Atlanta Falcons RB Bijan Robinson confident in RT Elijah Wilkinson
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Atlanta Falcons RB Bijan Robinson confident in RT Elijah Wilkinson
In late August, the Atlanta Falcons had to place right tackle Kaleb McGary on injured reserve, ending his 2025 season before it began. He sustained a leg injury on the final day of training camp practice, which is extremely unfortunate for everyone involved.
Because quarterback Michael Penix, Jr. is a lefty, McGary was his blindside protection on the right side. In his place, the Falcons will start veteran Elijah Wilkinson Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. and count running back Bijon Robinson among those that aren’t worried.
“I think a lot of people are sleeping on Elijah,” Robinson said after Thursday’s practice. “Elijah’s a dawg.”
Of course the Falcons would rather have McGary, the 2019 first-round pick, but these things happen. Robinson acknowledges that he will indeed be missed.
“Obviously he’s one of our guys,” Robinson said. “He’s one of our guys that we’ve been with a long time.”
Bijan Robinson is ready roll with Wilkinson
Everyone in the NFL knows it’s always next man up. Wilkinson is in this ninth year in the NFL out of the University of Massachusetts. He was an undrafted free agent in 2017 of the Denver Broncos, but also played with the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals.
“He’s been in the league for some time now. He’s started at tackle in Chicago,” Robinson said. “So, like, you know, he has a chip on his shoulder. There’s a lot of people saying that he can’t do it and that he’s not fit enough to do it, but he told me, ‘Bro, like, that’s just all words, it’s all noise that people say.‘
“But I think he’s really prepared for what’s to come. And I just told him, I was like, ‘Bro, take this over. This is your spot now, man. And God will take care of everything else.’ So he’s ready to go. He’s super excited.”
Atlanta Falcons offensive line rated No. 8 in the NFL
Pro Football Focus loves to grade things and offensive lines are no different. The good news is that PFF ranks the Falcons’ o-line as No. 8 in the entire NFL. However, this list came out before McGary got hurt so I’m not sure how that would affect their standing.
“The Falcons’ offensive line is led by the highest-graded guard in football, Chris Lindstrom, but the unit struggled to find balance in the run and pass games last season,” PFF writes. “Despite the group excelling in run blocking, its pass-blocking woes were apparent — even Lindstrom finished just 26th among guards with a 68.0 PFF pass-blocking grade in 2024.
“While the Falcons lost center Drew Dalman in free agency after he emerged as one of the better centers in the league, former second-round pick Matthew Bergeron showed significant improvements in his second season, ranking 19th among all guards with a 70.9 PFF overall grade.”
The season kicks off less than 24 hours from now and we’ll all find out together just how good Wilkinson can be. It will be interesting to see if the Falcons alter their running game with him in there.