Texas RB Coach Tashard Choice Compares Bijan Robinson to Barry Sanders
Any time you’re in the same sentence with Barry Sanders, well, you’re in pretty good company. And that’s where Texas running backs coach Tashard Choice put former Longhorns running Bijan Robinson in advance of next week’s NFL Draft.
It came as part of a discussion between his grandfather, Cleo, Eric Eager, the vice president of consumer strategy for SumerSports, and Choice, as provided in an article by ESPN’s Hallie Grossman.
“I would love to be in that position to make the position as valued as it used to be,” Cleo says.
“There are a lot of smart people who would call that a fool’s errand,” Grossman wrote. “That he’s wading into a debate that he became the face of but had no hand in creating…Can he do it? Should he do it? Is there room for a running back at the top of the draft, even if he’s the absolute best the position has to offer? Like so much else about the NFL, the two sides are decidedly not understated.”
“Short of your team literally having no needs other than running back, I don’t see a point,” Eager says.
Then came the kicker.
“Sometimes you can’t pass up those guys,” Choice said. “You can’t pass up Barry Sanders if he’s sitting there.”
It’s a comparison that obviously will have people chatting about its merits. After all, Sanders finished his NFL career fourth in the all-time rushing department, with 15,269 yards. Before that, he won the 1988 Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma State.
Robinson is esteemed in his own right coming out of the collegiate game. He just finished up a marvelous career on the Forty Acres in which he racked up 3,410 yards and 33 touchdowns on 539 carries. He added another 805 yards and eight scores on 60 receptions out of the backfield.
And with all that, he’s one of 17 players invited to the 2023 draft festivities in Kansas City, Mo. Now it remains to be seen where he’ll go and how he’ll live up to some people’s major expectations.
