The Washington Commanders' running back room was ranked as No. 27 out of 32 teams in the NFL by Pro Football Focus. And that ranking for the group of Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson has Chris Russell had a lot of thoughts about that grade from the gurus over at PFF.
The conversation gets going at around 4:40 on the player below
"This kind of thing infuriates me," Russell said about the low ranking.
Now, maybe PFF isn't your bag so you want to look at the simple stats, among running backs with over 125 carries, Kahlil Herbert averaged 5.7 yards, Aaron Jones 5.3, Tony Pollard 5.2, Travis Etienne 5.1, Nick Chubb 5.0, and Rhamondre Stevenson 5.0... and then about 20 running backs later you get to Robinson Jr. who averaged 3.9 yards on 205 rushes and Gibson at 3.7 yards on 149 rushes.
So, while the Commanders' backs might be good, and the PFF ranking says positive things, sometimes the low ranking means they aren't good enough by comparison.
Now, back to PFF's grades. For the 2022 season, they gave Robinson an 81.0 rushing grade (29th best) and 82.5 grade for overall offense (13th best) and Gibson got a 70.9 rushing grade (67th) and a 76.3 overall grade (32nd). That duo doesn't do much.
One problem could be the two scored low in average yards after contact per attempt, with Robinson at 2.69 ranked 38th highest in football (minimum 100 rush attempts) and Gibson at 2.53 ranked 41st highest. And for missed tackles forced after a rush, Robinson's 32 ranked 25th most (minimum 100 attempts) and Gibson's 13 were 42nd most, per PFF.
And breakaway potential is another area the Commanders' duo struggled to produce in 2022: for explosive runs (10 yards or more), Robinson only had 18 (28th most) and Gibson had 11 (43rd most). And when that number goes to rushes that went 15 yards or more, Robinson only had 6 (tied for 35th most) and Gibson had 3 (tied for 52nd most).
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