Offline auction drafters’ biggest fear materialized on Tuesday when Brian Robinson Jr. signed a one-year deal with Atlanta, teaming up with Bijan Robinson to create a potential B. Robinson conundrum for intoxicated fantasy drafters. Robinson will presumably help fill the role vacated by Tyler Allgeier‘s absence.
BRIAN ROBINSON JR.
- Robinson is 6-foot-1 and 225 pounds. He has the size necessary to be a threat for carries near the goal line, an area in which Allgeier matched Bijan last year (each had seven carries inside the 5-yard line, and Allgeier out-carried Bijan 19-17 inside the 10).
- The Falcons could still add more RB competition in the draft, but right now, their RB3 is Nathan Carter, primarily a special teams helper who was on and off the healthy scratch list all of last year. If ATL doesn’t bring in more running back help, Robinson would be the unquestioned handcuff to Bijan. Brian Robinson Jr. has shown glimpses of pass-catching viability, but he largely has not been trusted in that regard, and Atlanta’s RB target share would plummet if Bijan went down, with more looks funneling to Drake London and Kyle Pitts rather than B-Rob stepping into a really legit pass-catching role. Still, with the draft pending, B-Rob could find himself one injury away from a 15+ carry workload.
BIJAN ROBINSON
- Bijan and Jahmyr Gibbs are dueling it out for the RB1 throne in fantasy drafts this year. The Lions also added a well-known veteran in Isiah Pacheco, but Pacheco lost his goal-line role to Kareem Hunt in Kansas City. That means Gibbs is in line for a big uptick in red-zone rushing attempts after David Montgomery out-carried him 14-9 inside the 5-yard line last year. While Bijan could certainly beat out B-Rob for the primary goal-line role, B-Rob poses more of a threat to Bijan for short-yardage carries than Pacheco does to Gibbs, and the Lions’ overall offensive environment is superior. Adding Brian Robinson Jr. isn’t that damning in the grand scheme of things for Bijan — we saw how good he could be even with Allgeier there last year — but between the added goal-line competition and the offensive environment, Gibbs likely deserves to be the 1.01 in fantasy drafts this offseason. Robinson, of course, remains a top-tier RB1, just not the RB1.
49ERS RUNNING BACKS
- San Francisco is left with Jordan James and Isaac Guerendo backing up Christian McCaffrey. That will be a key RB2 battle to watch. It’s worth mentioning that San Fran evidently wasn’t comfortable with Guerendo as their RB2 last summer and sought out Robinson to back up CMC. Vic Tafur wrote that the 49ers have “big plans” for James, so he seems like the clear frontrunner to begin the offseason.
