Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

NFL RB Rankings: Commanders' Robinson Underutilized by Bieniemy?

Originally posted on FanNation Washington Football
By Adam Schultz | Last updated 2/11/24

The Washington Commanders had a difficult season, to say the least in 2023 as a 4-13 record now means they hold the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft.

Part of the reason why Washington struggled was the lack of a consistent rushing attack as it averaged just 93.6 yards per game (ranked 26th).

Brian Robinson Jr. in his second season, didn't have the "second-year leap" many talk about as he totaled 733 rushing yards and five touchdowns from his 178 attempts.

With that kind of stat line, where did Robinson rank among all starting running backs this year? Well, out of 72, he ranked 32nd according to NFL.com.

"Washington had the fewest rushing attempts in the league this season, due in part to how often the team played from behind, which limited Robinson's production," NFL.com writes. "Even so, the second-year back amassed 1,101 scrimmage yards in his first full season as RB1. We’ll see if he can build on that under Kliff Kingsbury in 2024."

Robinson had a decent rookie campaign but couldn't back it up under Eric Bieniemy this season as he had 27 fewer carries than he did last year.

Part of that was clearly game script as the Commanders found themselves behind by big margins quite often as just eight times they surpassed the 100-yard mark in a game with Robinson's highest total of 87 yards coming in Week 2 against the Denver Broncos.

But now with Kliff Kingsbury as the offensive coordinator, we could see a return of the run game as a valuable piece of the Commanders' offense.

In three of Kingsbury's four years as the Arizona Cardinals head coach, they finished top 10 in rushing yards and averaged 124.4 yards/g in 2019, 139.8/g in 2020, and 122.1/g in 2021, while also finishing third (22 TDs) and fourth (23TDs) in rushing touchdowns in 2020 and 2021.

So there is a track record of the offensive-minded Kingsbury getting the run game going and with Robinson, he has a young, physical back who is more than capable of being the team's bellcow if called upon.

It is no secret that the Commanders' run game underwhelmed this year, but with Kingsbury coming on board, potentially with Caleb Williams, we could see an uptick in performance from the Washington run game.

And if that's the case, we can be fairly certain that come next year, Robinson will be ranked far higher than 32.

This article first appeared on FanNation Washington Football and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: