Allen Robinson hampered by scheme and coaching in 2016
By Daniel Lago
After a Pro Bowl year in 2015, Jaguars receiver Allen Robinson was a disappointment in 2016 – but it wasn’t all on him.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had a disappointing 2016 campaign, both as a team and as a collection of individual players. In retrospect, the season was doomed when the front office chose to retain Gus Bradley as head coach (despite his historically incompetent record), but there was some hope derived from the development of a handful of players. Quarterback Blake Bortles blossomed as a downfield passer in 2015, Allen Hurns became a reliable target in the passing game, and Allen Robinson emerged as a bonafide superstar wide receiver.
Of all the young players, Robinson was the one with the least questions heading into the regular season. Most expected him to exceed or at least match the Pro Bowl numbers he put up in 2015.
Like the rest of the roster, Robinson failed to produce at the level needed. He was held back in part by the unfortunate regression of Blake Bortles, but Robinson had issues dropping catchable balls and getting separation against upper-echelon cornerbacks.
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On that last note about separation, an argument could be made that Robinson was not put in a position to succeed by the coaching staff. Take a look at
a great snippet from a recent piece by Matt Harmon over at NFL.com
about how much separation number 1 receivers got in 2016:
"Allen Robinson averaged 1.93 yards of separation at target. That ranked 15th out of 15 receivers with 100-plus targets out wide. The entire Jacksonville offense was broken this year, not just the quarterback position. Now fully-installed head coach Doug Marrone indicated that Allen Robinson‘s big Week 16 game after he took over for Gus Bradley came as a result of moving the No. 1 receiver around. Much of that was about making sure he wasn’t running extremely low-percentage, high-degree of difficulty routes on a routine basis, something that happened far too often this season."
Robinson cemented himself as the king of making contested catches in 2015, but he also was adept at getting separation. That was not the case last year and it was clear he had trouble adjusting to the extra attention. Harmon’s stat also indicates Robinson was asked to perform miracles on virtually every snap, trying to beat top corners one-on-one with little scheme help.
Robinson definitely needs to improve, but the “new” coaching staff also needs to continue developing game plans to move Robinson around.