Fantasy football managers drafted Bijan Robinson in the first round of their fantasy drafts with the hopes that the Atlanta Falcons running back would be a stalwart in their starting lineup over the course of the 2023 NFL season.
Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten off to a great start for the rookie RB in his Week 7 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Is Robinson playing? Why has he barely seen the field?
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Was Bijan Robinson Benched to Start Week 7?
At the time of writing, it’s unclear whether or not Robinson was intentionally benched by head coach Arthur Smith. However, all signs point to that being the case as the RB sat on the sideline and watched Tyler Allgeier and Cordarrelle Patterson handle the touches out of the backfield for the majority of the first quarter.
Robinson didn’t come into the game until there was 2:18 left on the game clock in the first quarter! The Falcons were able to march down the field and find the end zone, but Bijan watched that take place off the field.
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It makes absolutely no sense (outside of a benching) why Robinson wouldn’t see the field until that late in the game. However, Smith has certainly shown a propensity to handle his star players curiously up to this point of his head coaching tenure, with Drake London and Kyle Pitts being utilized questionably in the past.
We’ll keep you updated as the game moves along as to the star RB’s status, but Robinson has only seen a handful of snaps and zero touches at the time of writing. Here’s hoping that we see a much more expansive workload from him as we move into the second quarter and beyond.
Update: At the half, Robinson has zero touches and has played just six total snaps.
Secondary Update: Per the broadcast, Bijan is reportedly not feeling great and that is expected to be the reason for his light workload.
Final Update: Robinson ended the game with just one carry for three yards. We’ll await further reports from the postgame press conference to determine the full extent of Bijan’s reported illness.
Analysis last updated at 4:14pm EST on Sunday, October 22.
How Does This Affect Robinson’s Fantasy Ranking?
As of right now, it’s too early to tell whether or not we should downgrade Robinson in our rest-of-season fantasy football rankings. He’s too talented of a player to indicate that we should let this affect our thought process.
However, if Robinson goes too much longer in this contest without seeing a significant opportunity, it may be time to adjust our rankings going into Week 8 and beyond. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re not getting the ball, you’re not going to be able to do anything for fantasy football.