While the Jacksonville Jaguars have been known to be big spenders in recent free agency history, they’ve also been able to get several players on value contracts through undrafted free agency. Right now, that’s the case for their best offensive player James Robinson, whose set to have a cap number of $896,668 this season.
For this reason, Robinson was listed to NFL.com’s “best team that money can buy,” which was constructed by Anthony Holzman-Escareno. Operating under the league’s salary cap figure of $208.2 million, he made a 53-man roster, most of which had to be full of value contracts.
In the end, Holzman-Escareno not only took advantage of landing Robinson on his rookie deal, but three other rushers in Jonathan Taylor, Antonio Gibson, and Elijah Mitchell, all of whom were his top-3 running backs ahead of the third-year Jaguar.
James Robinson tore his Achilles in Week 15 and might not be ready to start the season, but the luxury of a productive, proven player on an undrafted deal was too good to overlook. His 2,403 scrimmage yards are the 11th-most in the NFL over the last two seasons.
While the Jags have only won four games in Robinson’s first two seasons, he’s more than done his part. As a rookie, he was able to accumulate 1,070 yards and seven rushing touchdowns in 2020 and 767 rushing yards with eight touchdowns last season. His yard per carry averages were 4.5 and 4.7 in those seasons, respectively, which puts him at a 4.5 yard per carry average this year.
As of now, it seems Robinson won’t be ready for the start of training camp, which means 2021 first-round pick Travis Etienne is going to get a good look this summer. However, when Robinson returns the Jags definitely should have big plans for him as combining his skills with Etienne’s would give them one of the better backfields in football.
