5 former Jacksonville Jaguars players who could thrive on new teams in 2023

1. Jacksonville Jaguars player who could thrive on a new team: James Robinson

You know things are bad when you rank in the cellar of the league in most meaningful categories and lose 15 straigth games to end the year. That's the spot the Jaguars find themselves in back in 2020, when they routinely looked lost week and were consistently outplayed. Then again, not everything was doom and gloom in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars clinched the first overall pick in the 2021 draft, which they used to select Trevor Lawrence. Also, they signed James Robinson as an undrafted free agent. Right away, the former Illinois State Redbird showed he belonged in the NFL, racking up 164 yards on 32 carries in his first two career games. For the year, he ended up amassing 1,414 yards from scrimmage, the most by an undrafted rookie in league history.

Robinson was poised to have an even better sophomore campaign but quickly fell out of favor with Urban Meyer and was eventually benched. Although he was later plugged back into the starting lineup, he tore his Achilles and missed the last two games of the 2022 season. He spent most of the offseason working on his rehab and was the Jaguars' No. 1 running back in Week 1.

Even though Robinson showed he could carry a big workload, he was phased out in favor of Travis Etienne and was later traded to the New York Jets, where he was a healthy scratch for most of the reminder of the year.

Fortunately, things worked out for Robinson at the end. He wasn't tendered by the Jets and signed a two-year deal worth $8 million with the New England Patriots in free agency. The Illinois native will play for Bill O'Brien, who was a lousy general manager but a pretty competent offensive coordinator during his first stint in Foxborough.

Don't be surprised if Robinson has a bounce-back season in 2023 and forms a dynamic running-back tandem alongside Rhamondre Stevenson.