Tyrann Mathieu takes shot at Falcons', Arthur Smith's handling of Bijan Robinson

It wasn't only fantasy football managers who noticed that for whatever reason, the Atlanta Falcons refused to use Bijan Robinson like the star he is. Atlanta selected Robinson, a player seen as a generational running back at the time, with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He played at an extremely high level when given the chance, but he wasn't given nearly enough touches.

Even Tyrann Mathieu, a player who plays for Atlanta's NFC South rivals, the New Orleans Saints, made his feelings about Atlanta's usage of Robinson very known on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast.

"He's going to be special," Mathieu said of Robinson on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast. "Marshall Faulk, you know. Edgerrin James, you know what I mean? Like, LaDainian Tomlinson, you know? And I didn't think the Falcons really used him as good as they should have last year, but, man, he's going to be good."

Even the Saints noticed how poorly Arthur Smith handled Bijan Robinson on the Falcons

For whatever reason, Arthur Smith treated Bijan as if he was just your typical average running back. The stats showed that when he was given carries, he was outstanding.

Robinson rushed for 976 yards on 214 rushing attempts, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. He was just 19th in rushing attempts despite being one of the most efficient runners in the league. For good measure, Robinson even added another 487 yards in the air. He was as dynamic as Atlanta could've hoped for, yet he had less than 30 more rushing attempts than Tyler Allgeier, a player who averaged 3.7 yards per carry.

Smith refusing to give Robinson a majority of the carries almost certainly played at least somewhat of a role in his firing. There simply is no excuse, especially when Robinson was outplaying Allgeier so badly.

When you have a player on the Saints complimenting how good a Falcons player is, that's when you know the Falcons player is special. Hopefully, new head coach Raheem Morris chooses to let Robinson show just how dynamic of a player he can be by letting him lead Atlanta's backfield by himself.