Jacksonville Jaguars running back James Robinson hasn’t been at 100 percent for weeks as he’s been battling through injuries to his heel and knee.
Robinson played just 26 snaps in Sunday’s 37-7 loss to the Los Angeles Rams and had just eight carries for 24 yards. While that in itself may not be too strange, the fact that three of those carries came in the final two minutes of the contest is a bit curious. Carlos Hyde had nine carries on the day for Jacksonville with Robinson sat down for 26 consecutive plays after losing a fumble on the second play of the game.
It’s apparently something that has even head coach Urban Meyer a bit puzzled by.
“That’s a good question,” said Meyer, via Mike DiRocco of ESPN.com, when asked about why Robinson was used that way.
Meyer then said that running backs coach Bernie Parmalee handles the running back rotations and said perhaps he wanted to see a few more carries from Robinson at that stage of the game. Given the injuries already existing for Robinson and the total lack of importance in the plays he saw, that decision would seem strange.
“I’d agree,” Meyer said.
Meyer’s seeming obliviousness to the team’s personnel decisions is odd to the say the least. He’s the head coach of the football team. If he wants someone to play, he tells them to play. If he doesn’t, he tells them to sit. Ultimately that discretion is his and his alone.
Via Demetrius Harvey of BigCatCountry.com, Meyer then did follow up and said he intended to take a more active role in those calls.
“I’m aware of it,” Meyer said of the personnel decisions. “I’m not in charge of it but I’ll watch and I’ll say, ‘what’s our thoughts here and what’s our thoughts there?’ Obviously, I didn’t do it there with James.”
“I am (going to be more involved) because I just gotta make sure to do it the way I want it done.”