Bijan Robinson attempts to ease concerns about Falcons right tackle situation

The Falcons are starting the season in a pretty serious hole, as far as injuries are concerned.

Starting right tackle Kaleb McGary, who just inked a two-year extension with the team, is out for the season. That’s a massive loss by itself, but to make matters worse, backup swing tackle Storm Norton is also out for the foreseeable future after undergoing ankle surgery. That leaves the Falcons down to their third string right tackle — the position responsible for protecting the blindside of first-year starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. — before the season even begins.

That’s a situation nobody should wish on any quarterback, let alone a guy with just three games of experience.

In Week 1, the Falcons will turn to Elijah Wilkinson. The eight-year veteran has started 45 games over his NFL career, but he hasn’t seen time at tackle since 2021. It’s far from ideal, but Falcons running back Bijan Robinson attempted to ease some of the concerns going into the team’s Week 1 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

“I think people are really sleeping on Elijah,” Robinson said in a conversation with Fox 5’s Kelly Price. “He’s a proven talent too. He started for the Chicago Bears. Dude is a beast. All he needs is an opportunity… I just told him, anything that anybody has to say, it’s all just words. You control your narrative, you control your destiny, you control your story, and you’re going to help this o-line become the best.”

Bijan Robinson will never need to work another day in his life after his football career is finished, but he could have been just as good at sales as he is at making tacklers miss in the open field.

The confidence in Elijah Wilkinson is encouraging in theory. There’s no other way this team can approach the season without having faith in the guy next to them, but nobody should be comfortable with the Falcons’ situation at right tackle. It’s a position that Wilkinson struggled at earlier in his career, which is why he’s played on the interior of the offensive line for the last several years.

Now, Wilkinson is being asked to bump back outside out of necessity and protect the blindside of the person the Falcons hope will get the team out of quarterback purgatory. Everybody should feel uneasy about that going into Sunday’s matchup with the Bucs.