The Jaguars drafted former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson with an eye toward making him their OW — offensive weapon — but it turns out he was no more offensive than the rest of their team.
Then they tried to settle him at wide receiver, and that didn’t yield much either.
So now, at 0-8 and officially at the “why not, let’s try it” stage of the season, they’re going to make him a running back.
“We tried him at wildcat and tried him at receiver and we just said that didn’t work real well,’’ Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said, via Vito Stellino of the Florida Times-Union. “Let’s put him at tailback. He never played it before, but when he did, some things came naturally to him. . . .
“He gained our trust as far as ball security and he had a really good work of practice before the San Francisco game and we said, ‘All right, let’s get him in there and see what he can do.’”
Robinson will be backing up Maurice Jones-Drew, and they hope to get him more involved. He had four carries against the 49ers for 15 yards, with a 21-yard run negated by a penalty.
Offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch said in an ideal world, Jones-Drew would carry it 20 times a game and for Robinson would get around 14 carries.
Of course, to run the ball 34 times, they’d need to be not hopelessly behind at halftime, and that hasn’t worked out so far. They haven’t rushed for 100 yards in a game this year as a team, as big deficits have forced them to throw.