffs down 38-0.

These are the games you draft Cam Newton for. It's funny that last year, the Giants so bottled up Cam and all of this Cam-ness that it was almost embarrassing to watch him try to play.

Brandon Bolden is the bad news for Stevan Ridley, even though he’s losing more rushes to LeGarrette Blount. Bolden is being used as the new Shane Vereen, it seems.

I didn’t get the conventional wisdom that you had to fade the Packers running game this week because Cincy is such a stout run defense. Why would the Bengals care at all about stopping the Packers running game? Defense are going to pick the slow death if they are forced to pick one. This has been true since at least Super Bowl XXV (Bills-Giants). Forget about Johnathan (yeah he spells it that way) Franklin and use him as cover to get Eddie Lacy. Sell the Lacy owner that Green Bay will be RBB committee headquarters. (Won’t be and hasn’t been, absent injuries.)

The preseason reports were correct. The Rams are really building something impressive in St. Louis -- if you’re into toxic stink.

I suggest we put Leonard Hankerson and Aldrick Robinson in the transporter pods and fuse together Alderick Hankerson, who would not have dropped that potential game-winning touchdown pass.

RGIII finally ran a little. I’d be a buyer. The defense being so bad will end up being quite helpful.

This was not a good day for Carson Palmer backers like me. But the takeaway after three weeks is that Saints defense isn't the Saints defense anymore and these Ryans really know how to coach that side of ball.

The Jets defense is NASTY. Avoid them if you can. Rex has the discipline with the challenge flag that I have when I'm driving by Five Guys. If not for that, the Bills don’t score a touchdown.

When Geno Smith sees it, he can really throw it. But his seeing it is the problem, as should be expected. He has the season to work that out. I dare say that game-winning strike by Smith to Santonio Holmes was Namath-esque.

I’ve been mocked here and elsewhere as some homer for touting Stephen Hill. But that’s all about the wide receiver models. He’s bigger and faster and can jump higher than almost anyone. You have to commit though; there will be no predicting him. Hill isn't a matchup guy because no one really matches up with him physically. But he's still quite undercooked, we know.

Bilal Powell was the Jets primary back throughout August and I shouted about it as long and as loud as I could. But the industry, generally, really let us down by wish-casting a bigger role for Chris Ivory, who has proven so little.

I would not overreact to this game if C.J. Spiller’s knee is fine. Barry Sanders in his prime wouldn’t have gained more yards against the Jets today.

Don’t back off the Eagles offense at all. Just attribute Thursday’s stinker to the short week. Let’s see how the team and especially Michael Vick, who was terrible, responds. Defenses are going to adjust and then we have to see what Chip Kelly does. It’s his move.

The Dolphins play count was very low but it’s going to be hard to get near 20 touches with Lamar Miller, clearly.

Why did the Falcons need Steven Jackson? If I stipulate he’s better than Jacquizz Rodgers and Jason Snelling (huge concession by me because I don’t believe that), there is still the fact that Atlanta is 13-4 since 2012 when averaging 3.5 yards or less per rush. It’s a passing league, people.