Good things happen when Bijan Robinson touches the football.
The Atlanta Falcons, though, might want him to get the ball just a little bit less.
Robinson was by far their most-used player in the Week 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and while he will usually lead the offense in touches, there’s a case to be made for balance.
Speaking of that case: Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees told reporters that he wants more balance, as part of a press conference on Thursday.
When it comes to Bijan’s touches and target share last week, Rees said he’d rather the #Falcons be more balanced.
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) September 17, 2026
Run plays are mostly up to the offensive coordinator, and the Falcons certainly have passes designed for Robinson, but there are also passes that end up his way based on the quarterback’s decision. So as the offense moves forward into Week 2 against the Carolina Panthers, there’s plenty for Atlanta to continue making sense of in order to find balance.
Bijan Robinson’s Week 1 Workload
Robinson finished the Week 1 loss with 29 touches.
Of those, 21 came as carries, which he took for 83 yards, just about 4.0 yards per carry. Robinson had a long run of 20 yards, but he definitely had a tough go of it at times against a Steelers defense that knew it could key on the run.
Robinson also had eight catches. He was targeted 10 times, and on his grabs, he totaled 90 yards, including a receiving touchdown.
As ratios, those work out to 21-of-31 runs by the Falcons being by Robinson — nine carries came from Brian Robinson Jr., and WR Drake London got a run.
In the passing game, Robinson’s 10 targets came on just 22 pass attempts from Cooper Rush, so that was an incredible rate. It’s fair that Rees wants that to go down.
By contrast, London had four targets, catching two of them, and standout tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. had just one target and couldn’t reel it in.
In some ways, it made sense that Rush kept turning to Robinson wherever he was on the field, but it also makes things a bit overloaded in one part of the offense, and potentially gives Robinson an unhealthy workload after a certain point.
QBs Add to Issue
The fact that the Falcons don’t have a settled quarterback situation adds to the trouble here.
Rush was starting because both Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa are out. As of Thursday of Week 2, it’s not clear yet who will start this week for Atlanta.
All of them trust Bijan, obviously, because he’s a tremendous playmaker. But it’s also hard to put in a fuller offensive gameplan when the QB spot isn’t even set in stone, and that can lead to some of the uncertainty and a lot of the check-down passes to Robinson.
This is all clearly stuff the Falcons can get better at, but they’ll need to get the quarterback situation in order to improve on the rest of it.
Falcons Not Happy With Bijan Robinson Role, Want Change for Week 2