5 Jaguars who were potentially damage by Urban Meyer’s toxic culture

4. Jaguars player that was damaged by Urban Meyer – James Robinson, RB.

In retrospect, there were signs Urban Meyer wasn’t fully on board with running back James Robinson even though he totaled 1,414 yards from scrimmage, the most by an undrafted rookie in NFL history, last season. Back in the 2021 draft, the Jags drafted Travis Etienne 25th overall even though they had Robinson on the roster. If E-T-N hadn’t gotten hurt in the preseason, there’s a good chance he would be the team’s starting running back and Robinson would be the backup.

More recently, Meyer benched Robinson in consecutive weeks after fumbling the ball and veteran Carlos Hyde had more carries than him against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 13. This was a head-scratching call, as the head coach never benched other players for making mistakes. Things got so bad that Trevor Lawrence had to ask Meyer to plug Robinson back in the game. Had the rookie passer not intervened, there’s a good chance Robinson would have stayed on the sidelines in that game.

When asked why Robinson was benched, Meyer said running backs coach Bernie Parmalee was responsible for the decision. However, he changed the story once he was fired and accepted he told the coaching staff to take him out of the game. Why the former head coach thought it was a good idea to sideline his best player and why he thought he could get away with lying about it remains unknown.

Things got back to normality against the Texans and Robinson got 18 carries for 75 yards. Based on how things played out, it’s clear Meyer didn’t want the sophomore running back on the field.