After a ridiculous breakout campaign last season, Allen Robinson was the toast of the fantasy football world, with him rising from the ranks of the relative unknown to a top-ten wide receiver on most fantasy ranks. He rode the amazing garbage time production of Blake Bortles last season to fantasy stardom. Last week Robinson came off a massive target volume (ten targets) but he hauled in only three of them for a paltry 31 yards.
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Owning Robinson this season has, unfortunately, found you eating more terrible games than reveling in his amazing fantasy production. He has only four games this season of double-digit fantasy points, and four weeks with fewer than five fantasy points overall. Given that he went in the same range as Rob Gronkowski (dead), Eddie Lacy (dead) and DeAndre Hopkins (being slowly hugged to death by errant Brock Osweiler throws), Robinson hasn’t been the worst pick at the round one-round two turn, but he’s still been close. At least Gronk and Lacy had the good decency to finally be put on IR.
Over his last three games, which coincide with Blake Bortles collapsing in on himself like a supernova, Robinson has gotten 21 targets. That is a good figure to look for when seeking out quality fantasy production potential. However, what he’s done with those targets have been a mess. He’s caught eight. Three last week, two the week before, and three the week before that, so he hasn’t even had value in PPR leagues. He also has 73 yards in that same span, which is fewer yards than bona fide “just-a-guy” Pierre Garcon has averaged over his last five games (77 yards per game in his last five). Robinson has been flat out unusable ever since his 116-yard game against the Packers (which was his first, and only, 100+ yard game of the year).
Robinson has been mostly unusable for a long time now, and now he takes on a stifling Minnesota defense that has allowed just seven double-digit fantasy games to wide receivers on the year. Last week’s double-digit game was against the Cowboys on Thursday Night Football, and you might remember it took an astounding catch by Dez Bryant for him to pull off that effort. While the Vikings will be without Harrison Smith, Robinson will likely find himself across from Xavier Rhodes, one of the up-and-coming young cornerbacks in the league. It will be a definite uphill battle for Robinson to get free against Rhodes.
If you drafted Robinson, there’s a chance that you may just be out completely, as he was a wasted first round pick most weeks. This may be a tough pill to swallow as at this point you’re in either a win-and-in situation or the first round of your playoffs. Robinson has been useless most of the season, and a tough defense limits his upside. It’s a hard move, but he should be benched this week if you have any other options.