I see where Demarcus Robinson is talking about going for 1,000 yards and 10 TDs. Sammy Watkins is gone, he reasons, so this will be the season for him to get more opportunities – and do more with them.
“Without Sammy being there, they said it’ll pick up a lot more … they got a lot of things in store for me,” Robinson said during an interview this morning on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football. “Every other season, it’s [been] 4-5 touchdowns, 500 yards. … I just think it picks up a little bit more right now. I’m looking for the opportunity — not for them to give me the opportunity, but go in there and take the opportunity. Go in there and show that I am a guy who can put up 1,000 yards a year and 10 touchdowns. I’m ready to make that happen.”
But I feel like I’ve seen this movie before.
Robinson has been there for five years. He’s had a lot of opportunities, and he has thus far done little with them. Watkins, after all, was plagued by injuries during his three seasons with the team, so Robinson has had many chances to fill the role that he says he’s now excited to be getting.
As luck would have it, in fact, Watkins was inactive for 16 games (including the playoffs) in his KC run. That’s an exact season worth of games (at least it used to be, before the recent addition of a 17th game). And Robinson wasn’t much of a factor in those games – 43 catches for 540 yards and 5 TDs.
I don’t expect a big step-up season from Robinson. I expect that passing game will continue to run through Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, and I would rather have their other wide receiver (Mecole Hardman) rather than Robinson.
| ROBINSON IN GAMES WITHOUT WATKINS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD | Snap% |
| 2018 | Ariz. | W 26-14 | 4 | 3 | 30 | 0 | 73% |
| 2018 | at Oak. | W 40-33 | 1 | 1 | 38 | 0 | 59% |
| 2018 | Balt. | W 27-24 | 7 | 5 | 42 | 0 | 65% |
| 2018 | LAC | L 28-29 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 60% |
| 2018 | at Sea. | L 31-38 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 66% |
| 2018 | Oak. | W 35-3 | 2 | 1 | 89 | 1 | 65% |
| 2019 | Hou. | L 24-31 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 87% |
| 2019 | at Den. | W 30-6 | 5 | 3 | 31 | 0 | 80% |
| 2020 | at Buff. | W 26-17 | 6 | 5 | 69 | 0 | 95% |
| 2020 | at Den. | W 43-16 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 67% |
| 2020 | NYJ | W 35-9 | 5 | 4 | 63 | 1 | 55% |
| 2020 | Car. | W 33-31 | 3 | 3 | 34 | 1 | 81% |
| 2020 | at L.V. | W 35-31 | 8 | 6 | 44 | 0 | 81% |
| 2020 | LAC | L 21-38 | 7 | 6 | 58 | 0 | 89% |
| 2020 | Clev. | W 22-17 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 71% |
| 2020 | Buff. | W 38-24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65% |
—Ian Allan