Sunday night’s upcoming game between the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers will feature two of the NFL’s top running backs: Bijan Robinson and Christian McCaffrey. Both players have built reputations as versatile threats who are central to their teams’ offensive strategies.
Bijan Robinson, despite having played only five games this season, leads the league in scrimmage yards with 822 ahead of Week 7. Christian McCaffrey follows closely with 780 yards over six games. Robinson has been more productive on the ground with 484 rushing yards, ranking third in the NFL, while McCaffrey has accumulated 336 rushing yards. In receiving, McCaffrey leads all running backs with 444 yards, with Robinson second at 338.
Robinson and McCaffrey trained together in California before the current season. Reflecting on that experience, Robinson said at training camp in August, “Seeing how he creates leverage on a route and on choice routes, it’s been amazing to learn from that. On the field, it’s been showing, trying to be unguardable at all aspects.”
Robinson’s performance early in the season has drawn national attention. He was named NFC Player of the Month for September after a standout game against Buffalo on Monday Night Football, where he posted a career-best 238 scrimmage yards—170 rushing on 19 carries and 68 receiving on six catches—including an 81-yard touchdown run that earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Both players are notable for their ability to force missed tackles. Since entering the league in 2023, Robinson leads all players with 187 missed tackles forced on runs and has forced a missed tackle on over 31% of his attempts according to Next Gen Stats. During that same period, McCaffrey ranks tenth with 131 missed tackles forced despite playing fewer games.
This season, McCaffrey has forced 40 missed tackles while Robinson has forced 32—ranking second and fourth among running backs respectively. Robinson also leads in yards gained after forcing missed tackles; his total of 295 such yards through six weeks is higher than any player since Dalvin Cook (350) and McCaffrey (348) achieved those marks in six games during the 2019 season. Notably, Robinson reached this number despite having played only five games so far.
Comparisons between Robinson’s current season and McCaffrey’s standout year in 2019 have emerged. That year, McCaffrey finished as a first-team All Pro with over 2,300 scrimmage yards and was a finalist for Offensive Player of the Year. Through five games in both seasons, Robinson’s total of 822 scrimmage yards ranks second this century behind only McCaffrey’s pace from that year.
Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, only three players—McCaffrey, O.J. Simpson (1973 and 1975), and now Robinson—have exceeded Robinson’s total scrimmage yardage through five games. Among seven players who reached at least 800 scrimmage yards within their team’s first five games of a season since then, Robinson accomplished it on the fewest touches (107) and averaged a record-high 7.7 yards per touch for anyone with at least 100 touches.
Looking ahead to Sunday night’s game against San Francisco—the Falcons’ third nationally televised contest of the year—Robinson could join Marshall Faulk as one of only two players since 2000 to surpass 1,000 scrimmage yards within the first six games if he gains at least 178 more against the 49ers. Currently averaging over 164 scrimmage yards per game this year, Robinson continues to draw comparisons to some of football’s most productive dual-threat running backs.
