{"id":188846,"date":"2025-07-07T17:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/188846\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T17:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:53:10","slug":"bijan-robinson-ranked-among-top-10-running-backs-by-nfl-execs-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/188846\/","title":{"rendered":"Bijan Robinson ranked among top 10 running backs by NFL execs, coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Falcons<\/a> have been one of the most unpredictable teams in the draft ever since general manager Terry Fontenot took over in 2021. While the team has had its share of misses, the Falcons<\/a> have drafted fairly well in the first round.<\/p>\n

Running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver Drake London and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. are expected to lead the offense this season. Robinson might have the brightest future of anyone on the team. The former Texas standout has essentially no weaknesses in his game.<\/p>\n

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Robinson’s combination of speed, strength, vision, elusiveness, hands, and blocking ability helped him have a breakout year in 2025. He finished his second season with 1,456 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. Only Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry rushed for more yards last season.<\/p>\n

ESPN<\/a> polled NFL executives, coaches and scouts to rank the top 10 players at each position ahead of the 2025 season. Robinson was ranked the NFL’s fourth-best running back<\/a> in ESPN’s poll:<\/p>\n

Robinson entered the league with considerable expectations and has largely met them. He’s one of three players in NFL history to produce 2,400 rushing yards and 100 receptions in a player’s first two seasons, joining Pro Football Hall of Famers Edgerrin James and LaDainian Tomlinson.<\/p>\n

“Size, speed, acceleration, pass game, value, breaks tackles, can hit home runs,” an NFL coordinator said. “He’s a nightmare to prepare for.”<\/p>\n

Robinson was voted among the top three on half the running back ballots cast for these rankings, but fell just short of Gibbs. His 365 touches last year ranked second behind Barkley (378). Young Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will need similar reliability in 2025. Given all this, Robinson is totally justifiable as a No. 1 or No. 2 pick in fantasy drafts. — Jeremy Fowler, ESPN<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite finishing third in the league in total rushing yards, Robinson was ranked behind Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs. Both Robinson and Gibbs were selected within the first 12 picks of the 2023 NFL draft. While neither pick was praised at the time, the two former first-round picks have proved to the league that running backs still have value.<\/p>\n

With Penix taking over at quarterback, the Falcons will lean heavily on Robinson as they look to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Atlanta Falcons: NFL coaches, execs rank Bijan Robinson among best RBs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons have been one of the most unpredictable teams in the draft ever since general manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,4127,292,113,4130,12,224,7,1674,1879,6,6746,894,2660],"class_list":{"0":"post-188846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-bijan-robinson","12":"tag-derrick-henry","13":"tag-detroit-lions","14":"tag-drake-london","15":"tag-espn","16":"tag-falcons","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-jahmyr-gibbs","19":"tag-michael-penix-jr","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-rushing-yards","22":"tag-saquon-barkley","23":"tag-terry-fontenot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114813233919483102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}