Fantasy Sports Fantasy Football

Denard Robinson Fantasy Football Week 8 Projection

Fresh Videos

By @SicEm18

Denard Robinson

Getty Images

After Toby Gerhart was signed on with the Jacksonville Jaguars, it was thought by some (myself included) that he’d be a dominant running back — what the team needed to replace Maurice Jones-Drew. Then as the season approached, there was more chatter that Jordan Todman, who had a semi-successful 2013 season, would be taking snaps, and even rookie Storm Johnson. The list goes on with an endless round table of discussion of Jaguars running backs. But ultimately from injuries and underwhelming performances, the former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson churned out the best performance of any of the Jaguars’ RBs and looks to continue that.

Robinson had a moderate amount of carries before last week, gathering just nine points in six games. But after securing the starter spot against the Cleveland Browns, he burst onto the scene and punched out an 18-point performance. How impressive is that, really? Well, enough for 45 percent of owners to pick him up on Wednesday from waivers — now owned in 53 percent of Yahoo! leagues. But is that a bit reactionary?

Before last week, the Browns had allowed five running backs (two from the Baltimore Ravens game in Week 3) to gain over 10 points. That’s a high success rate for RBs opposing the Browns. They’ve given up the sixth-most points to the position. So that game was a game to ease Robinson into a more demanding role. But now he goes against a more moderate rush defense, the Miami Dolphins, giving up the 12th-most points to backs.

The Dolphins’ success rate against big games by running backs is a little more steep, giving up five 10-plus point performances in seven games. But two of those performances came in a game against two Kansas City Chiefs backups when Jamaal Charles went down, telling me they’re more susceptible to giving up points when there’s a mult-TD attack.

If the Jaguars were to bring in more runs from Johnson this week — only had six touches last week — maybe they’d have more success, giving more confusion to the Dolphins defense. But after their only win of the season, it’s unlikely their formula will change much, giving Robinson over 20 carries.

It’s really too soon to tell. The body of work to project his success is too small to tell what will come of Robinson. Maybe he can really find success consistently on his own accord, but I’m thinking last week was a little more of a flash in the pan. I hope we see more of him, but I’m expecting a mere performance of 60 some odd yards with no score. He’s startable if you need him, but don’t go making any crazy replacements thinking he’ll continue to rack up similar totals from last week.

Share Tweet
Trending Now on