Their last name is the same, as is their first initial.
Without intending to be vague, the opposing press-box announcer says “Robinson with the carry,” which is usually a safe bet.
Whether it’s Bijan Robinson — perhaps the best running back in the NFL today — or new backup Brian Robinson, the Atlanta Falcons have the league’s No. 2 rushing attack entering Week 5, switching out in the middle of drives but often finding the same outcome in the end zone.
“I don’t know who’s back there, but I know one Robinson’s going to make us right,” guard Matthew Bergeron told me. “At least one of them. It’s good to have those two backs. They complete each other, and people don’t realize how good leaders they are.”
Bijan wears 7, Brian wears 15, so that should make it easy to tell them apart. But on a ticker at the bottom of your TV, in fine print on your phone, it’s easy to confuse “Bi. Robinson” and “Br. Robinson.” In the locker room, everyone calls Brian “B-Rob,” whereas Bijan is pretty much always Bijan. One fan went viral this summer for accidentally walking up to the board at his fantasy draft and proudly affixing the wrong “B. Robinson” sticker for the No. 1 overall pick.
It wasn’t as bad a mistake Monday night, as Brian ran for three touchdowns and Bijan two in the Falcons’ rout of the Saints. The idea of a 1-2 punch in the run game is not new. Brian rushed for 400 yards last year without a single start as Christian McCaffrey’s backup with the San Francisco 49ers, and Bijan had a similar shared role with Tyler Allgeier his first three years in Atlanta.
“It’s understanding we’re in this together,” Brian said after Monday’s win, wearing a silver “BR” chain around his neck and standing at the locker next to Bijan’s. “It’s everything combined, from the energy we generate, from the connection, from the bond we both have. We know we’re complementing each other when we’re playing. There shouldn’t be [any] falloff.”
In their two games since Michael Penix Jr.’s at quarterback, the Falcons have dominated, first in a 35-14 win at the Packers and then a 45-21 rout at the Saints on Monday night. The common thread is dominance in the red zone, going 4-for-5 in both games while relying heavily on their running backs. Against New Orleans, they had 15 red-zone plays, and 12 went to the Robinsons, and the three that didn’t were all incomplete passes.
“When everybody does their job and then you have talented runners like Bijan and Brian, they don’t need a big hole,” Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said. “You can give these guys creases and they can run through arm tackles.”
Bijan is unique among the league’s elite running backs. He’s talented enough to rank among the best but unselfish enough to share the workload as few do. Of the top six backs in rushing yards after four weeks, the other five all have at least 84% of the running back carries for their team.
Robinson, by comparison, has 66%, which is to say his backups have more than twice the role of those behind other top backs. This was the case last year as well, as Robinson had a 65% share last year, leading the NFL with 2,298 yards from scrimmage despite watching from the sidelines on 236 offensive plays.
In fantasy football parlance, Brian is a “vulture,” someone picking off touchdowns that might otherwise go to a team’s primary back. There’s no such talk in the Falcons’ locker room, where the two working together has been what the offense does best. They’ve rushed for more than 200 yards in back-to-back games, and that threat opens up the downfield passing game as well.
“It pushes them into a different coverage, and that allows us to eat,” receiver Drake London said. “If Bijan’s eating and B-Rob’s eating, then we’re all going to.”
Running by committee has been part of Brian’s role since college, where he came up behind Josh Jacobs and Najee Harris at Alabama. As a result, Brian never had even 100 carries in a season until his fifth and final season. He led the Commanders in rushing in each of his first two seasons, but he’s playing well enough as a backup this year that he’s on pace for a career-best with 824 rushing yards.
“Me and Beej have been doing a great job of keeping the run game very efficient, and that obviously helps everything else around it,” Brian said Monday night. “They’ve got to respect our run game, respect our pass game. Just leave them guessing. They don’t really know what to expect, so we’ve got to keep playing our style of football and making it hard on them, every chance we get.”
