Chris Rodriguez’s snap count has been going up week by week, and his seven touches for 31 yards last Sunday doubled both of his season totals. So, is it possible that he sees some more, and bigger, snaps, this weekend when the Commanders host the Eagles?
Maybe, and start off the conversation with this thought from Logan Paulsen when he visited Grant & Danny on Friday:
“There's this in between gray area for Robinson with some of the runs, and that shows up, I think, in terms of how they set up and the technique with how to properly stretch the run, get the defense to move, and then make the cut. I think with Rodriguez, you see a little a guy who understands at a higher level the patience required to possibly execute some of those runs a little bit better. Personally, when I watch them back-to-back, I think he gets for whatever reason, a better blocking surface. There just seems to be more space, but again, that might be something he's doing in terms of setup, in terms of his body position, that allows those linebackers to stretch a little bit more, allows those double teams to sync a little bit longer and then transition to the second level a little bit better.”
It took them a very long discussion about Halloween costumes (spoiler: other than Danny, none of the guys are really that creative) to get back to Rodriguez after they played that clip during Friday’s show, but indeed, both guys are noticing that we’re seeing less and less Brian Robinson, and the wonder is if this is going to become “a thing” on Sunday.
“The part that got my attention was for a couple of weeks in a row now, and it was the same broadcast crew, but they've over-talked about their conversations with Rivera and the staff about how much they want to involve Rodriguez more,” Grant said. “Remember they couldn't for a couple of weeks, he was inactive and didn’t touch the football basically from Week 2 to Week 5 because he had that weird illness, whatever that was. But since then, he's averaged about 5.5 carries per game, which is three fewer than Brian Robinson over the last two games, and it's more than Antonio Gibson. He has out carried Gibson by four carries over the last two weeks.”
“One of the reasons I didn't think Curtis Samuel would have as much involvement in the offense this year was I looked at the trend line from last season,” Danny replied. “When they started off, Carson Wentz loved throwing to Curtis Samuel, threw it to him a ton – but once Jahan Dotson came back and was healthy enough to be able to be a featured player, his target share went up and Samuel’s went down.”
It hasn’t gone that way this year so far, but Danny thinks the logic is sound for a similar situation with Robinson and Rodriguez.
“There’s a logic to it...when you look at 19, 18, 10, 14 and then nothing that big again for the last three weeks talking about carries for Brian Robinson, you notice a trend line,” Danny said. “I understand game script, but he ran it 10 times in Atlanta, a game they were winning. Now, I know they weren't effective and that's kind of been the biggest part of this, but I just don’t think he’s a good fit for this system or the design of the scheme.”
Danny invoked Isiah Pacheco, who ran a lot from the shotgun and has success with Eric Bieniemy in Kansas City, as fitting the scheme – but that doesn’t seem to be Robinson’s bread and butter.
“I don’t think that's his strength, or something he does that particularly well; I think he needs downhill, I-formation, one-cut runs, sort of like an Alfred Morris-type,” Danny said. “More of a battering, bruising, hammering, everything's leaning forward scheme – I don't think he fits particularly well in this with his feet stopped. I don't really think that's his style. Maybe they prefer other guys to him, but you can't help but notice that he hasn't been as featured lately, even when the script would call for a balance.”
“I thought he was pretty good out of the gun on some of that stuff last year, but to your point, it’s just not effective right now,” Grant replied. “Is it that it’s him? I don’t know; Antonio Gibson hasn’t had much success either. On the course of the season, Gibson's averaging 4.2, Rodriguez is averaging 4.4, and Robinson, lower than both is averaging 3.8.”
Not terrible but not great, and more indicative of a lack of explosion overall.
“I just wish they had a home run hitter. I know Rodriguez is not, I know Robinson is not, Gibson has a little bit more speed in the open field than those guys, to kind of turn on some afterburners as a former receiver, but we've even seen him get caught from behind,” Grant said. “You and I have lamented the idea that they don't really have a speed back – it’s pretty redundant with three pretty physical guys who are about lowering their shoulders and falling forward and pounding the football – but this is now what I'm fascinated about from a personnel standpoint on offense.”
That’s because, to Grant, as much pub as the offensive line gets, he thinks that unit will be overhauled early and often, while the RB room, maybe not.
“I view that as a Rivera failure, this front office got this wrong,” he said, “but is Rodriguez a player here? Is he a guy that could be your thunder when there’s a lightning?”
