Austin Ekeler had a pair of touchdowns in last Sunday’s Commanders loss to the Steelers, as the de facto No. 1 RB with Brian Robinson Jr. out due to a hamstring injury.
We say de facto, though, because B-Rob may be the lead dog on the depth chart, but everyone plays their role, and a lot of that doesn’t necessarily change if someone is missing.
“As running backs in general, we all have different strengths and weaknesses; Brian is 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, a big body in comparison to me at 5-foot-8, 195 pounds, so he’s more of a downhill guy and has a different type of skill set than I do,” Ekeler explained to Grant & Danny Wednesday. “On third downs, you see me a lot spreading out wide, whether Brian is there or not, and that's something that I've been used like that for all of my career. If Brian’s not there, I just get more attention in the backfield as a runner; when he is, it’s more of, ‘Brian, you're definitely gonna get these touches, Austin, we're gonna try to get you the ball in the other ways,’ so the dynamic doesn't change.”
Part of Ekeler’s answer may be why Chris Rodriguez had such a big game a couple weeks ago when B-Rob was first out, as his skill set is somewhat similar. But still, as Ekeler has often told G&D, the game plan is based a lot on both the opponent and the personnel, so it’s all fluid each week.
It looks like Robinson will be back Thursday night in Philly, which is good in more ways than one – but especially for the running backs, who just were in the car crash that is an NFL game four days ago.
“It’s crazy, and I’ll still be sore going into the game, and Philly was handling Dallas so they got to rest some of their guys late in the game, and we didn't have that luxury,” Ekeler said. “But it kind of just plays out, and whatever scenario you have, you have to deal with it. My body might be sore just because of the type of game that we were in, and others might feel differently, but it’s the mentality that we have the Thursday night game, we have to get ready no matter what – if all you have is 70 percent to give, that’s what we need, because the short week is definitely harder to recover, so we’ll take whatever you’ve got.”
Every team gets at least one, and perhaps earlier in the season is better, but no matter what, Ekeler enjoys Thursday Night Football as a fan, so he knows it’s here to stay.
“It’s just part of our ecosystem of the sport. I love watching the Thursday game, so I’m not saying let's get rid of it or anything like that, I'm just saying it's definitely tough,” Ekeler said. “There’s a reason why we usually have one of them per team, but if you look at the data, the injury rate isn’t too different at all from my understanding. It definitely feels different, but if there was more injury, that would be something that we'd be raising a lot more attention to. The fact that we only have one per team is encouraging, so that kind of plays a factor into it as well, but in my opinion it’s good for the game from an outside perspective.”
And, being once usually per year, the fact that the practice week is compressed is, in theory, just one long work week with two games, and then a nice little mini-bye the weekend after.
“It’s all ramped up because you’re literally right back at it; we came in the building Monday and that was like a Wednesday for us, which is also tough because usually you have Monday and Tuesday to kind of reset your mind and your body gets a little break to do some workouts and recovery stuff, and then you come in the building Wednesday with kind of like a refreshed feeling mentally and physically,” Ejeler said. “But when we just played Sunday and came to the building on Monday, my body was like, wait, we don't feel refreshed yet.But we’re already learning the new install, so it’s one week that you grind through, with a lot of walkthroughs and mental stuff.”
And crazy how it just so happens that this mid-season Thursday nighter is a huge division game against the team they’re fighting for the NFC East crown.
“As far as preparation, it’s no different, because you treat every game like it's the most important game because it’s the game that you're playing that week,” Ekeler said. “It’s more of an emotional feeling or maybe added motivation when it's against division rival, but the preparation like isn't any different. The added motivation is just something you can put on top of the pile, so to speak.”