Unlike a lot of former players-turned-analysts, Doug Dieken isn't a knee-jerk, scream-louder-than-the-next-person kind of a guy.
Yes, he draws a paycheck as radio analyst for the Cleveland Browns, a team he played 14 seasons for without missing a single game from 1971 to 1984. But his wait-and-see approach on this week's Trent Richardson trade is interesting. It's old-school and it in no way is governed by today's requirement that everyone must immediately blast or rave about everything that happens in the NFL.
Dieken doesn't like that trading Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts after two games sends the Browns into Sunday's game against the Vikings with a running back corps that includes an inexperienced waiver-wire pickup (Bobby Rainey), a fullback (Chris Ogbonnaya) and 31-year-old Willis McGahee, who was signed Thursday and hasn't played since suffering a major knee and lower leg injury a year ago.
But he's also willing to wait for the other cleat to drop on draft day 2014.
"Do you trade a No. 3 overall running back in his second year?" Dieken asked. "Had he played like Adrian Peterson or Barry Sanders or one of those guys, not really. But there were a lot of missing components there. Ultimately, I think how this one is judged will come down to who they get for this pick or how they package it to get what they need."
How the other end of the trade unfolds obviously makes all the difference in how it's perceived. For instance, just imagine how different the Randy Moss trade in 2005 would have been remembered had the Vikings picked Aaron Rodgers seventh overall instead of Troy Williamson.
"We traded Paul Warfield, a future Hall of Famer, in 1970 for the rights to draft [quarterback] Mike Phipps," Dieken said. "We got the tail end of that deal. But then [in 1977], we traded Mike Phipps to the Bears and got a first-round pick [in 1978]. And that pick turned out to be a Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome, so we got the better end of that. It really depends on who you draft when you have the opportunity."
The Vikings have done pretty well trading with the Browns the past few years.