Bijan Robinson says Falcons’ run game under Stefanski is ‘going to be fun’

Falcons running back Bijan Robinson spent his offseason watching film like it’s 2022, and for good reason.

Robinson, who finished second among running backs in receptions and receiving yards last season, carried over a recently started offseason infatuation by studying receivers. Cooper Kupp, the 2021 NFL Offensive Player of the Year, has been his focus.

But Robinson watches running backs “all the time,” too. And he’s spent considerable time this spring reviewing tape on Nick Chubb, who made three straight Pro Bowls from 2020-22 with the Cleveland Browns while playing under new Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski.

Kupp’s film is valuable for route mechanics. Running backs, old and new, give Robinson the chance to see how others read zones. Chubb’s tape, however, is perhaps most relevant for Robinson, who’s poised to step into the same featured role in Stefanski’s offense this fall.

“I’ve been watching him for a long time, but definitely with the scheme now, see how he set up everything, and in the offenses he had, he created a lot of explosives,” Robinson said Tuesday after the team’s second OTA practice. “I think he was like the No. 1 explosive back at the time. So, I love to see that and hear it.

“But yeah, it just looks so simple for the run scheme they ran, and they made it all look easy, and he became who he was in the NFL.”

Chubb led the NFL with 47 carries for 10-plus yards in 2022, his final fully healthy season under Stefanski.

Robinson has long desired to hit more explosive runs, and he took a step forward last season, tying for seventh in the league with eight rushes of 20-plus yards. He had a 93-yard touchdown run in Week 17 against the Los Angeles Rams, the longest rush of the entire NFL season.

The 24-year-old Robinson is entering his fourth professional campaign on the heels of a stellar 2025, during which he rushed 287 times for 1,478 yards and seven touchdowns. He ranked in the top five in the NFL in carries, rushing yards and yards per carry at 5.1 en route to earning first-team All-Pro honors.

Robinson, who finished fourth in NFL Offensive Player of the Year voting last season after leading the league with 2,298 yards from scrimmage, eyes another dominant year this fall.

And he said this system — one blended together by Stefanski, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and 69-year-old offensive line coach Bill Callahan, who has nearly 30 years of experience as an NFL assistant — has the ingredients to vault him toward the top of the league’s offensive hierarchy once again.

“The schemes we have out here now, like, it’s pretty impressive to be running this and to see how Callahan does everything,” Robinson said. “Obviously, he’s had these legendary run schemes, and it’s pretty cool just talking to him and seeing how it’s all going to develop.

“But this is what I did in college. I love the plan that he has, and just my development in the NFL — it’s going to be fun.”

Stefanski spent four years around Callahan with the Browns, meshing outside zone and gap scheme rushing concepts to build the foundation of their run game. The Browns finished in the top 10 in attempts and no worse than 12th in rushing yards during Callahan’s time with Stefanski.

The Falcons have rolled through several regimes with wide zone-centric ground games, and right guard Chris Lindstrom, who’s on his fourth head coach in eight years with the organization, feels quite a bit of familiarity to rushing attacks of years prior.

“Just doing a little bit of everything,” Lindstrom said Tuesday. “Team’s identities change, they morph. And we’re seeing a little bit of a difference, but then a lot of similarity, too.

So, it’s a little bit of both, but still kind of have that fundamentals.”

The Falcons’ new coaching staff already holds Robinson in high regard. Only a few days after his first meeting with Robinson, Stefanski, at his introductory press conference in January, referred to the two-time Pro Bowler as a “special person” who’s team-oriented, intelligent and has limitless potential with the ball in his hands.

Rees reiterated a similar thought.

“Bijan loves football,” Rees said Tuesday. “That’s where it starts. He loves football. What a special human being, not just as a football player but as a human.”

Raheem Morris, the Falcons’ head coach the previous two years, often referred to Robinson as the best player in the NFL last season. Statistically, he had an argument.

Now, Robinson gets the chance to state his case once more. He’s in a new offense, but he’s surrounded by similar philosophies, the same position coach — Michael Pitre — and a steady desire to keep the Falcons’ rushing attack in the top 10 for the fifth consecutive season.