How Sheldon Richardson Can Improve the Vikings Defense - And Vice Versa

Sheldon Richardson had a dominant season in 2014, after being drafted #13 overall the year before by the Jets - and being named the 2013 Defensive Rookie of the Year. But following that season, things didn’t go quite as planned for Richardson. While he still had productive seasons, he didn’t match his 2014 dominance that led him to the Pro Bowl.

He started off 2015 with a 4 game suspension for violating the league substance abuse policy (marijuana), and ended up missing a total of 5 games that season, which was also his least productive. The Jets also started moving him around more that year. In 2016, the Jets moved him to playing more 3-4 outside linebacker and 4-3 DE rather than inside, in…