Source: NFL looks into Falcons' Bijan compliance
The NFL is asking injury-report compliance questions to the Atlanta Falcons about when they knew rookie running back Bijan Robinson wasn’t physically well and why it wasn’t reported per league policy, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.
It is standard practice for the league to question teams about a player if he is not included on the weekly injury report and then is either unavailable for the game or plays far less than what typically occurs. Violations have been met with fines.
The Falcons declined comment Monday evening.
Robinson did not enter Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers until two minutes remained in the first quarter. Coach Arthur Smith told Fox at halftime that Robinson wasn’t feeling well.
Smith said earlier Monday that Robinson will “be fine.”
Robinson said after the game that he was suffering from headaches and began “feeling weird” on Saturday night, when he struggled to sleep and woke up “feeling completely out of it.”
He said he took medicine to try to feel better, but his head continued to hurt.
Robinson said his head still was bothering him after Sunday’s game, adding that he was neither tested for a concussion nor administered a COVID test. He was not spotted in the locker room during the open media session Monday.
The Falcons believed Robinson always was going to play the game and therefore did not need to be added to the injury report, a source told ESPN.
Robinson said he never considered sitting out of Sunday’s 16-13 victory, but he ended up playing just 11 snaps with no targets and only one touch — a 3-yard run on the game’s last drive to set up Younghoe Koo‘s winning field goal.
Asked why Robinson was given a carry in that situation when he hadn’t played all game, Smith deferred to the play itself.
“He was in a two-minute situation,” Smith said. “Gave us 3 yards and it was situational football. He changes how people want to call it and that’s why. It’s pretty simple.”
The No. 8 overall pick in this year’s draft has 81 carries for 404 yards. He also has 26 catches for 189 yards and two touchdowns this season.
ESPN’s Michael Rothstein contributed to this report.
