The Jacksonville Jaguars’ season is one that fans would say can’t end soon enough as the team is currently at a 1-6 record. However, there have been some good things to come out of the season when looking at certain individual performances. Amongst them is the pleasant surprise that undrafted rookie James Robinson has turned out to be.
After the team waived Leonard Fournette before the season, there were a lot of concerns. However, the Jags’ faith in Robinson paid off as he’s been a better rusher in the eyes of most. Currently, the rookie has accumulated an impressive 107 carries for 481 rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, and two receiving touchdowns.
As a result of such dominance, Robinson’s standout performances seemingly haven’t just caught the attention of the Jags fanbase but many national pundits, including our comrade Doug Farrar. In his latest preview of the NFL’s most underrated players through the first half of the season, Farrar showed Robinson some love by listing him and praising him for being a versatile tailback.
James Robinson, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars’ offense has resembled a tire fire of late, and will likely do more of the same with Gardner Minshew out with a thumb injury, and Mike Glennon and Jake Luton “competing” for reps in the meantime. But Robinson, the undrafted rookie from Illinois State, has been a revelation. Among rookie backs, only Kansas City’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire has more rushing yards, he’s tied with Detroit’s D’Andre Swift with four rushing touchdowns, only Edwards-Helaire has more runs of 10-plus yards than his 14, and he’s broken 24 tackles as both a runner and receiver. From blocking to running to receiving, Robinson has proven that he can do it all at a very high level, and very much under the radar.
In addition to competing with the figures of Clyde Edwards-Helaire and D’Andre Swift, Robinson has broken a lot of key records for undrafted players. The most recent ones include garnering the most receptions and yards from scrimmage of any undrafted running back in NFL history throughout seven games among other notable feats.
At the rate Robinson is playing, it appears the Jags at least have their running back of the future regardless of whether the next regime survives or not. When adding in the contributions from the rest of the 2020 draft class like those from Laviska Shenault Jr. and DaVon Hamilton, fans should at least be confident in the long-term future despite the short-term future looking rough.