Indianapolis Colts OG/C Jamey Richard has no idea what his role will be next season. He doesn’t know if he’ll play as much as he did as a rookie.

He doesn’t even know if he’ll play at all.

What Richard, a seventh-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft, said he does know is he learned enough from his rookie experience to have a good idea how to approach Year 2:

I played a lot more last year than I ever expected to. I don’t know how many snaps I’ll get this year, whether it will be one, or whether it will be more than that. My focus is to go out there and every snap I do get, try to make the most of it. I want to get better every time I’m on that field.

Richard said he took that approach as a rookie and that it allowed him to perform at a high level despite unexpected circumstances. 

A seventh-round selection in the April 2008 NFL Draft, Richard expected to be a backup last season. But in the Colts’ system, rookies are often asked to play contributing roles and when three-time Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday sustained a preseason knee injury, Richard started the first two games of the season. He started two more games at center and also started three at guard.

Said Richard: I feel comfortable at both of them. Both of them, I have a lot of things to work on. I’ve played a couple of different positions. I wouldn’t say you really attribute a position to yourself until you earn that starting job.

 Richard recently said he was glad to have been forced into a starting role early:

When you come in, there are a lot of questions. When you get on that field, are you going to be able to handle it or not? How are you going to react to being out there? Getting thrown in early didn’t allow the butterflies to just sit in my stomach. It got them out early.

Richard drew praise within the organization and without for his play as a rookie. Still, he said he wasn’t thrilled with what he saw when he reviewed tape of the season:

I feel like my whole life, every time I’ve looked back on the film from the year before, I’m happy with some things, but there are a lot more things that I’m not happy with. At the time, maybe I didn’t realize I wasn’t too happy with it, but when you give yourself a chance to step away from it for a little while, then look back at it, there some things you start to notice. I’m still young. This is going into my second year. There should be a lot of things I’m still learning and I just have to take advantage of the coaching staff and older players and try to learn as much as I can from everyone around me.  

IFR Analysis: As is often the case with rookies, I hesitate to pass judgment on players until they have played a second NFL season. Richard was key to the Colts last season for the obvious reason that he started at center in place of three-time Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday twice early in the season and twice later. Although the Colts were better offensively with Saturday than without, it’s hard to interpret that as Richard playing poorly. He was, after all, a rookie who no one expected to be thrust into a starting role less than a year after he had been playing for the University at Buffalo. It’s difficult to predict if Richard is destined for a Pro Bowl career, but it’s equally difficult to say he got off to anything but a positive start last season.