The Jaguars are fumbling their running back situation and Trevor Lawrence is letting them know
Running back James Robinson is the best offensive weapon on the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He leads the team with 887 combined rushing and receiving yards, nearly doubling the next closest player. His 678 rushing yards on 4.9 yards per carry are night-and-day compared to backup Carlos Hyde, who has just 251 yards on 3.5 yards per carry. And his seven touchdowns are four more than any other player, six more than Hyde.
So it’s strange to look at Robinson’s snap counts for the season and see that they’ve actually dropped each of the last three games, from a number that wasn’t all that high to begin with. He went from 63 percent in a Week 11 loss to the San Francisco 49ers all the way down to a season-low 44 percent last week against the Los Angeles Rams. Including a noticeable 20-play absence after a fumble loss in the first quarter, his second in two weeks.
When asked Monday on Jags Report Live if he thinks he was benched, Robinson said, “I would say so.”
Head coach Urban Meyer confirmed as much Wednesday, saying “you bench yourself. If you lay the ball on the ground, you come out for a few plays, and then it’s up to the position coach and whoever to put you back in whenever that’s time.”
Well, if his quarterback has anything to do with it, that won’t happen again. Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Trevor Lawrence said Robinson needs to be on the field.
“In my eyes – obviously, I’m the one that’s out there, I see all the pieces moving, I see the whole picture – bottomline is James is one of our best players and he’s got to be on the field. And we addressed it and I feel like we’re in a good spot; the whole team, we’re good,” Lawrence said “Whatever may have happened – I honestly don’t even know everything that went into it. You know, I’m playing the game. If stuff happens on the sidelines with the coaching decisions I don’t really get into that. But I know and voiced my opinion that James is one of our best players and he’s gotta be in the game.”
Adding to the confusion of Robinson’s removal from the game is that Hyde wasn’t benched for nearly as long when he lost a fumble in the third quarter. In fact, he received two carries the next possession. The lost fumbles were the second of the season for both Hyde and Robinson.
Then there’s the fact Robinson, who was already questionable for the game due to heel and knee injuries, was put back in the game for three meaningless carries on the final possession of a blowout loss. It’s strange the team didn’t just opt to keep him on the sideline at that point.
Robinson said he wasn’t sure what the point of that was. It doesn’t sound like Meyer knows either, admitting he should be more aware of the rotation of his running backs and receivers.
“I can’t tell you the exact time he went back in,” Meyer said. “We’ve got to communicate that better on the sideline but there’s no ‘something behind door number two’ why we kept him out.”
The Jaguars are just 2-10. They were a mess long before this running back situation popped up. But if they want to make things right with Robinson, and make their rookie franchise quarterback happy, this week’s game against the Tennessee Titans is a good time to do it. Robinson ran for a career-high 149 yards and a touchdown on just 18 carries against the Titans in Week 5.