Life moves pretty fast. A day ago Washington Commanders rookie Brian Robinson looked like a starting NFL running back in Week 1. Today his health is very much in doubt after an attempted robbery or carjacking that left him in the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
Robinson's injuries are called non-life-threatening, which is encouraging; we don't know more than that. Ron Rivera and other team officials visited him, and Rivera tweeted out this afterward:
"I just got done visiting w/Brian. He is in good spirits and wanted me to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers & support. He wants his teammates to know he appreciates them all for reaching out and he loves them all & will be back soon doing what he does best."
Robinson's playing status is obviously of distant secondary importance here, but this is our area of focus and I'm going to stay in my lane. The fact that Robinson hopes or believes he will be back soon is good news given the range of possibilities with gunshot wounds. But those of us playing our little game here should reasonably expect Robinson to miss time, possibly extensive time if not the entire season, while recovering.
Antonio Gibson, then, moves back up into consideration as a second- or third-round type fantasy pick. (Based on the minimal details we have regarding Robinson's status right now.) He'll open as the starter and lead runner, and should be there indefinitely, with J.D. McKissic handling passing situations. Gibson had seemingly played himself out of a starting job into returning kickoffs a few days ago, but he was better a year ago then you might remember, especially in the second half of the season.
In the first half of last season, Gibson averaged 73 total yards. That ranked 17th among all running backs to play at least 6 games. But in the second half of the year, Gibson was up at 93 total yards. Only seven running backs were better in that timeframe.
| RUNNING BACKS PER GAME, 2ND HALF OF 2021 (6+ GAMES) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Att | Run | No | Rec | Tot | TD |
| Jonathan Taylor, Ind. | 8 | 24.0 | 123.8 | 2.1 | 8.4 | 132.1 | 1.38 |
| Dalvin Cook, Min. | 7 | 19.1 | 86.4 | 2.7 | 19.9 | 106.3 | .62 |
| Sony Michel, LAR | 6 | 21.5 | 90.0 | 1.7 | 11.0 | 101.0 | .50 |
| Joe Mixon, Cin. | 7 | 20.3 | 81.3 | 2.9 | 17.1 | 98.4 | 1.00 |
| Leonard Fournette, T.B. | 6 | 13.2 | 62.2 | 6.5 | 35.8 | 98.0 | 1.00 |
| Austin Ekeler, LAC | 8 | 13.1 | 54.0 | 4.3 | 40.3 | 94.3 | 1.54 |
| James Conner, Ariz. | 6 | 14.5 | 49.7 | 4.5 | 44.0 | 93.7 | 1.17 |
| Antonio Gibson, Was. | 8 | 18.4 | 74.4 | 3.1 | 18.8 | 93.1 | .79 |
| Najee Harris, Pitt. | 9 | 17.4 | 73.2 | 3.8 | 19.8 | 93.0 | .44 |
| Nick Chubb, Cle. | 7 | 15.4 | 76.9 | 1.7 | 15.0 | 91.9 | .43 |
| Josh Jacobs, L.V. | 9 | 16.0 | 65.8 | 4.0 | 24.3 | 90.1 | .44 |
| David Montgomery, Chi. | 8 | 17.9 | 59.6 | 4.3 | 29.4 | 89.0 | .50 |
| D'Onta Foreman, Ten. | 8 | 16.0 | 67.1 | 1.1 | 15.4 | 82.5 | .38 |
| AJ Dillon, G.B. | 8 | 13.9 | 56.0 | 2.5 | 22.4 | 78.4 | .75 |
| Javonte Williams, Den. | 8 | 13.5 | 54.6 | 2.6 | 22.6 | 77.3 | .63 |
| Damien Harris, N.E. | 6 | 11.5 | 63.7 | 1.2 | 11.5 | 75.2 | 1.33 |
| Devin Singletary, Buff. | 9 | 12.8 | 57.2 | 2.1 | 16.2 | 73.4 | .78 |
| Aaron Jones, G.B. | 6 | 9.2 | 47.2 | 3.2 | 25.7 | 72.8 | .50 |
| Tony Pollard, Dall. | 7 | 8.3 | 45.1 | 3.1 | 27.0 | 72.1 | .14 |
| Melvin Gordon, Den. | 7 | 13.4 | 63.0 | 1.1 | 7.1 | 70.1 | .57 |
| Rex Burkhead, Hou. | 8 | 14.4 | 49.8 | 2.5 | 18.5 | 68.3 | .25 |
| Saquon Barkley, NYG | 8 | 13.5 | 49.8 | 3.4 | 16.6 | 66.4 | .13 |
| Dontrell Hilliard, Ten. | 7 | 8.0 | 50.0 | 2.7 | 12.4 | 62.4 | .29 |
| Michael Carter, NYJ | 6 | 10.2 | 51.8 | 1.5 | 10.3 | 62.2 | .17 |
| Jamaal Williams, Det. | 6 | 13.7 | 48.2 | 1.7 | 9.7 | 57.8 | .17 |
| Devonta Freeman, Balt. | 9 | 11.1 | 43.1 | 2.9 | 14.1 | 57.2 | .33 |
| Ezekiel Elliott, Dall. | 9 | 12.1 | 42.2 | 2.7 | 14.9 | 57.1 | .74 |
| James Robinson, Jac. | 7 | 10.9 | 40.7 | 1.9 | 12.7 | 53.4 | .43 |
| Tevin Coleman, NYJ | 7 | 9.0 | 40.4 | 1.3 | 4.6 | 45.0 | .00 |
| Cordarrelle Patterson, Atl. | 8 | 10.0 | 42.5 | .0 | .0 | 42.5 | .50 |
| Latavius Murray, Balt. | 8 | 7.5 | 36.1 | .8 | 6.3 | 42.4 | .25 |
| Mike Davis, Atl. | 9 | 6.0 | 25.8 | 2.2 | 16.0 | 41.8 | .22 |
| Brandon Bolden, N.E. | 8 | 2.8 | 14.8 | 2.4 | 27.0 | 41.8 | .29 |
| Ameer Abdullah, Car. | 8 | 4.4 | 13.1 | 3.5 | 25.9 | 39.0 | .13 |
| Ty Johnson, NYJ | 8 | 2.8 | 12.6 | 1.9 | 18.1 | 30.8 | .13 |
| Zack Moss, Buff. | 7 | 3.1 | 17.3 | 1.0 | 10.3 | 27.6 | .43 |
| Nyheim Hines, Ind. | 8 | 1.9 | 10.6 | 2.0 | 15.4 | 26.0 | .13 |
| Kyle Juszczyk, S.F. | 9 | .1 | .7 | 1.4 | 15.1 | 15.8 | .11 |
That's the potential, I think, for Gibson right now. Hopefully, for the rookie’s sake, he's sharing the backfield with Robinson sooner rather than later.
--Andy Richardson