NFL Sophomore Watch: James Robinson the start of a new RB trend?

James Robinson Play Style

Now that I’ve put James Robinson’s career in context, let’s examine how he plays. It’s easy to see why he went undrafted, his 40-yard dash time was 4.64, which isn’t fast for a running back. Saquon Barkley and Travis Etienne both ran 4.4 and 4.45 respectively in the 40-yard dash for reference.

But James Robinson is tough, and he runs hard. He trucks opposing players. He makes yards after contact with consistency, and he’s reminiscent of another smaller former Jaguars running back, the 5’7″ 207-pound Maurice Jones-Drew, who was nicknamed “Pocket Hercules.” It’s not easy to tackle a 219-pound running back who can easily get lower than most defenders and knows how to stack his pads and use leverage to gain additional yards.

Robinson is more than a battering ram though, as he showed an instinctual running style. He was able to wait for the holes to develop, see where they were, and then accelerate through them. The 23-year-old second year player might not be a home run hitter (his career long run is 58 yards), but he’s a more-than-serviceable workhorse back that should provide some hope to the more diminutive skill players from smaller schools out there.

Urban Meyer’s short-lived tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars has been nothing short of disastrous. The team is 0-5 and have lost four of those games by double digits. Meyer was caught on film in a bar in Ohio with a woman who was not his wife dancing on him after he failed to fly home with the team after their Thursday night game in Cincinnati on September 30th.

Meyer has made some poor decisions this year and giving James Robinson only 67 carries in 5 games is certainly among them. While I understand that some of this is due to game situation as the Jaguars were frequently trailing in many contests, Meyer and Jaguars offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell need to find ways to run the ball with James Robinson more. This will also take some of the pressure off of rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence who has struggled mightily in the season’s first five weeks to the tune of a 6:8 touchdown to interception ratio and a paltry 59.4% completion percentage.

If the Jaguars want to get their first win and break their current 20-game losing skid, they’d do well to put the ball in the hands of their best offensive player: James Robinson. If they don’t, it could be a short stint as an NFL coach for Urban Meyer, and a long year for Jaguars fans.