NFL Rumors: Browns Paid Trent Richardson $13.3 Million Bonus Before Trade

Lost in all the madness of the Trent Richardson trade to the Indianapolis Colts is the financial ramifications involving the second-year running back.

Richardson, who was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 draft, signed a four-year, $20.5 million deal and received a hefty signing bonus on par for a player selected in his slot.

Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that the Browns did in fact pay Richardson a $13.3 million signing bonus that they won’t be getting back.

When Browns signed RB Trent Richardson, they gave him a $13,341,672 signing bonus. Money's gone, gone, gone.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 19, 2013

Cleveland paid Richardson the bonus knowing that they would actually owe him a little over $6.6 million for the remaining years on his deal. Richardson has already been paid two game checks under his 2013 base salary ($1.327 million). That’s right, the Colts are only on the hook for few million bucks on Richardson’s deal for the next three seasons.

Here's how it looks:

2013: $1,156,185

2014: $2,252,708

2015: $3,184,062

The Browns avoid paying the $6 million to Richardson, but with two first round picks and a non-competitive bunch, expect Cleveland to dish out a hefty signing bonus again next season.

To put this into a paragraph summary: the Cleveland Browns essentially donated $13 million to Trent Richardson for one year of football, saved the Indianapolis Colts from having to pay a hefty tag in a first round signing bonus and gave them time to get great mileage out of Richardson before talks of an extension are raised.

Wow.

This article was written by Glenn Erby. Follow him on Twitter here and read more of his work here.